Getting Ready for the Holidays with Poinsettia and Christmas Cactus

I was at a Home Depot this weekend for a Kid's Workshop. For those who don't know about this kid’s workshop and have kids please see below. My daughter loves these workshops and we look forward in going every month.

From the Home Depot Website (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/ContentView?pn=HT_WS_KidsWorkshops):

• FREE hands-on workshops designed for children ages 5 - 12 offered the 1st Saturday of
every month at all The Home Depot stores between 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
• Workshops teach children do-it-yourself skills, tool safety and instill a sense of pride
and accomplishment.
• All kids get to keep their craft and receive a FREE Kids Workshop Apron,commemorative
pin and certificate of achievement.

Check out my other blog on what kind of projectsthese kids are making at these workshops: http://www.babyatplay.com/2012/09/06/free-kids-workshops-to-learn-create-craft-at-the-home-depot/

Home Depot is pretty sneaky...by offering these FREE workshops; it's a way to lure you in to buy things. Once I walked past the Christmas garden section I couldn't help myself but to purchase two plants. I brought a small red poinsettias and a pink Christmas cactus. They cost me under $3 for each. They are just so cute. Love them.

So any special care for any of these plants? Letme know!

Replanted My Little Cactuses

Brought a tiny glass container from Michael's crafts store the other day.  It was on sale for $1.79.  I'm not sure how much the original price for but I thought it was just too cute to not buy.   

I had these tiny little cactuses that used to be in two small terracotta pots and I decided to put them all together.

 

Bottom of the vase/container I used dark pebbles. These pebbles were purchased at Ikea a while back. There is a layer of moss. And then finally I added some potting soil. I lined them all up from big to small. And I decided to play three white pebbles in back of these cactuses to add some color. I love it! What do you guys think?

Any anyone know what kind of cactuses are these? I forgot the names of them.



My Hens and Chicks Getting Eaten

It's been a while since something has gotten into my succulent's containers. I thought it was the end of it. I'm not going to have to deal with pest or animals anymore. Well....I guess I was wrong. This must be a big animal. It's the first time I seen my succulents half way eaten. :( Something has been chomping down on my plants that I don't have many left in this hypertufa container anymore.

Echeveria 'Black Prince' Bloomed

My Black Prince had finally bloomed. The flowers are red and they are just beautiful.

Due to the frost and cold days we are now having in New England my Echeverias and other succulents are now currently indoors. And once I got my Black Prince indoors that is when it started to bloom.

I heard that now that my Black Prince is indoors it’s not going to get as much sunlight as before...and it might turn the color green. I'm excited to see how that would turn out. I will keep you guys all updated.

Another picture of my Orostachys Iwarenge (Chinese Dunce Cap)

This is a small cutting of the Chinese Dunce Cap.  It never grew that big but it did finally bloomed. Here's a close up. The flowers is prettier for some reason.

My Bromeliad is giving me more pups!

I was organizing and watering my indoor plants and found a great surprise. My bromeliad is producing more pups for me again. This time there was three. Not sure if you can see them in this picture but there's a small sprout on the right side, left side, and the middle. I'm so happy! So this mother plant has given me a total of 5 pups!  Will try to provide updated pictures on how they are doing weekly.

 

Anyone out there having luck like me?  How many pups do one mother plant give?  And how long does the mother plant live?  Please let me know!

 

My Orostachys Iwarenge (Chinese Dunce Cap) has bloomed

My Chinese Dunce Cap succulents had bloomed! To my surprise they weren't that pretty. Since the succulent itself is beautiful I thought the flowers would look pretty nice too...I was wrong. I actually didn't even know it flowered until I looked at it closely one day.

The flowers are tiny and white.

 

Also my plant was infested with these tiny black greyish bugs. I'm not sure if you can see them in these pictures. When I purchase these Chinese Dunce Caps I noticed a couple of them but had gotten rid of them with a water and gentle soap. Now these bugs are all reappearing again. I tried the soap solution again but it's not working. Is the solution not strong enough? Any suggestion what else I can use to get rid of these pest? Or tell me what kind of pest they are? I did hose it down and most of them got flushed off but not all of them. Ugh! I hate insects!

My Garden After the Rain in the Fall

It's been rainning the last couple of days.  Cloudy and gloomy.  The only thing that cheers me up when I leave my house is looking at my plants.  They just look beautiful after it rains.

 

And it seems like my morning glories are changing colors.  Anyone out there know why it might have changed colors? 

