It's not easy being green

Not being a house plant in a house with small children. 

But, perhaps I can make the best of a sad situation, and turn one African Violet into seven...

Toddlered!

Poor Old Nodding Violet. What did it ever do to deserve this?! 

Nodding Violet

Must be doing something right if this little beauty is blooming! Nodding Violet (Streptocarpus caulescens) from a nursery clearance table, pot from the Salvos. 

Experiments in kokedama part three

Bird's Nest Fern.  

Kokedama part two

Again, not a tutorial, but this is how I made my first hanging kokedama. 

Experiments in kokedama

This is Pinterest meets crafty chick meets gardener meets too many house plants, when the only way to go is up... Or down, in this case. As in attach the plants to the ceiling in my obsession of the week: kokedama, specifically hanging kokedama. 

This is not a tutorial, but a document of my own experiments in the style. If you want to know how to make kokedama a quick whip around a few Google results will give you ample information. However, for the purposes of information, I'm using sphagnum moss, orchid mix potting media, jute twine, one of my clearance orchids, and air-dry clay. No, I'm not mixing the clay through the potting mix as I've read in tutorials (probably not suitable)  but I'm making a sphere of it for the centre to give the kokedama a shape to work to, and to act as a bit of a weight.

So, here goes nothing! 

Date-marker

A brief update to remind myself that the new orchids were repotted today. I do not have high hopes for the smallest and finest of the three, it had barely any roots let at all. The previous potting media was very dense and wet after it's time outside, and featured a hearty crop of earthworms! I also learnt a new word: 'Keiki', which refers to the 'orchid baby' I removed from the biggest plant and put into a little pot on its own. 

Here, the largest enjoys a brief soak in a bath of Seasol and 1/2 strength orchid fertiliser. 

TLC

Today I was given three orchids in need of some TLC. Challenge accepted! They came via a relative who is too elderly and frail to care for many plants anymore. 

I can only find a tag on one of these, which reads 'Dendrobium "Victorian Bride Genisis"' [sic]. A quick Google shows me it might be white with a spotty magenta border. I believe the two other orchids to be Dendrobiums as well, I'm hoping I'll turn up more name tags when I repot these little plants tomorrow. 

I am very proud of my orchids, not because they are particularly amazing, unusual, or spectacular, but because all bar one came from the clearance tables of big-box hardware stores, and not one of them has died on me yet. Must do a post on them one day. My 'new' plants stand a good chance of a reasonable recovery. 

String of peas

This plant is commonly called 'String of Pearls,' but SP says it looks like peas and I think that's a better name so String of Peas it is. It's Senecio rowleyanus (although my label read 'Senecio rowleyana, I wonder if someone wrote that incorrectly deliberately... assuming that Wikipedia has the correct name?)

Anyway, I came across a cheap little pot of the plant in the local Ikea (I do like them for their selection of cheap little house plants) and snapped it up on impulse. Fortunately, the web tells me it's relatively low care (though not NO care; I don't believe any plant ever really is). I've potted it up in another Ikea pot I've had floating around for a while. It did have a baby bromeliad slowly growing in it... and then the cat ate most of it and so I had to turf it out. The pot doesn't have great drainage - only a very small hole in the bottom - so I've filled the bottom inch with gravel, then potted up the plant in a mix if about 1/4 sand (borrowed from the retaining work D is doing out the back) and 3/4 ordinary potting mix. Cactus mix would have also been appropriate if I'd had any.
 

Let's hope the cat stays away from this one; the leaves are poisonous and not to be consumed.