Category: Plants

Volunteer: Geranium dissectum

Volunteer

Volunteer Plants with Wee Pink Flowers

How small all the flowers?

Volunteer

Decided to harvest seed from the volunteer plants. I assumed that the seed was ready when they looked like this…

Volunteer

But are they? While harvesting, I noticed this change–

Volunteer

Volunteer

It wasn’t until I looked at the photographs that I noticed the red tips–

Volunteer

It is such a lovely plant. Can’t wait to grow more and should not have a problem doing so since they are showing up on invasive plant sites. Perhaps I should rethink introducing the plants into my courtyard garden.

Wildflowers of the United States

Invasive Species Compendium

Invasive.org

University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management

Dropped Leaves

Plant

Succulent

The color of the leaves is definitely not right.
I took the photo with my iPad in my studio.
The color of the leaves should be a grey green.

Succulent

Flip side of the small leaf.
When I gathered the leaves I noticed that they felt soft and very warm.
Like a thick bunny ear.

Succulent

The leaves collect everything.
It is common for earwigs to live all cozy in the top leaves.
I give the leaves a weekly cleaning with a soft bristle brush.

Four leaves fell. I am drying two and the other two are sitting in a glycerin solution, just to see what happens.

Art material? Molds or stitching?

What’s Growing?

I planted two Tabebuia seeds each in five peat pots, 6 November 2016. I went away for three weeks in March. Before I left I watered the pots and then wrapped them in plastic.

Today I did not find Tabebuia growing, but found something green.

Tabebuia

Do I pot up the growth or wait to see if Tabebuia plants surface?

Trapped Cactus Update

June of 2016 I wrote a post about a trapped cactus. The cactus was growing near a chain-link fence. When the property was sold, the new owners had a privacy fence installed in front of the chain-link fence. The result was the cactus sandwiched between the chain-link fence and the privacy fence.

Cactus

This was the plant in June of 2016.

Cactus

This is the plant today.

Cactus Buds

In spite of its living conditions, the plant has numerous buds.

It is sad to see the cactus’ situation, but encouraging to see that in spite of everything it appears to be thriving.

New Addition to My Terrarium

My niece made a terrarium for my birthday. I have cared for several gardens, but this was my first garden in a jar.

The end of January I moved the terrarium to a new location for a bit more light. When I opened the terrarium Friday morning I discovered a new addition.

Terrarium Interior

Terrarium Interior

Fungus Detail Interior

First glance I thought it was mineral deposits.

Fungus Detail Interior

Sent a couple of images to a friend who works at a botanic garden. Best guess from the images was a fungus.

Removed Ferns

I removed the ferns, cleaned their roots, and potted them up.

Terrarium Interior

Terrarium Interior After the Removal of the Ferns

Curious how the fungus growth will evolve. It brings to mind textural, lichen-like glazes I used when I was working in clay.

Unknown Plant Update and New Planting

Seeds

Unknown Seeds

Seedlings

Unexpectedly, within 5 days there were seedlings.

Plant Update

The plant looked like this 31 October 2016.

Then so much went wrong. The plant was eaten by a furry one, and then it had bugs, it was eaten again…

Eaten Plant

and then it began to die.

Dying Plant

The plant currently looks like this.

New Planting

Sensing that the plant is sure to die, I planted another pot of seeds 4 February 2017.

Now I wait.

Rescued Cactus Update

I rescued some cactus bits that had fallen from this plant in June of 2016. The plant was confined by the fence.

Cactus

Shortly before the plant was confined by the fence, it had several large and lovey white flowers.

I potted up the bits–

Cactus

And now it has loads of new growth–

Cactus

Actually, I recently removed a few starts to make more plants.

A couple of detail images of new additions to its growth. I like that they look sharp and pointy.

Cactus Detail

Cactus Detail

I suspect that the sharp pointy growth is for self propagation.

Seedlings and Growth

I planted Hard-shelled Birdhouse Gourds (Cucurbita lagenaria) on November 6th. Four gourd plants emerged December 14th.

Gourds

Since I am still dealing with the squirrel and the weather has been cold and at times rainy, the plants are living in the bathroom. It is the room with the best daily light.

Gourds

The tendrils needed something to grasp onto so I attached some cotton twine to a wallpiece above the gourds. When the time comes for the plants to be moved to the garden, I can snip the twine and use it to attach the gourds to the garden fence.

Will the artist care that I am attaching something to their piece? Nope, it is one of my See a Penny… pieces.

Gourds

Western Peonies (Paeonia brownii) grow on the mountains on the California Central Coast. For some reason the plants are not readily available for purchase in the community nurseries.

I have attempted to grow them from collected seed, but never had success. That was until today. Well, apparently the plants were growing, but I did not realize the growth until this morning.

In early November I placed 10 seeds in a plastic bag with damp vermiculite. I also placed a few seeds in a pot of soil. The seeds in vermiculite have not shown any growth activity.

Peonies

Since I had not anticipated growth in the pot, I wasn’t paying attention. Unfortunately, the pot was in my studio, not very much light, so the seedlings are leggy. I moved the pot to a location with more light.

I found this little something in one of my garden beds in late December. Couldn’t identify it, thinking that it is probably a lily. I planted it.

Unknown Bulb

This is what it looks like today.

Unknown Plant