 

 

Well just wanted to share with you an update of my garden.  Hope you guys like it.

Harvesting Zinnia Seeds

Mid-September and my Zinnias are still blooming. They are so pink andpretty. And because of them I still have some color in my garden. I want to tryto harvest the Zinnia seeds this year.

Look at all the Zinnias

I did a little research and here are the steps in harvesting these seeds.

1) You need to locate the dried seed heads from your zinnia plant. If theZinnias in your garden are mixed colors you might want to separate thedifferent seeds so next year you can plant the colors you want. The seed headsare the center of the color. Once dried, they should be brown and most of the petalshave fallen off.

2) You need to test the pod to make sure the seeds are mature. Break apartthe seed head with your fingers and the seeds should fall out easily into yourhands. The seeds should look like little arrow heads.

3) Each seed head will have hundreds of seeds. So collect as many dried seedheads as you wish and share the extras with your friends and family. Placeseeds in a bag or a container to keep them cool a dry. Don't forget to labelwhat you've collected.

4) Around 4-6 weeks before last frost you can start your seeds indoors orsow seeds outside after last frost.

I don't have much seed heads yet. So I'm going to wait for a couple moreweeks and I will then try to harvest them. I will post pictures of the processonce I get to it.

Anyone out there harvest Zinnia seeds before? Are the instructions listedabove accurate? Anything else I should be doing? If there is please let me know!

Seed head here but I don't think it's completely dried yet

 

 

Early Happy Birthday to Me - Orchid and Bromeliad

Since some of my family members are going on vacation soon they all decided to celebrate my birthday a few weeks early.

And my sister got me this. How sweet of her. She also remembers...I've always wanted an Orchid. I've own some in the past but I could never keep them alive. Hopefully now that I have a little more experience with plants I can keep this plant alive longer.

I believe she brought this beautiful container from Whole Foods. They use all moss when planting both the Orchid and Bromeliad. It seems kind of wet when I got it. And it's still very moist 3 days later. Roots please don't rot this time!!!

So anyone out there can give me some advice on how to take care of my new baby?

Orostachys Iwarenge - Chinese Dunce Cap

I brought these succulent at my local nursery this summer. I feel in love with the small blue grey rosettes. I planted this succulent in one of my hypertufa container that I've made. It worked well in the container.

 

Early August I've noticed the middle of the roseletts started to grow outward.

 

These pictures below were taken today. After doing some research I found out this succulent is starting to flower. I believe they will start to turn into pinkish conical spires. These spires can reach up to 6 inches tall. And the flowers will be pink and white. The sad part is that after flowering the plant will die. How upsetting. Hopefully it will self-sow so I will continue to have these beautiful flowers again next year.

 

Anyone else have these succulents?  Do they really come back from seeds the following year?  Please let me know!

Over watering my Bromeliad

I've owned this Bromeliad for over a year now. I was very excited was I saw growing pups (babies). And now with pups I don't know why I choose to over water it now. It seems the plant roots had rotted.  The mother plant and one of the pups had fallen off.

 

Do you think I can save these two plants? One pup is still attached to the roots. I wonder if I could keep this one alive.

 

Anyone out there that have experiences with bromeliads please let me know.

Here are two pups from my other bromeliads that I've harvested. Look how good they are doing. :)

 

 

Another Morning Glories Update

More and more flowers are popping out. And now I have a new color of morning glories blooming. White!!

Enjoy the pictures!

 

 

 

My Succulent Collections

I don't think I've shared with anyone with you my succulent’s collection yet. I'm not a good blogger because again I don't have the names for any other these. It's hard to keep everything in place when I have two little ones running around all day. Once I find these names for these beautiful plants I will post an update.

Some of these photos might have been posted in my older post already but it's still pretty to look at. So enjoy!

Echeveria - Species unknown

Sedum Anglicum Stonecrop Perennial Carpet

Sedum Spectabile "Autumn Joy" - Took a cutting from my sister inlaw's house and planted it in a pot.  Seems like it's rooted and is doing pretty good.

Bottom - Black Prince Echeveria

 

All my succulents are currently in containers.  Some of them are in regular plastic pots.  Some in the Hypertufa pots I've created with my sister.  I've started this collection this year around spring and I've noticed they have grown and spread out.  I just love them.  They are so beautiful!

 

Anyone recongize any of the succulents I have?  If you know any please let me know.  :)