The Plant Thread

[BlackCurtains]

I forgot to water Ben and he's droopy this morning. My watering can is small and I have to fill it up twice to get everyone. I think I was distracted yesterday and didn't finish

[Taffeta]

I forgot to water Ben and he's droopy this morning. My watering can is small and I have to fill it up twice to get everyone. I think I was distracted yesterday and didn't finish

If you water him well he will probably perk up. If plants are short on water they prioritise first the roots, then leaves, then flowers. My poor streptocarpus has had a few moments when it's been too hot either due to sun from outside or the radiator and has drooped, but she's fine after a good drink. I am very attentive to her now I know that's a thing she does

I have an unexpected extra seedling. I went to clear away the soil from those that didn't germinate with the others and there was one that had belatedly poked its leaves through. I've transplanted it and put it with the others. It's a long way behind but so far doing okay.

My spider plants keep tickling the seedlings. I had to move one of them around earlier because it was brushing the baby plant leaves (note, it was not doing that the day before, they do actually move their leaves xD). They are just so curious...o.o.

We had some gardeners in this week to help with the trees and my buddleia. Dad can't get up there anymore and I'm not strong enough to cut back really big woody plants. They were great, actually. The Buddleia and apple tree look a lot better. However, I do regret that they took a branch from the birch tree. None of us realised it would leak so much sap (I would absolutely have stopped it if I had realised ahead of time). Fortunately it was only one branch, as the gardener was very honest about the impact. But I feel bad that we hurt the tree :/

Also!

The wretched bluetits keep beheading my tulips. I now have four tulip flowers inside in vases after three days of persistent tulip-snipping from tiny beaks. I think they are getting their own back on me for not letting them peck at my cherry blossom. Grr.

[BlackCurtains]

Ben did perk up after a nice warm soak

Here is something a little different... one of my Amazon Swords has grown up out of the tank and it has two little flower buds.

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Halfway down the new stalk is a bunch of new leaves too.

[Ponyfan]

Taffeta, I love seeing your plants. 

I've noticed that my lavender likes to try to reach out to the strawberry plant.

Speaking of the strawberry plant, I had to pick the little strawberry. The part that was in the potting soil had a huge white spot on it.  It didn't smell like a fresh strawberry anymore either.  I also cut off the little green things that I think were supposed to be strawberries, but they never grew or turned red.

I'm not sure Ponyfan but it lookes like the top of the twigs of the ficus are green? Thats a good sign. What happens if you bend the twigs a little? If they're alive they should bend easily, if it's dead and the twigs dry they should snap.

Most of the twigs have green at the top.   I bent some of the twigs and they didn't snap. 

I'm glad I didn't put the plants outside yet because it's supposed to freeze tonight.


Ponyfan

[Beth3346]

my avocado tree is looking a little wilted this morning. i moved it to a sunnier location and it perked up a bit. i think it may also be a little cold still. we're getting into the mid/low 40sF at night. hopefully it's condition improves once it warms up a bit. it's supposed to be a high of 90 next week so it's heating up fast.

i injured my hand so my husband is going to finish planting the rest of the shrubs. i'm also going to order more plants to fill out the rest of the flowerbed

i've been taking care of the watering since it's still a little cold and my husband tends to water the leaves of the plants instead of putting water into the soil. i might just keep doing the watering myself since he tends to over water too.

[Taffeta]

My Dad's avocado is struggling, too. I don't know if it will survive :/

This morning we went to the garden centre and got some plants for hanging baskets and such.

And...I did a thing.

There were some primroses (UK definition of primrose here, not sure what they are called in other places xD) which had been tipped out of their tray into the (gasp) JUNK BIN. They were going to be composted in the SKIP. And they were not only alive but flowering still. And I could not leave the poor things there. So I got up my courage to be the weird girl and asked the staff. They were reluctant at first but I told them I was happy to pay for them. So in the end, I paid the clearance plant price and brought six unexpected primroses home with me. They are all alive, most of them are pretty good, two of them are in full flower. They've been watered and are sitting happily on the patio now waiting the next stage in their life adventure. Dad loves primroses and there are always spaces for them in our garden, so they will be well appreciated here.

I do rescue plants when I can. We had some we rescued from a supermarket before the pandemic. One was a primula which looked more or less dead. That same primula is currently flowering happily in my garden four years later. But this is the first time I've rescued them from the brink of being composted. Very scary getting up the courage to ask. But they were nice people

Editing in...I said I'd take a photo of my dragon tree sometime. Well, here he is..
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This is Nikolai Aka Nik.

