In the Garden: Propagating Christmas Cactus

Continuing with some garden talk from earlier this week

A few weeks ago, I relocated my mother-in-law’s plants to my house.  She has some low maintenance plants, so with her traveling, you’d think they’d be okay. They still need care, and it only makes sense that the plants live with us since I look after them anyway. I know, I look wary…

Cacti and succulents

A rare pic of myself. (The car is parked.) Good thing I have a station wagon.

And, I gotta say, I’ve never dealt with cacti before, but don’t they look sad? Poor plants…

Propagating Cacti

These guys need some care

After some reading and searches for cactus care, I thought I’d start with the Christmas Cactus (far left in pic above) and Jade (not pictured) since they were already shedding leaf segments. (Probably stunned from the move.) By the way, Christmas Cacti don’t live in the desert… they come from the rainforest. Who knew?

First I learned that the leaflets have to callous over, and they end up shooting out roots looking for water. I left them on a paper towel in some indirect light. With the Jade, an empty stem stuck in the soil started to bud.

Caring for succulents

Jade (above) and Christmas Cactus (below)


Keep reading to see how they turned out!

Monday Morning: chilly

A chilly welcome for autumn around here. Last Saturday night I was going to bed early since I was doing an early morning bike ride… then I thought I should check the morning weather one last time. Uh, good thing I did – frost warning! Holy cow… all the houseplants that were living outdoors all summer long. I didn’t think they would make it. So in my fluffy slippers, nightshirt and husband’s fleece, I scurried around the house pulling them indoors. Haven’t set them back out yet, but glad to report there is a warm up this week. This is what I imagine the plants were saying this morning. You know, if they could talk. Am I supposed to keep them indoors now? Maybe for one more week. We’ll see.

Enjoy the week!

Back to School Teacher Gift Idea

I thought it might be fun to give an apple to my kids’ teachers like Kendra did (guest blogger on Tatertots and Jello), but last year we gave spider plants and they grew with the class (cute play on words that wasn’t intentional). This Fall I added a little flag to usher in the school year. A little card would suffice for your teacher… or even a handmade picture by your student!

Spider plants are so easy to care for. They don’t need much light, and if you forget to water them, they’ll wilt, but won’t die that easily. These were just replanted, so they look a little droopy. But I’m sure in a few days, they’ll start to perk up.

Enjoying the Garden

We finally have a break in the weather. From the heat and humidity, we’re enjoying a preview of autumn with highs in the 60s and lows going into the mid-40s in some areas nearby. We’ll be back in the mid-80s in a few days, but for now, I’m loving the crisp, cool air in the morning and early evenings. Then pair that with the earlier sunsets. Ah, late afternoons in the fall… It’s my favorite time of the day. Ask my husband, he might say, “Yes, my wife loves the sun in her eyes when the sun sets.” It’s all about the lighting and how everything looks to me when there’s that slight tint of peach-orange sunset. I could just drink it up.

The other day, the lighting was just beautiful, and I wanted to capture some colors around and in our garden beds. Enjoy and happy Labor Day!

Gotta Get Outside

I’ve learned from working in construction that there are really only two seasons in Chicago: coming out of winter and going into winter. Sometimes there is an in-between, and that’s when everyone runs outside. We’ve been spending some time outside in our backyard. I’m so excited the plants are coming up after last year’s late season planting especially the brunella (Jack Frost), the garlic and some ferns that were transplanted from Oak Park to a far west suburb and then to our home. You’ll see the ferns have grown a lot in just a few weeks!

(click on the pictures to zoom in)

The shrubs are looking a little lopsided, hopefully after some pruning and warmer temperatures, they’ll bounce back. I’m slightly worried about them. I planted some lettuce and spinach in “the farm”, but I’m afraid it’s late in the season. They’re sprouting now, as of this post, so we’ll see what happens. Saturday, chicken wire was added to help deter the rabbits. I’m looking to add some marigolds soon…along the perimeter of the kitchen garden.

This week is starting out a little damp and cloudy, but by the weekend, I should have some warmth to do more outside. Right now, I have a leak somewhere in the roof to take care of, too. Grrr!

Related Posts with Thumbnails