In the Woods

I ended up taking quite a few photos of the amazing root structure I saw while we were hiking in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I just think it is so amazing how they grow in and over and around each other.  They create such great foot holds for us while we are walking and had an enchanted forest kind of feel to them.  I could just picture a little fairy sitting on the moss.

There had been quite a wind storm.  It is amazing how the trees just twisted.  Look at the inside - wow!!

How amazing is this uprooted tree?  Maybe I've just been in the city too long, but I was really struck by all the beauty on our hike.

The moss was amazing too!!

I mean, how beautiful is nature!!  

I'm Back!!

Well, it has been a little while now hasn't it.  There's been a lot of travels and a lot of busy but now things are settling down, which always brings me back to plants.  Of course I took some photos of some plants and planters that caught my eye along the way :)

I love the lavender in Yakima!

 I thought this was a nice grouping at the entryway to Milbrandt's tasting room.

 The plantings had great texture.

 And color.

 This was a wonderful patio where we had breakfast.  

 The roses were beautiful!

It is nice to get out of the city and see what grows so amazingly in other areas of the country.

Inspiration

Inspiration is elusive these days.  I have a few posts started, but they are technical and boring.  I don't even want to read them.  We have a couple big events coming up and then hopefully I'll be able to get my hands in the dirt again.  Please let me know if you have any questions this spring.  Hopefully our frost free date has passed - hopefully :)  So get out there and get planting!

And Another One Bites the Dust

I had a maiden hair fern for a few years.  It always limped along.  It would start doing really well - seemingly out of no where and then, just as randomly, would start dying off.  Finally, I felt like I was doing well keeping it moist and it was again in a dying off cycle.  

So, I tossed it.  And I realize that I may have had some responsibility in the dying off.  I don't know how well you can tell, but it was pretty much living in mud.  

The number 1 killer of houseplants - OVERWATERING.  Yes, I do it too.  I just wanted my fern to do well.  I wanted it to finally grow big and beautiful, and I overwatered.  Some might say I over-loved :)

The best method for figuring out if your plants need water is to lift up the pot.  Potting soils these days are made of a lot of peat - which gets really light when it is dry.  Granted, wet soil is always going to be heavier, but I think the peat makes it even more pronounced.  So, pick your pot up when you know it has been nice and watered and feel how heavy it is.  Then, before you water again, pick it up and see how heavy it is.  If it still has some heft, wait a day or two and repeat the process.  It is amazing how long you can go sometimes without watering.  When I was working in the greenhouse, I did this with all of our gallon perennials, every day.  Even in a hot greenhouse, they could go several days in a row without being watered.

I know not every pot can be picked up, but once you start getting to know the watering cycles of the rest of your plants, you will start getting a feel for the big guys too.  If you see a little wilt, give it some water.  Most plants - now most, some will act like you are really trying to kill them - can handle some wilt.

Next post - Common Myths about houseplants.

It's amazing how I cant think of anything to write and then I get started and it just keeps rolling.

It never ends :)

I had to make a few adjustments, but I think it was all for the best.  The nice cactus planting I did, well the cats - that angelic twosome - really enjoyed digging in it.  The cactus was on the verge of tipping over and I constantly had sand on the floor.  I actually think I like the redo better

I also took apart the former pony tail palm planting.  It still had the hole in the middle - again thank you to the two sweethearts who reside in our apartment.

I think they look better in their smaller pots.  Speaker of smaller pots.  I've had a cute tea pot I bought awhile ago.  I finally found a use for it.

Last but not least, the ficus I finally trimmed up is doing so well!!  It has leaves and buds and looks happy.  So, I covered its feet and gave it a happy toad.  

Soon it will look like there is grass growing.  Yeah - grass :)  Some day I will have a garden, some day...  

Next on the list - I have some seeds to plant.  I'm going to see what I can grow inside.  I just have to figure out a way to do that and not let the empty looking pot attract kitty paws and angry looks from the hubby.

A Few New Things

I am going to start selling these things soon.  We are running out of room and I just can't stop playing in the dirt!  :)  Here is one I put together last weekend.

I had a couple streptocarpella stems that were starting to root so I added those, a little reindeer moss and a couple cool succulents.  I love how the one on the left looks like Medusa.  

You can't see it too well, but I put a layer of sand down to give some differentiation in color too.  

I also put a few plants in the bedroom.  I took this rabbit foot fern and added some different mosses to the base to make it look more interesting and to help keep it moist.

I am trying to keep more cut flowers in the house.  They make me happy.  These ranunculus are just beautiful and make me a little happier every day when I have to get up.  

I took a mason jar - I think it used to hold the yummy salsa my parents make - cut the stems pretty short and stuck them in.  It was perfect for my night stand.  Aren't they just beautiful!  One of my favorite flowers.  Jon keeps asking - can't you grow these?  I say, yes, if I had a backyard :)  Until then, thank you Whole Foods.

