Any gardeners here? Anyone else love succulents? Bonsai?

[MiRaja]

I've been in a major gardening kick since I have finally started to feel better from my car accidents in February.

I unfortunately lost all my plants that month due to frost and being unable to get them covered or pulled in due to weakness and whip lash. 

Except for two plants ( though the one died all the way back to the roots, and I thought it was dead until it came back in the spring! ), one being a giant jade green Aeonium Succulent.  So, while I have replanted a few green stuffs and vegetation, I've been really getting into succulents. 

I was wondering if anyone was a grower too, and if they'd be interested in trading cuttings  ( Right now I only really have two I can take cuttings from as many of mine are still very small, but the one is super hardy and I don't know about the other, but it's absolutely an amazing plant ).  I'd really like to get into some more varieties.  I like mixes and then keeping some in small pots and display.  I'm a bit into succulents in shohin bonsai.  I do have two pre-bonsai right now ( I have a cutting of an azalea that is shaping up very nicely for bonsai, and a gardenia that has a fantastic root build that's very unusual for them.  I'll likely work on a wisteria soon, too, my parents have some beautiful old growth wisteria that I think I could make an air cutting/rooting off )   Everything is about being small given my back and living in an apartment, but I'm very happy I can garden at all. 

Love to hear from others!

[kaoskat]

Not a fan of bonzai. Good luck with your gardening though.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Oh yes I love them but we are just starting out and we have killed a few bonsai already...    Year 3 of trying!  Our garden also sadly got neglected this year due to too many projects on the go, so we only have 1/4 of what we wanted actually growing...

[MiRaja]

Oh yes I love them but we are just starting out and we have killed a few bonsai already...    Year 3 of trying!  Our garden also sadly got neglected this year due to too many projects on the go, so we only have 1/4 of what we wanted actually growing...

Have you tried a wisteria?  They're very virulent and fast growing.  Hard to kill even but for a bonsai  but would need to be brought in once frost temperatures set in.  Azaleas enjoy hard prunes and they're not weak, but I don't know how they would do in Alberta.  Definitely not frost resistant though any bonsai should be brought in during winter, whether you're in Canada or Florida once frost temperatures set in because the roots have less protection being in a shallow pot versus deep soil.  My runner I'm working on is very heat resistant, while the one I'm still flip flopping on whether it is bonsai-worthy or not, is very heat sensitive.  It gets sunburn very easily and so has to stay near my apartment wall out the least amount of sun.  The cutting, which is recovering at my parent's place, is in full sun. 

I hear junipers are nice too, and easy.  I just prefer flowering bonsai and what naturally grows well in Florida.  Wisteria, azalea and gardenia.  Of course, I could just sit around and hork the scent of gardenia 24/7 but. . . 

[moonsugar]

Wysteria is my favourite flower. Can you really grow it as a bonsai! I had no idea!

[melodys_angel]

You will have to trade within your own country--and I believe some states are not allowed to trade at all, or you aren't allowed to receive plant clippings form certain states.

Anything I send will be nailed at customs, unfortunately.  Its one thing that isn't allowed to be sent, unless you are some kind of store and meet up with regulations/pay them who knows how much--though I don't know the specifics.


I think it has to do with both freeloaders (possible bugs) and it potentially being invasive to your states wildlife?

[Beldarna]

I am gardening on my balcony. It's fully glassed in facing south so it's basically a green house summertime. I'm not into bonsai but this year I'm trying to grow baby tomatoes and it goes really well. I also have some herbs, like rosemary. One year I tried basil but it burned pretty badly. Next year I'm aming for strawberries as well. Besides that I'm having sunflowers and roses and some other small flowers as well.

[MiRaja]

Wysteria is my favourite flower. Can you really grow it as a bonsai! I had no idea!

It's a very popular bonsai, actually.  One of the most striking bonsai I've ever seen in person was a wisteria.  It was huge for a bonsai, but very old.  About 4 foot wide and three tall and looked like a miniature hobbit tree covered in purple flowers.  Just google Wisteria Bonsai, and I swear you won't be disappointed.    They do well for bonsai because they're tough and hardy, but they also like to be pruned and only makes them grow faster.  And they grow fast as it is. 

You will have to trade within your own country--and I believe some states are not allowed to trade at all, or you aren't allowed to receive plant clippings form certain states.

Anything I send will be nailed at customs, unfortunately.  Its one thing that isn't allowed to be sent, unless you are some kind of store and meet up with regulations/pay them who knows how much--though I don't know the specifics.


I think it has to do with both freeloaders (possible bugs) and it potentially being invasive to your states wildlife?

