Tiny Plant, Big Flower

This grew from a pair of pads that my cat was nice enough to knock of one of my christmas cacti. The flower is larger then the plant's pot. I think this one is less than a year old, but I do not keep excellent notes like I should. There are at least two other buds, but this is my first christmas cactus flower of the season. I do have paperwhites blooming as well. My giant older cactus needs to be re-potted desperately, and I may suck it up and do it now though it may not bloom this year. It's so unhappy it may not bloom anyway.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo again so I expect updates will be just as infrequent as they have been.

Ferns from Spores

I've been collecting spores from ferns for years, and trying to grow new ones. I've had mixed success. I can get to the green carpet look, but rarely did I get ferns out of that. I was suddenly interested in the little trays of green carpet again when the leather wood one started growing ferns all over the place.

I had been concentrating on cinnamon fern spores, and only recently did I check the book I was basing this idea on (Native Ferns, Mosses & Grasses by William Cullina) and note that if they aren't sprouting ferns you should refrigerate them for a few weeks and see if that jump starts them. I stuck the ones I've been growing for over a year in the fridge. A few weeks later out they came and I now have three or four ferns sprouting.

Now it's time to pull out the leather wood ferns and re pot them. I haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to re pot them in yet, but I'm just happy they sprouted.

Heavily simplified directions for sprouting fern spores:

1. Collect spores: Dependent on species spores can be collected across the growing season. Starting with cinnamon ferns and the like in the Spring
2. Sterilize soil: I microwave mine in take out containers. Add enough water to get the soil moist, heat the soil to 160 ° - 200 °. If it isn't sterile the ferns will be out competed by algae and fungus, which can be found in most soils.
3. Plant Spores very thinly on Soil Surface: You want to very lightly dust the surface. If you sow too heavily they smother each other.
4. Keep Sealed in medium light: I grow mine under lights, 6 - 12 in away.
5. Wait: first you get a green scum that looks like algae, then you get little single leaves, If you get stuck on leaves for a while you can try spritzing them with water to encourage fertilization. Eventually you get little ferns.

Easter Cactus Fruit

One of the other fruits on my easter cactus is just about ready with seeds. the other ones I planted a few months ago looks almost exactly the same as when they were planted. These guys are not fast from seed, but it is kind of neat growing them that way.

Tiny Spider

It's getting nippy out there, but the ridiculous numbers of spiders in the yard are hanging on. This tiny one was hanging out in the long yellowed lily stalks.

End of Rain

The colchicium bulbs from last year came up again, of course it rained on them for 4 or 5 days, so they're a little flat, but the sun was out today, and they survived the summer so I'm happy. They're going to be in the pot for at least another winter just so I can keep track. Since we're probably getting the big trees on the south side of the yard removed this fall, so I'll probably be moving plenty of plants again.

Phlox subulata Propagation

The hard part about this post is I'm not exactly sure why this time I succeeded while my other attempts with this plant have always failed. I didn't even keep notes of how I did it. I know I took the cuttings after flowering, dipped them in rooting hormone and potted them all together in a deep pot full of very sandy soil. I put it in a bag, stuck it on my plant table under lights and ignored it for a while. Months later the cuttings are sprouting and quite happy.

The cuttings are from the candy stripe variety, as that's my favorite type, though I very rarely like striped flowers.

Link to previous attempts at propagation

Back from Break

I took a little break for my birthday and to tidy up the house and yard. All the tomato plants in the yard are out as blight finally took hold. The soaker hoses have been pulled, and I emptied all the water barrels yesterday. I re potted all my African violets and ended up with 10 extra plants. I have to try a third time for cuttings of most of the coleus, but a few have prospered. I re potted plenty of outside plants as well, and figured out what would spend the winter where. I've shuffled a few reptiles around, and started buying more fish for my one fish tank. I'm building up the groups again of the single fish I have left, some are 5 or 6 years old now.

Forsythia Cutting Propagation

Several Months ago my aunt wanted more forsythia bushes. I cut three 14" or so new wood stems and chopped them into pieces. Each piece had two leaves left, though half the leaf was clipped off to conserve moisture. Each was dipped in rooting hormone, and put in it's own pot. I put them all in a tray and kept them in the shade for about a month and they rooted. I potted 12, and 12 grew roots, forsythia is known for being ridiculously easy to root. So far none of them have grown any new leaves, but they did develop new buds along the current leaf bases. I expect next year they will have several new shoots.

Easter Cactus Propagation

Assuming you start with a plant, there are two easy ways to get more plants. These instructions should work for any of the easter, christmas or thanksgiving cactus types.

Cuttings: Twist off a single pad or multiple pads and leave them out for a day or two to dry a little. I put mine in clean plastic containers with about 1/2" of damp potting soil. Push the base of the cuttings into the soil, cover the container to keep in moisture and put under lights, or anywhere with good light that isn't going to cook the containers. I generally do multiple containers so if one goes bad I don't lose all my efforts.

They should start putting out roots quite quickly, after roots they will begin growing out new pads. Once it starts growing new pads it can be removed from the container and put in a pot of its own.

Seeds: Takes a lot longer, but the seedlings are cute... Start with the plant flowering, preferably with several blooms of different ages open. With a paintbrush transfer pollen from different flowers, do this for several days. When the flowers die it will be obvious which ones are now growing seeds, the base will not drop off, and in the case of easter cactus the flower will also stay attached. Months later the fruits will be ready to harvest (mine got lighter in color and sort of squishy to the touch.) I germinated mine with instructions from this link: http://www.therainforestgarden.com/2011/09/germinating-easter-cactus-seeds.html. The seeds will germinate very quickly when fresh, as in less than a week. However they take a while to get larger.

Red Dragonfly

Another dragonfly from Sunday. other then it being a type of meadowhawk I've largely given up on ids for the red autumn dragonflies. It could be one of 3 or 4 species, especially if it's female.

Late Blue Dasher

Over the weekend I went apple picking with family, and for the first time in years it was warm and sunny, not cold and drizzling. There were tons of dragonflies flitting about, most of them being the standard red autumn ones, but there were a few blue dashers mixed in.

Rose of Sharon

Also from last week my much abused Rose of Sharon decided to bloom. Half this plant died two winters ago and since then it has sort of tottered along. I can't believe it, but there are even a few more buds so I might get more then just one flower. Now I kind of wish I hadn't planted the aggressive tomatoes next to it.

Water Lily

A surprise water lily that bloomed last week. Obviously I should have posted it last week. I've been busy, working, not doing anything fun...

Vermont Morning

The view in the early morning from my aunt's house in Vermont. Back in MA we don't get fog very often. The fog stuck around for maybe 15 minutes after I went out to take photos.

Another Unknown Purple Flower

I expect this one is likely a common Enough greenhouse plant, but I didn't see ID. It looks almost like an orchid up close.