[Ponyfan]

Beautiful dragon tree, Taffeta.    I'm glad you saved the primroses.   I bought my sage plant because it looked like it was trying to survive among a lot of dead plants at Walmart. 


Does anyone have dill?  There's an indoor tower garden at work and one of the things that grows in it is dill.  It seems to do great.   I love my plants, but I'm a little tired of mostly herbs. 


Ponyfan

[Beth3346]

i just wanted to share some photos of the progress we're making on our backyard. it's coming along slowly and this is our first DIY backyard project so nothing fancy. but i wanted to share. please excuse all of the weeds. i'm working on that 

Rock garden before:

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After sort of... We're still adding rocks.

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Flowerbeds: We're still adding plants. I'm getting some roses and more lavender.

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[Ponyfan]

Great pics Beth.    I love the rock garden.  Do the rocks take any special care to keep them bright white? 

I'm still trying to decide what new plant to get.  I had almost decided on a dill plant, but then I saw a chamomile plant.  Then I remembered that I don't like the way chamomile smells so now I'm back to dill. 

Here's pics of the plants with a few extras.

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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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Strawberries


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Ficus

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Aloe

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Poinsettia

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Lily



Ponyfan

[Beth3346]

Great pics Beth.    I love the rock garden.  Do the rocks take any special care to keep them bright white?

Ponyfan

Thanks Ponyfan

The bright white ones are new  i bought the faded ones about a year ago to make sure they were the ones we wanted. then we had to spend on other stuff and we're just getting back to the garden projects.

[BlackCurtains]

Lovely gardens Beth! Are you going to keep the plants in pots in the rock garden?

Ponyfan, wow that lavender is something else! Kinda looks a bit menacing I'm glad the mints are doing better

I've been trying to nurse the parlor palm back to health but it's not happening. Poor thing is just stalks. Aster ate all the leaves off it. So I am finally giving up on it. I'll plant the snake plant in the bigger pot and put that on the floor. Aster won't eat those leaves. If I get another parlor palm, I'll put it up somewhere she can't get it.

I'm thinking of getting an aloe plant. I wish I hadn't killed the big one my sister gave me. I would love to have it now. But it was before I caught the plant keeping bug plus I kept it outside. I also want a couple Venus Fly plants. I found a Florida seller on Etsy that has really nice ones. You used to be able to get them at Walmart but they don't put a lot of plants to online order. In fact, most live plants on the website are trees. I can get cut flowers but not a pot of them.

I've decided to rearrange my fish tank too. I'm not sure how to go about it with the shrimp in there, especially the tiny babies, but I really want to take some stuff out and move things around and get a carpeting foreground plant.

[Beth3346]

thanks BC. yeah the plants are going to stay in the pots. originally i thought i would leave space to walk, but now i have many more plants. it's kind of addictive. I have a lemon tree on the way. it will go in the big blue pot. the avocado in the big white pot isn't doing great. i've only had it a week so maybe it's still settling in? i hope it makes it. i need to buy more rocks to finish the rock garden so more delays. it's going to be a years long project but it will be fun to watch everything grow in.

[Ponyfan]

I bought a dill and lemon thyme plant today.

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Dill

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Lemon thyme


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

Yay for new plant friends!

I like the rockery, Beth. I'm actually thinking of putting some plants in pots on my garden space as there's always issues with not enough water there. I have a massive old buddleia and my parents helpfully planted their wisteria in my stretch of garden, so it also takes a lot of water. (I love the wisteria, I just wish it had been planted the other side xD)

So I think pots may be the answer.

I have had good luck with heuchera though. My parents bought me one for easter, and I bought another one. Today I got them in the garden, and moved the little one from the back into a better space. The rescued primroses are also now half in the garden and half waiting to go in at the top by the acer.

Today was a busy garden day, I was also salvaging any alive plants from last year's tubs and hanging baskets. Survivors total two diascia, one, maybe two nemesia, one what I think is an agyrethremum but it's still only got tiny leaf buds. One very old foliage plant and something unknown that is green right now but may or may not make it!

My seedlings are all now in the greenhouse as they are at the same stage as most of those plants. I only have one tiny seedling on my windowsill now. We'll see if it survives.

[Ponyfan]

After I took those pics, my dad moved a lot of the stuff on the table so the plants would have more room.  I think the only ones missing are the poinsettia and mints.  I don't think that I've taken a pic with most of them together like this.   The lily is actually taller than it looks in the pic.


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Ponyfan