Plant Collection: Scott's House Part 1

This weekend I went to Scott's house for some R&R. His parents like having plants around, and they have quite a few (so many that they will consume two posts). They have a lot of windows, which helps. I photographed them to show them off. You'll even get to see an old friend!

The first plants to catch my eye were these aloes (seemingly Aloe vera). These plants are young, but they look great. Maybe you can see the window setup in some of the pictures--the kitchen has a 3-sided window, which makes this a very plant-friendly spot.

Next was one of the few flowering plants in the house, an African violet (genus Saintpaulia). We have these at the greenhouse. They're a pain to water, and they don't look very good (they're intensely fragile). This one seems to be thriving, though. Apparently the family has had this one for something like ten years, which is impressive. I would lose my patience with this plant, though it is pretty.

This plant caught my eye because it used to be mine! Sadly, the day this picture was taken was its last, as moving it inside managed to snap the stem. At least it spent its last few days outside, and at least I got to see it one last time. Also, note the flower buds forming. It did a lot better than I ever expected.

The biggest plant enjoying this kitchen window was a nice, big schefflera. I'm no schefflera identification expert, but if I had to guess, I'd say this is Schefflera arboricola because of its smallish, spread out leaflets. Personally, I like that form better than some of the larger-leaved species.

What houseplant collection would be complete without some devil's ivy (Epipremnum aureum)? This particular individual has striking variegation, which I like. I'm not normally into devil's ivy (also known as golden pothos, for some reason), but the whitish leaves are nice. I would be willing to care for a variegated specimen like this. As this is ivy, it will climb up the walls and vine around your belongings. I have mixed feelings about this, but if it became a problem, I could just cut it back.

Also on this (sizeable) countertop was a small ficus tree. These do fairly well at the greenhouse, but it's apparent that this one gets a little more love.

Moving on to another windowsill, here's a plant that I cannot even begin to identify. It is a spineless succulent, maybe a cactus. That's about all I have determined, so I haven't narrowed down much of anything. It's nice to look at, though.

Now here's something you don't see every day in the Midwest--columnar cacti. These little dudes look like they're faring very well. I would like some cacti of this general type someday (for more details, see my post on my dream succulents and cacti).

Next is another cactus: the Christmas cactus (I believe this one is Schlumbergera bridgesii). These are always nice plants to have around. We had one of these when I was small.

And here's another one, only in bloom! This cactus might be Epiphyllum x buckleyi. It seems odd, but Christmas cacti can belong to three different species in two genera. I've never seen such a peach-colored blossom on a Christmas cactus. It's a nice change of pace.

What are your thoughts on finnicky plants? Which of these kinds of plants would you take in, if given the chance?

Next post: the rest of the plants in and around Scott's house.

More Chard!

For a number of days, I was wondering if I was only going to have the two swiss chard plants appear. Boy, was I wrong. I had three more spring up in one day! Maybe they're coming in waves, and I'll see a few more pop out over the weekend. I took pictures over the course of a couple of days, so you can see how rapidly they are growing. Nothing I grow seems to grow as quickly as all the plants at the greenhouse, but then again, they use liquid fertilizer daily. I use a slow-release fertilizer. Maybe I should get on that...

Two of the newbies seem to have emerged from the same seed. Here they are when I first saw them, on Tuesday.

And this is what they looked like the next day. Pretty big difference, huh? Right now they're as tall as the first two are below.

This next seedling is the newest of the bunch. It's all by itself. I know you can barely see it in this picture; that small banana-looking object is its pair of cotyledons.

This picture is better, since the little tyke was standing up straighter on Wednesday.

These pictures are an update of what the first two seedlings are up to. If you were wondering, they're busy growing taller all the time. This was taken Tuesday...

...And this was taken Wednesday! Their little leaves look so happy. As you can see, all of my chard appears to have fuschia stems except for one that's whitish or yellowish. That's fine with me. I can deal with hot-pink vegetables this summer.

A couple of other bits of news: my zucchini is saying goodbye tomorrow and going to its new home. I'll miss it, but hopefully it can be outside and flourish in its new environment.

Also, I'm leaving for spring break, so I have to pack up all my plants. Normally, transporting plants is a stressful experience for the transporter and the plants, but I'm looking on the bright side: Scott lent me some boxes so I don't get dirt all over my car, and my house has a southern exposure. This means my plants are basically getting the equivalent of a tropical vacation.

While I'm home, I'll introduce Basil, my basil plant, to the blog. Basil is staying at my house for its better light, but I'm getting it back come summer. Which is exciting.

Next post: Winter in Retrospect.

Spiders and Seedlings and Jade, Oh My!

There have been so many recent developments that I don't even know where to start. I'll arbitrarily follow the order of the pictures I took.

My spinach seedlings are starting to develop their first true leaves! Notice the difference in shape between them and the seed leaves. It's quite the contrast, and it will only become more different as time goes by.

My other spinach plant is trying to do the same thing this one has. It may just need more time. However, it seems kind of limp, and I'm wondering if the stem didn't get injured when I transplanted it. Time will tell.

The next order of business is my zucchini plant. It's still miniscule, but I believe it's trying to flower. I don't know if zucchinis can flower multiple times throughout a season, but if mine goes through with it, its new caretakers are going to have some microscopic fruits. They produce pretty flowers, though.

