Christmas Cactus

Before May of last year, I hadn't even heard of Christmas cacti (I must have been living under a rock). This is one of the plants I picked up at a local swap meet. It was a fairly good sized plant for $1, and probably would have sold at a garden center for $5-10. I've certainly gotten my enjoyment out of it. I had no idea how to care for it, though, but did some research. My mother and I had reservations about my getting it to bloom (a quest I'm considering embarking on again), but I'm happy for it just to sit and grow. It outgrew its first pot, and I put it into one of my painted ones, which unfortunately sustained water damage. It likes a good drink every few days and a spray once per day. Since it's a jungle cacti, I make sure it gets its humidity and have it sitting on a drywell.

I'm not sure which species it is, but it looks different from other cacti I've seen in stores. The cacti in stores have very pointy edges, and my plant's are more rounded. I've called it S. x buckleyi, but I'm not quite sure. Any ideas?

Late last November, I thought it would be nice to have a blooming Christmas cactus! I cut a black plastic bag to size, covered the plant each night at 8:30pm, and uncovered it each morning at 10:30am. I continued this up until about Christmas and found that this new ritual had prompted TONS of new growth, though I didn't see any buds. I obviously hadn't continued this practice long enough to see them, but I lost interest in covering-and-uncovering. Though it's been getting the necessary cooler temps to initiate blooming, it hasn't been getting the definite 14 hours of complete darkness it needs. Someday I'll find out which color its flowers are. My mother says my grandmother once bloomed a Christmas Cactus, so perhaps it's in my blood!

In the photo, you can see all that nasty water damage (which I plan to fix when the plant outgrows the pot), but the plant itself is in good shape. :)

The Christmas Cactus is a ridiculously easy plant to propagate, as I've come to know. I made this discovery when I accidentally broke off a segment of mine and decided to stick it in the dirt. As I hadn't looked into propagating this plant before, I was surprised when the segment didn't rot and then began to grow roots. I was even more pleased when it grew its own new segment (in the photo, the original segment is in the righthand side of the pot). From time to time, a segment will get bumped or simply fall off the big plant, I'll stick it in the dirt, and it'll root.

Propagating African Violets

One day about a month ago, I was messing around with my plants in the windowsill when I knocked off a gorgeous, healthy leaf from one of my African Violets. I was sick about it, so I decided I would try to propagate it. I didn't have much hope at first since I'd tried to propagate a leaf from S. 'melodie' last summer without success. Add to that, there was hardly a stem to speak of on the leaf I knocked off. I stuck it in the dirt as best I could anyway, gave it a little spritz, and covered it with a plastic baggie. I placed it on the counter near (but not too near) a heater, where it could get just a little bit of light from my south window. I was surprised when it didn't rot, and even happier when I noticed recently that roots had begun to form.

After my success with this leaf, I thought it was worth a shot to propagate S. 'melodie', which hasn't been looking so good in the past couple months. I worry it might continue downhill, so perhaps it was best to take a couple of the healthiest-looking leaves to propagate. That was exactly what I did. (This propagation was before the drastic surgery I performed in removing 30 leaves).

I sterilized a paring knife with hydrogen peroxide before cleanly slicing off two leaves. They were small, as all of the big leaves are steadily fading.

I then stuck the leaves in dirt, spritzed them a tiny bit, and slid a plastic baggie over each one.

The other day, I was delighted to find that they all had rooted!

African Violet - S. 'melodie'

I couldn't resist passing this plant up when I saw it in Lowe's: It was wonderfully majestic, with frilly white-and-purple flowers. I picked it up for around $9 last May, and it treated me to about a month of blossoms (though I suspect it had already been blooming for quite awhile). It stayed in its majestic condition for the entire summer, and in September -along with my other Africa Violet- it began to grow buds. Though the flowers were gorgeous, for some reason the purple streaks on the petals weren't quite as vibrant as before. I wonder if that could be due to lack of fertilizer, poor MN sunlight, or something of the like? Again, I didn't take pictures of its second glorious bloom. I only have a photo from June or July when it was at the end of its first bloom. Not the most flattering picture, I know, but it's the best I've got. (Love the paint in my old bedroom; thankfully, it's lavender now.)