Bundles of evil

You know that really cool potting I did with the pony tail palm and the little plants under it.  Well, a couple little bundles of evil decided they really liked to eat the pony tail palm.  I was ok with it until I came home to puke on my comforter.  So, the pony tail palm had to move.  

It left a hole in my plant that I filled with a couple aloe starts my father in law gave me for Christmas.  I thought I had it fixed - until I came home and found this:

Hmm, it looks like maybe someone laid down in the middle to possible enjoy the sun.  While I appreciate the warmth of a sunny day -THAT'S MY PLANTER!!

Who do you think it was?

Angelic Samantha?

Or the ever sweet and polite Mia?

I'm going with Sam!  

Doesn't she just look guilty?  So, the aloe plants came out and I am looking for a nice cactus or something else prickly to stick in there instead.

Where it all began

I said a week or so ago that I would post some photos of things I've done in the past.  When I was living in Kalamazoo, I found as many ways to practice floral design as possible.  I drove to Grand Rapids to take classes and hi-jacked my boss's holiday party to test my skills.  Here are a few pictures.

I love working with greenery - it smells so amazing.

I love the little present box!  It was easy and yet so cute!

I also took poinsettia roses (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and wrapped them to create a menu accessory.  They could have also been a napkin ring which would have been cool.  On another note, Poinsettias are pretty interesting plants and I would be happy to go on at length if anyone is interested.  :)

It's not a lot, but it was a chance for me to try out a few things while not spending too much of someone else's money that they thought should have been spent on booze.  I think my tastes have matured past this point, but this was also 5 years ago.  

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:

The ficus I pruned and cleaned up a few weeks ago is doing so well!  What a little maintenance can do!  

It is putting out so many new buds and it looks like a ficus again instead of some crazy scraggly half dead tree.

The Bad:

Any gardener, no matter skill set, can fail.  It was my fault.  I let it go too far and wasn't aggressive enough with the treatment, but my gardenia met the trash can yesterday. 

I am working on my photography skills, but I think you can see the leaves and how they all have yellow flecks.  That shows a lazy plant owner.  

And here are the webs.  The white dots are bugs.  Not cool.  I could have saved it.  I could have taken it in the tub and gone through each leaf to make sure the bugs were off.  But I didn't care about it that much.  It was done flowering, I bought it at IKEA, it had no sentimental meaning.  It got dumped.

The Ugly:

I love cyclamen.  I think they are such elegant plants with the flowers delicately floating above the leaves.  But, I almost killed this one.  I let it dry out too much too many times.  I didn't repot it when I got it and left it in the plastic container.  I ignored it.  Again, a lazy plant owner.  But I think it will recover.  It has a few new leaves, I've been paying attention to it and it should be fine.

But it is not pretty at the moment.

so, what's the point of this post?  Don't be lazy!  Your plants will appreciate a little love but if you do mess up, well, it is a plant.  Get another one.

Easy Arrangements

I had an event yesterday - a luncheon for scholarship recipients and the donors of those scholarships.  It is pretty cool to see them interact and is one of our "feel good" events.  Being a luncheon and for a crowd largely consisting of students, we try to make it a little more fun than some of our other events.  

We used a new - to us anyway - florist and I think they got it right.

I took the photo with my blackberry, so the quality isn't great but I think you get the idea.  Another cool thing, the vase is actually cardboard.  

A couple notes on this arrangement.  It is actually really easy to recreate.  Were I a better blogger (or had more hours in the day) I would have gotten these flowers to show how to reproduce it.  But instead you get me typing it.  If I really like you, I might be willing to bring one to you in exchange for praise for my blog and maybe a follower or two :)

So, this is basically just a bunch of daffodils with some tulips stuck in the middle.  If you purchase a bouquet of daffodils, bring them home, snip off the ends and put them in warm water.  You'll see some sappy stuff running out the bottom - this stuff actually kills some other flowers in arrangements, so that's one reason you frequently see daffodils by themselves.  Anyway, take the daffodils after a bit in the warm water and stick them in the vase with cold water.  Do the same with the tulips - snip the ends, warm water, then just randomly stick them into the daffodils.  As you can see from this photo, the tulips are getting all willy nilly in the vase.  They actually keep growing after they are cut so they won't stay all nicely tucked in the daffodils.  I think you should go with the twists and turns they provide - it gives the arrangement a nice carefree look that is perfect for the colors and the season.  

Let me know any questions.  

What's the point?