Now for some really exciting news: my thyme has sprouted! Well, some of the plants have. I may have to thin the ranks at some point because thyme seeds are tiny, so I have no idea how many I planted. But for now, I'm just happy that the seeds germinated! I don't think I've ever grown a plant from seed before, so this is an important accomplishment for me.

As you'll notice, it's extremely difficult to get my camera to focus on something as small as these seedlings, so they are blurry. The green dots are the seed leaves. You can see some of the stems.

Fun fact: when I was little, I thought the lyrics to the Steely Dan song "Reelin' in the Years" were "Are you reelin' in the yeast?/Stowin' away the thyme?/Are you gatherin' up the teas?/Have you had enough of mine?" Yes, I was destined to be a foodie even then.

My chard is still looking like this, though.

Nada.

The biggest news from this front is my two new houseplants that I propagated in class. This one is a spider plant. Spider plants are very efficient at filtering air, and they're pleasant in general. Spider plants are thus named because they reproduce by sending out stalks that have another spider plant-shaped plant on the end of them. They look like little spiders.

My second houseplant is a jade tree, acquired in the same manner as the spider plant. Jade plants are succulent, but they form woody stems eventually. I find them aesthetically pleasing (and mine's putting on new leaves)!

Here's an aerial view.

So this is the new and improved windowsill shot:

Perhaps the chard will soon join this happening array of friends. But until then...

Next post: flowers in my hometown!

It Has Begun!

I have a dream. I had a dream. My dream was to plant swiss chard and thyme seeds indoors and make them grow. My dream was is to turn:

(As the packaging suggests, these seeds were from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I strongly recommend them to anyone looking for weird (think blue squash and chocolate basil) or slightly different varieties. They sell vegetables, herbs, and flowers. They're into organic growing, if you're into that. They even sent me a free packet of sunflower seeds for ordering from them.)

 

and

 

Into food.

The "making them grow" part is still a dream (albeit ever closer to reality), but I planted said seeds last night, so I am one step closer to growing my first foods!

The variety of chard I ordered is called "Rainbow" (also known as Bright Lights and Five-Color Silverbeet, as it's a relative of sugar beets). If you look at my blog's (current) header, that's a picture of rainbow swiss chard. I think it's beautiful, and chard is one of my favorite vegetables--definitely my favorite green. And I have read that it can be grown indoors for baby greens. So I'm trying it!

Apparently soaking the chard seeds in warm water for 24 hours before planting aids germination and helps prevent root rot, so I'm soaking them as I type.

I know I'm not sowing very many, but this way I have plenty more in case something goes south with this batch. Once these are done imbibing that water, I'm going to plant them in this (possibly with a tray of some sort under it):

However, I did actually plant the thyme. I planted it in a basket (we'll see how that works as a container) that's sitting on my heater. You see, a heating mat would be nice, but that would cost money, so I just laid some cloth over my heater to insulate it and put the basket on top of that. Here's the cloth (some strips I cut off of some sweats today--I'm DIYing this thing).

And here's the seeds on top of it!

In addition to planting new crops, I transplanted some older ones into better containers. These little seed pots were generously donated by my mother. I was going to use coolie cups, but I'll save them for another time.

First, the spinach. Cameos by Scott's hand.

This one's looking a little leggy. It never hurts to try, though.

Next is the zucchini. It's actually getting a new home in a few weeks, where it can go outside and possibly produce fruit.

I also finally transplanted my wheat into this colander. Maybe I didn't do the best job, but I think it will work. It's crooked because it's been growing toward my window and thus light.

Here's the class photo!

And here's what my windowsill looks like now:

There you have it. My lilliputian bounty is on its way. Have you ever tried growing any of these plants indoors? What are your favorite seed suppliers? Have you ever had to rig a makeshift growing apparatus?

Next post: more greenhouse pictures (plus the planting of my Bright Lights)!

Surprise Salvage Spinach

I was originally going to post more greenhouse pictures today, but then a magical thing happened. At work yesterday I was transplanting spinach seedlings. I had been instructed to discard the puny seedlings that don't yet have their first true leaves. These runts can't compete with the larger specimens for light and other resources, so they would not survive in a flat with the normal-sized plants.

Instead of tossing the dwarf greens, though, I pocketed them. They were going to go to waste otherwise, and they might just stand a chance now.

"Those don't look like spinach," you might be thinking. I was surprised the first time I saw those infantile leaves too. Spinach's cotyledons (fancy word for seed leaves) look the least like their true leaves of any species I have ever seen. The plants look like grass at first, but they end up tasting oh so much nicer.

This is the biggest of the bunch. You can kind of see what will become its first spinach-y leaves in the corner of the V shape.

I'm keeping my sprouting spinach seedlings in custard cups and a miniature jam jar until I find a suitable container with drainage. (Flea market time! In the background of this picture, you can see the basket I bought at a flea market to contain some of the plants I ordered seeds for.)

I'm also not going to keep all of these. Spinach is great in salads, omelettes, quiches, on sandwiches or wraps, on pizza and calzones, and...well, I could go on. But I don't need four plants' worth, so at least two of these babies are going to my madre for her enjoyment.

In other news, my zucchini's next few leaves are starting to take shape! I keep thinking that maybe there's hope for this early bloomer after all.

And finally: my wheatgrass got a haircut! It doesn't look like it's going into the Marines or anything, but it's a little tamer.

That's about it for today. Have you ever adopted a plant? Do you think there's hope of produce for early-planted zucchinis?

Next post: more greenhouse delights.