Oct 29 2008
My Babies
I bought a Spider plant, or Airplane Plant, at the beginning of the spring. This is one of my favorites. As some of you know, this plant puts off babies on the end of what I would call runners. You can clip these little babies off and plant them in dirt, keep it watered well with bright indirect sun, and they will grow like crazy. Earlier this summer, I did just that. Now mind you, these start of as very small little plants. I brought them in for a few nights to protect them from the frost, and decided to take a picture of them tonight to show all of you. I am so proud of how they are doing. These are variegated, now I would like to get a solid green one.
Happy Gardening!
Miss Crystal
This happens to be one of my favorites, Wax Begonia (Begonia semperflorens), is a plant that will grow and bloom in the shade. Mine has been relatively easy to care for. It has remained beautiful and bloomed all year when some of my other shade plants seem to shrivel from the heat. It is kind of an all-around plant, in my opinion, because you can grow them as houseplants, outside in a tub, or even plant them in beds. This is also another one of those plants that do not like to stay wet. I noticed that when I watered it as often as the rest of my plants, the blooming would slow down. When I cut back on the watering a bit, it got lush and started blooming like crazy. I have also noticed that this certain plant does not seem to get bothered by bugs or other critters. I am also able to make new plants from cutting very easy, without the help of a growth hormone.
When pruning your houseplants, remember that you can really do it at anytime of the year, although spring is said to be the best time to prune by experts. To start with, take off all of the dead leaves and stems. Trim the wood close to a joint where a branch has been or where one has started to grow from it. Next, determine what parts have grown out further than what you would like. You can stand back and eyeball it. Remember, you do not have to take all of it off at once. Take a little off and then wait awhile, come back and eyeball it again. Some plants get too many branches on the inside of them. They look tangled and can choke the plant out as well as keep light from getting into the bottom leaves. You can take these off flush with the branch they are growing from. This is pruning for most houseplants. There are other plants like palms that need to just be cut flush with the dirt. A new shoot will sprout from the roots.
