Propagation

I have been fooling around with propagating a Begonia just to see what will happen.  I did this about 2 months ago and here is the final outcome.

I took a single leaf,   and underneath I cut a small slice into it,  dabbed some rooting hormones and pinned it to the soil.  Then I placed it under my areo garden light,  at first I used a shallow plastic pot then after a month or so I planted into a small and a little deeper pot.  I don’t water it too often they don’t like it too moist.

Here is the original plant it came from.

Persian Violets

Persian Violets,  Execums, also known as German Violets -should be grown in full sun, bright light during the winter months,   during the summer place them in semi shade for more vibrant color blooms.  During Winter and the cooler periods of Spring and Fall,   Exacum grow best at 60 to 65 degrees F. at night, and 72 to 77 degrees F.  in the daytime.  But in the summer, they respond with much faster growth because of warmer temperatures and longer days.   Exacum is a moderate feeder.  They grow best by alternate use of a 15-16-17 peat-lite special and calcium nitrate every third watering.  Lower strength in Winter, higher strength in Summer.   During the winter months since lighting is shorter in length,   let soil dry between watering and cut the fertilizer in half the amount and strength.

Philodendrons

” philxana” Philodendron

“Photho”

Philodendrons comes in many different shapes and sizes,  a very easy plant to grow in the home.  They prefer medium light during the summer keep the Philodendrons out of the direct sun.  Evenly moist soil but let soil dry between watering.  If you provide humidity for the Philodendrons they tend to grow lush.  Philodendrons likes to be slightly root bound but not overly bounded.  I always mention this as a reminder : always use room temperature water for plants during the winter season indoors,  and if you have tap water let it sit for 24 hours before using.  Well water is one of the best types of water to use.  Feed Philodendrons during the growing season with a diluted plant food.   Warning about Philodendrons:  they are poisonous to pets and young children.

Monkey Flower

Latin name : Mimulus hybridus-  Monkey Flower,  suitable for the indoors during winter seasons.   Branching plants becoming a little woody, covered with masses of flowers in spring and summer. Does best in full sunlight coming from the South/West. Keep the soil on the wet side, use warm water.  Feed every two weeks during the summer with a water soluble fertilizer.
Prune in the spring, also the leaves of this plant are sticky. Place pebbles or gravel in the drainage dish to hold water and increase the humidity

Violets

African Violets is an easy to grow house plant during the winter months they prefer bright light usually artificial lighting along with a south facing window.  Keep their soil a little on the drier side,  to get them to bloom keep them in tight pots when they are root bounded that is when they bloom.  Feed them every few weeks with an African Violet food.  Violets do like humidity trays, don’t spray them with water and don’t touch their leaves with water.   Always water Violets from the bottom by placing their pots in a low dish of water for a few minutes,  make sure in the winter time you never use cold water the temperature of water is important it should be room temperature.   Violets prefers cool temperatures like 60 to 65 degrees.

African Violet

Tasmanian Violet- a relative to the African Violets,  this variety is a strong and resilient grower,  medium to bright light.

Episcia-also known as Flame Violets is a relative of the African Violets,  same care as them too.

Trailing African Violets- same care as the non trailing.

“Teeny Bopper” is a trailing violet with small heart shape leaves,  and bell shape blooms,  same care as the African Violets.

Petrocosmea “Begonifolia” is a relative of the African Violets and the same care as them.

Ferns

Foxtail Fern-or also known as Springri’s  is  Not a true Fern,  they are not related to ferns at all in fact,  they are closely related to the Lily family.

Pulmosa Ferns or also known as Asparagus Fern is also not related to ferns nor is it related to any vegetables.   The Pulmosas and Foxtails are easy to grow plants that requires both bright light and humidity.  During the winter months they actually like their soil to dry between watering.

Now here is a true fern,  the Maiden Hair Fern.  They do also like high humidity, bright light,  soil evenly moist.   During the summer season keep ferns out of direct sun.  Perennial ferns are grown in shaded areas and they are acid loving plants.  When planting them outdoors it’s always a good idea to place mulch around them and use sand with Peat Moss mix in the soil.

Boston Ferns

Button Fern

Rabbits Foot

Swedish Ivys

I have 2 varieties of Swedish Ivy’s – Purple and Green.

Plectranthus is the botanical name for Swedish Ivies

The Swedish Ivy is a fairly easy trailing plant to grow in the winter time indoors don’t over water them.   Let soil dry slightly between watering and provide bright light and mist them once a day.  They do bloom during the growing season.    During the growing season do provide some shade,  direct sun will burn them.  The Swedish Ivies are easy to propagate,  just cut a stem off and place it in a small pot with soil.

Succulent Garden

I had so many small succulent plants it was hard to keep up with the watering and maintaining them so I put all of them in a shallow dish.  Now it’s easier to keep up even though they don’t require lots of water I had too many small little pots around.   I use to never care to collect them but now I really like them,  they can be very unreal looking.  I placed pebbles at the bottom of the dish since succulents have small roots.

Serrisa

Serrisa “Snow Rose”  a very pretty Dwarf Tree,   a very nice specimen for Bonsai.

The Snow Rose comes in White or Pink,  Keep soil evenly moist and bright light.  Like to sit on a humidity tray.  Also known as “Tree of Thousand Stars” and it is originally from Southern China.

Dracenas

The Drecenas comes in many varieties and most of them is easy to care for.

“Lucky Bamboo”  is actually a Dracena easy to grow in water or soil,  if you want to grow it in water the proper level of the water should only be just above the root level any higher and you’ll notice the plant will turn yellow and rot.  Rocks helps it to stay up and use an African Violet food once a month in the winter  and every 2 weeks in the growing season.  Water should be changed every two weeks with a liquid bleach to kill off the bacteria that grows in the water.    Lucky Bamboo prefers indirect medium light and pinch the tops off once a year to keep from growing leggy.  You can plant them in soil and the pot size should be shallow and small.

“Dracena Corn Plant” is a very easy plant to grow,  during the winter they don’t like to be watered to often.  Let most of the soil dry between watering.  They prefer low to medium indirect light.   Rotating plants once a week to keep them from growing to one side.

“Dracena Janet Craig”  Medium light,  let soil dry between watering.

“Dracena Marginata”  comes in a variegated tri-color too,  medium light and let soil dry slightly between watering.  To keep this plant from growing leggy pinch the tops off once a year.

“Dracena Pineapple”  medium light,  let soil dry slightly between watering.

“Dracena Reflexa Variegated”  also comes in solid green color, medium light and let soil dry slightly between watering.   Pinch tips off once a year to keep from growing leggy.

“Dracena Surculosa”  medium light,  let soil dry slightly between watering.