Of course.  International slipped my brain.  And yes, it's all of the above reasons, potentially invasive being the most prevalent thing.  No one wants to get another ice plant fiasco or kudzu!  In the US, packages of plants are usually not too harassed.  I think it depends on the amount and what not.  My mother receives packages from her friend in Wisconsin  ( we're native Wisconsinites stuck in Florida ) that are full( we're talking a small box ) of baby Irises that her friend has no more room for, and my mom loves Irises and plants them here. 

I'm sure little packages of succulent cuttings are fine, too.  Almost all are non-invasive, especially the soft succulents as frost will just kill them.  The only one I know is invasive is Kalanchoe Mother of Thousands, known as FLEA PLANT here in Florida.  That stuff is HORRIBLE.  UGH.  Still, they don't crowd out or kill out other species.  Succulents are commonly used a companion plants to fill in pots with other plants and they won't choke out the other plants.  I have some lilies right now that are in dormancy, and I plant to put some succulents in the pots so they're not empty and barren. 

Post Merge: June 30, 2014, 11:30:48 AM

I am gardening on my balcony. It's fully glassed in facing south so it's basically a green house summertime. I'm not into bonsai but this year I'm trying to grow baby tomatoes and it goes really well. I also have some herbs, like rosemary. One year I tried basil but it burned pretty badly. Next year I'm aming for strawberries as well. Besides that I'm having sunflowers and roses and some other small flowers as well.

Me too!  I have a very small porch garden, that's why I like succulents, because they're small, and I can make displays with them!  Yes, basil can burn, but have you tried Thai Basil?  It looks quite a bit different, and it tastes a smidge different, but you can use it traditionally in Thai curry or use it in Pesto still, and it's delicious.  However, unlike Basil, it can take even full Florida sun.  It also gets pretty purple flowers on it.  This is my second year growing it, and it's about to bloom right now.  Mint is also a good herb that likes to grow hot and sunny, as is oregano. 

[cyberunicorn]

I must admit I do like a bit of gardening.

I have 1 (sort of) bonzi plant. well that is how it started life. but hated it so I deep rooted it and 10 years down the line it is nice and healthy though does have a tendency to start to die off it it is not near another plant of some description    not sure if that is normal.

[Wardah]

I have a couple of cherry tomato buckets (sungold and black cherry) and a lemon cucumber bucket.

[Chrissytree]

My Mum had a bunch of cactus plants and a few succulents that I've inherited but I don't know much about them. I looked after them the last few years but that was only watering them and potting out any babies with Mum's help. I was going to repot all of them this year but got caught up with other plants so they didn't get done. I read you aren't supposed to do it in the summer? I have no idea what any of them are called.

I tried my hand at Bonsai but it died. I mostly grow ficus or yucca types - again I don't know the names, I'm a bad plant mummy I've only got a north facing window ledge for mine but they seem to like it Once they grow too tall I have to find them another room to live in but it means I can get another

[June]

I've been trying to grow venus flytraps (unsuccessfully) for over a year, if that counts I also had planted lemons from seed, but they suddenly died I'll try again this summer, though. I would like to grow a bonsai one day 
I don't have many possibilities since I live with my family and whenever I plant something in a pot, my aunt moves it and it dies. We do have a decent sized garden, but that's my grandma's territory. However, she doesn't have much sense for keeping it, so it's not something to brag about.

[brighteyes]

I like cacti and other succulents, but I've never had much luck with bonzai.  I have a coffee tree that my husband and I got when we were married 10 years ago.  It was only six inches then but now it's almost 5.5 feet and flowers three - four times a year and has red coffee berries.  I love it!  Most of my cacti and succulents died a long time ago in a really bad winter.  I had kept them at our school greenhouse for a special botany class that was going to be taught the following semester.  One day so much snow fell in such a short amount of time that it caused the greenhouse to collapse.  I had over 50 different species.  I was devastated!  After that I never got into collecting them again.  You make me want to get back into it!

I have a pink Christmas cactus and a Stapelia scitula that might handle being sent via mail.  The Stapelia is so cool.  It rarely flowers- I've only got it to do so once.  But when it does, the flowers are pretty and showy, but hide a dark secret.  They smell like rotting meat which causes flies to come and try to lay their eggs on the flowers.  This is how they are pollinated.  The S. scitula species doesn't have a smell that is noticable unless you actively smell the flowers- that is to say it won't make a room smell stinky.  Another species I used to have, S. gigantea, had HUGE flowers and it would stink up the whole house when it bloomed. 

Here's a picture of the little Stapelia:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login
 

Let me know if you would like either one.

[Pegaso80]

Stapelia...I remember it in a friend's house, it was really stinky though beautiful...I love succulents and they grow really well outside where I live; I'm quite lazy at gardening 
Here's my delosperma when I brought it home a few years ago:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

[invaderhorizongreen]

I have a rose of Sharon that is blue colored that made seeds , if anyone wants any.