So, why am I blogging?  Well, it is really a long story, but so as not to bore my newfound blog readers, I'll sum it up here:  For a long time I was pursuing the purchase of a florist, then the economy in Michigan really tanked.  After several amazing years in Chicago, I feel settled and happy and ready to move forward with what has long been a dream.
So, I blog.  I hope that my blog will turn into something more.  I've always seen myself with a little shop where I sell cool house plants and interesting floral arrangements (no leather leaf fern to be found), have classes in the evenings and hold events on the weekends.
I love plants and flowers.  I took classes for a year in horticulture and they were the most enjoyable classes I have ever taken.  I could go on and on about the proper way to prune a tree.  I get excited when I find a new plant or even just a new color.  After a few cocktails, I have been known to go on at length about the plants/flowers in various planters, sidewalk plantings, and gardens that we walk by.  Some people (of course not my loving husband) may walk on a specific side of me so that I do not see said plantings and begin a long discussion that is of very little interest to anyone else.
It is an outlet as I sit in my windowless office and dream of fields of green and the smell of an acre of nemiesia (especially the white ones) first thing in the morning.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Trouble in Paradise

After growing plants for as long as I have and working in a greenhouse, I am pretty good at identifying the normal pests that bug (hehe) your indoor houseplants.  I look at plants pretty carefully before I purchase them, but no matter what you do and how careful you are, bugs still seem to appear.  

I've been pretty lucky lately, but just noticed the other day that I have spider mites on my gardenia.  Spider mites are tiny little guys that live on the underside of your leaves.  You can tell them by the speckling they create on the top side of the leaf as they suck out the sap.  If you turn the leaf over, you can usually see their presence - sometimes you can see some webs, but usually you see little flecks of white. 

Here is a leaf that has been pretty affected.

Compare that to a shiny green leaf from the same plant that didn't have mites, or as many, on the underside.

It is my fault for not seeing them sooner.  I had a suspicion, but waited until it was pretty obvious and the plant is pretty infested.  So, how do you get rid of spider mites?  Well, luckily, it isn't too hard.  Annoying maybe, but not hard.  Since they are so small and aren't actually attached to the plant, you can spray them off.  I took my plant into the bathtub and trained the showerhead on it.  I'll probably have to do it a few times over the next week to make sure I get them all.  It would have been easier if I had a sink with a sprayer or even a backyard and a hose, but the shower should work fine.  Make sure to get the undersides of the leaf since that is where they are hiding.
Again, I will have to keep watching this plant and am keeping it away from the others.  It will need to get rinsed off a few more times over the next few weeks too.  Of course, you can use pesticides, but especially in my  house, I try every other method before I go the chemical route.
While they live up to their name, pests are one of those things you just have to deal with.  Keeping your plants healthy and making sure to take care of problems before they become real issues is the best way to handle it.

Hand Tied Arrangements

I took a class this weekend on hand tied arrangements.  We supposedly learned the Biedermeier style of hand tied arrangements.  A quick look online seems to show Biedermeier as categorized by flowers in concentric circles, which is not really what we learned.  We made an arrangement in our hands, versus in a frog or a grid in a vase.  When finished, you have an hourglass shape to the arrangement and it can actually stand on its own.  I really enjoy floral design and have missed it in my life.  It was fun to clean off some stems and get to decorating again.

You can see the stems here.  I could have cut it much shorter, but like how the stems stick out in an interesting pattern.  I will try to get some photos up of other things I have done.  I was experimenting with floral arrangements quite a bit, especially holiday arrangements. 

Encased in Glass

I have been experimenting with terrariums.  It all started after our poor fish, Fish, had to be flushed.  It was a sad day, and very difficult to pull that lever sending him to fish heaven, also known as the Chicago sewer system.  I now had fish rock, a tank and a castle.  While I wasn't sure another fish was a good idea, I do like to recycle as much as possible.  So, I created a little shrine to Fish.  

With a few seashells I picked up ages ago on spring break in Jamaica, a few succulents and some reindeer moss, I have a nice little seascape.  

An added bonus - while the cats also used Fish's bowl as a watering dish, which I am sure did not at all lead to his untimely demise, they leave these plants alone.  

After my shrine to fish, I decided to look around and see what other containers I had that could be repurposed.  I had this large glass vase that I never knew what to do with.  It makes a great container for this succulent.  I think it will continue to add interest as it grows into the container.  

I also had these glass balls that I had great plans for (haha), but could never find the right location or the right stuff to put in them.  After spending a little time hanging over our bed, I took them down and created three different landscapes.

The first one is a seascape.  I used a few petoskey stones I had collected and a plant my cats kept pulling out of the large succulent planting I did.

 For the second, I used a really colorful air plant.  It didn't need anything else.

For the third, I used a few chicks from my hens and chicks and a cool toad my dad got for me years ago.

Here they are together.  I like that they all have very different feels and yet a sense of unity among them.  I like the fact that these plantings become a shadow box too.

Jon's a big fan of the terrarium.  I think he likes the narrative they create as well as keeping my plants and their dirt enclosed and out of the reach of certain kitties that like to dig things up in the middle of the night.  It is great for an environment like ours with limited space.