 Around November, I began to notice that 'melodie' was deteriorating in a serious way. The first two rows of leaves were rotting and turning brown, and some leaves had light green spots. I've inspected it for pests, but I've seen none. I've always been very careful about underwatering and overwatering, and I haven't kept it in a place where the sun could burn the leaves, which is very unlikely in the Minnesota winter. It was in a north window, but I changed it to a shaded south window. I wonder if it could be the cold... Temps here this winter have ranged from the 30's to the -30's, but the north windowsill temps range from about 58-72, depending on the time of day. Temps in the south window range from about 68-78, so I think this may have been the problem. African Violets like normal room temps. However, my other violet was sitting right next to 'melodie' and is doing perfectly fine. My mother and I surmised that 'melodie' might just be old, but I did what I could to save it! Here are some photos of the damage done:

By this point, I had little hope for my once-majestic 'melodie', the African Violet which once gave me gorgeous, frilly white, purple-streaked flowers. The outer 2-3 rows of leaves had begun to turn brown, and I felt the prognosis wasn't very good. The previous day, I had taken two of the healthiest leaves to propagate, so I thought I would experiment... With reassurance, I took a sterilized paring knife and began to cleanly slice off ALL leaves which had brown on them, re-sterilizing between slices. I ended up cutting off over 30 leaves, and I worried slightly whether or not the plant could take the shock.

When I cut off one of the largest leaves, I noticed there was a tiny baby leaf sprouting from its base. I kept this leaf and one more sort-of-healthy leaf to propagate. The rest went in the garbage, much to my distress. I checked up on the original 'melodie' from time to time, and it seemed to be doing great. No signs of infection, which was my main worry, and the "pruning" has stimulated the plant to grow; it has new buds coming up!

African Violet - Purple

African Violets may well be the most popular and easiest houseplant, and the most beautiful as well. Their praise is well-deserved; mine have rewarded me several times with gorgeous blooms. But anyway, I picked this one up at a local swap meet, which I mentioned in my previous entry. It was a stringy, leggy little thing for quite awhile, and I have to admit that it was my least favorite.
This is what my baby African Violet looked like around the day I bought it:

I couldn't resist that cute little turtle; my mom's had it for years.

I also paint all my own ceramic pots. This is one of the first I did.

Though I might not have liked it too terribly much, it was very healthy and grew like a champ. It began to fill out and formed several different rosettes, instead of the usual one. Around September, I noticed it had begun to grow buds! After several days, I noticed that they were purple. It's still giving me gorgeous blooms after four months. I thought up until recently that it was finishing blooming, but I noticed a whole batch of new buds coming up! It still doesn't look the way a store-bought plant would, but it's full and lush. I wish I'd taken photos of it in all its splendor, but all I have are a couple photos taken recently. This plant currently isn't in one of my painted pots.

 It ended up blooming from each of its 3-4 rosettes. Here are some of the last blossoms:

 

It all started with some Lucky Bamboo...

This poor specimen started my entire obsession! When I was six or so, I visited Minneapolis for the first time. My family made the expected pilgrimage to the Mall of America (aka paradise!), and I left carrying one tiny stalk of so-called Lucky Bamboo in an Asian-themed container. My mother cared for it for the next eleven years. To her distress and mine, every few years, all the leaves would turn yellow and drop off. They would all grow back, though. However, last April it looked as though the plant was gone for good; the entire thing was yellowed and brown. In early May, I attended a local swap meet/gigantic garage sale (I'm not quite sure what to call it), where I saw a couple ladies selling plants. I inquired, interested in replacing my "dead" bamboo, and walked away with a Christmas Cactus ('buckleyi', I believe), Devil's Ivy, and a tiny little African Violet, each of which I bought for a dollar. Well, I certainly got my $3 worth of enjoyment out of them, since they're all thriving. I started to realize that I really enjoyed taking care of my plants, so I went out and bought a Phalaenopsis orchid, an Echeveria, an Areca Palm, and twenty-some other plants in a matter of two months. And the best part... One day, I peeled back one of the yellow leaves of the bamboo -and it was green underneath. I removed all the dead leaves, learned a little bit more about the plant, and it's thriving in the windowsill right behind me.