The Plant Thread

[Ponyfan]

Ficuses has these strange phases sometimes where all the leaves fall off and it looks dead, just for them to return a couple of weeks later. Mine has done so twice with a couple of years inbetween. So don't feel disheartened and if all leaves fall, don't throw it away, just water it as you do and tend to it as normal .

That's good to know.    I won't panic now if all of the leaves do fall off.

Here's a pic of the tiny strawberries.

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Ponyfan

[Heart Of Midnight]

Sweet little ones! I hope they will grow into big strawberries!

[Ponyfan]

Pics of the other plants.  I think you can just see the tiny strawberries on the strawberry plant although they're mostly hidden by the leaves.


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Mint 1

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Mint 2


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Sage

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Ficus


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Lavender

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Strawberry plant

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aloe

Edit:  I saw some live herb plants at Walmart in the vegetables section for just a few dollars.  It was really tempting to buy one, but with winter almost here, I'm not sure it's a good time to be buying young plants even if they're meant to live inside.

Ponyfan

[Ponyfan]

I'm starting to think my sage might be dying.  It's got several brown parts at the bottom that keep breaking off. I thought the lavender was going to try to flower because it had what I thought were closed blooms on it after I brought it inside, but those blooms are brown and now that part of the lavender looks like it's dying too.


Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

If I've learned one thing from Ben, it's that a plant might look like it's dying or dead, but sometimes they bounce back. I would remove the brown parts and keep doing what you've been doing. Also remember it's winter. A lot of plants go dormant.

[Artemesia's Garden]

@ Ponyfan, your aloe looks really lovely! It has a lot of character. Sages do go woody over time. I'd pick the dead leaves of. Maybe try striking some cuttings over winter. They are called cuttings but actually root better if you just tear the pieces gently off the main stem, leaving a little 'heel' of woody skin at the end. Put the cuttings in a pot of soil outside in a sheltered spot and they should root (around 2/3) and give you new plants next year).

The silvery herbs I planted in front of the house are doing well. They like the south facing wall, good drainage and protection from the lowest winter temperatures. I grew them from cuttings like above.

I bought my Mum a Daphne for Christmas, called Eternal Fragrance. It really does have a nice smell.

I planted some trees this month. Fruit trees went in last year, so just now I've planted birch trees and staghorn sumac. We have a lot of self seeded railway plants like buddlejia, evening primrose and hypericum around, being close to a railway. So rather than trying to make it too classy overall I decided to blend with other poineer species except for a few Asian species to go with the big magnolia at the back. I also decided to repeat one conifer several times and chose Juniperus communis compressa. You can use the berries in cooking and it fits with the sandy soil and mediterranean herbs.

[BlackCurtains]

The snake plant is growing like crazy.

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The parlor palm looks a bit sad and I'm sure it's from Aster eating it. She chomped off the top of it.

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Ben is looking kind oif ragged too. I should cut off the brown stems. One of the Benlets died. The other one is okay though.

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Little spider plant is chugging along.

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And the succulents.

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[Ponyfan]

Thanks BC and Artemesia.    I took off a bunch of the dead leaves  Hopefully it looks better in the pic I just took.

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I'll think about taking cuttings from the sage  It can get really cold here during winter so I'm not sure if they'd survived outside in harsh conditions. 

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Mint 2


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Mint 1

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[

Is that long thing growing out of the strawberry plant a runner?  I didn't think runners grew straight up?



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The tiny strawberries.  Are they supposed to look like this?

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lavender

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Ficus

It's still losing leaves.



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aloe



BC, most of your plants look great. I don't think the palm looks too bad.


Ponyfan

[Honeycomb]

Does anyone know what to do against mold on the soil of potted plants? All of my three precious guava plants have it now. I have tried tea tree oil, so far it is useless, and it seems the only way to get rid of it is re-potting in new soil. But it sounds risky in winter.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Hi Ponyfan, no I think that's a seedling maybe a random seed got into your plant pot? I would grow it in case it's interesting. But it's basically a weed.

Hi Honeycomb, I think that there are always fungi ocurring naturally in the soil so I would just stir the top layer of soil and top with sterilised bark or grit. I've never kept Guava though!

[BlackCurtains]

My String of Pearls is dying again

The rest of the succulents are doing great. I think I'll buy a different one this time to put in the soon to be bare spot.

[Ponyfan]

I'm sorry your String of Pearls is dying again BC. 

I took that stray plant that was growing with the strawberries out.  It was harder to pull out than I expected. The roots were pretty big already considering how tall that invader was.  I think my tiny strawberries are dying. They're turning brown instead of red.


Pics


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Mint 2

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Mint 1

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Strawberries


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Sage


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Lavender


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My poor ficus.    More leaves keep falling off.


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aloe


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My mom got a poinsettia.  For some reason I couldn't get a good pic of it.


Ponyfan

[Ponyfan]

Pics of the plants.  The mints are turning yellow.


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Mint 1

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Mint 2


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Lavender


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My poor Ficus.  That leaf fell of right before I took the picture. I removed it after I took the pic.


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Sage

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Strawberries

I think the tiny strawberries died.

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aloe


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poinsetta



Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

I hope the mints will be okay.

String of Pearls died and the Benlets didn't make it either. They weren't the same after I trimmed them. They stopped growing and slowly wilted away. OG Ben is doing fine. I cut off a few dead stems but there are plenty of leaves.

I bought some new ones!

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Top left is a Peacock plant, next is a mixed Polka Dot plant, bottom left is a Bob Serbin African Violet (when it matures it will have black leaves and hot pink flowers) and the Rose Bouquet African Violet. I wanted some flowering plants and the African violets do really well here plus they are easy to take care of, or so I read.

[Ponyfan]

Your new plants look great, BC.

I might get an easy care flowering plant in the spring.  I like growing herbs because they seem to basically take care of themselves with just a little watering, but flowers would be nice too. 

Here's pics of my plants this week and my mom's aloe.  I forgot to take a pic of the poinsettia.

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Mint 1


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Mint 2



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Sage


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Lavender


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Ficus



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strawberries

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aloe


Ponyfan