Propagation efforts and results ( the basics) Dec ,

Succulents, we do grow them in Houston, but not like the dryer areas do. A LOT of my plants survive from the humidity, but the roots when watered turn them to mush. It depends a lot on the plant, and if I can put it above the dew rising areas.
I now have seen a female Sago Palm. Is in Calif next door and about to bloom perhaps, all I have seen are males. No one can tell me if the rumor is true that the smell of the bloom compares to the smell of a death Camas. Sorry, didnt trim my pix down so they are actually sideways.

Wifi cuttin in and out tonite. I cannot get another pic to load

Loretta, Sansevieria should do fine outside there, mine actually are quite old and so rootbound in that pot. Mine has survived many nights in the mid to upper 20's over the years, seem to prefer a partly shaded site, will burn in too much direct sun. Just snatch a piece off those overgrown mall plants and start one. ;-)

Kitt, my brother has a Sago and I've never noticed a smell from the flower when over there, I'll have to ask him about that.

Thanks, sunkissed, I might try. Most of the malls here have ripped out their indoor plantings to make more room for kiosks. That's NJ for you. But I'll keep my eyes open.
The Sago Palm is such a beautiful, graceful plant! It's worth an occasional stinky flower.

Found another down street, no smell, feels like a pine cone, still havin issues with DG and Google slow loadin pix and kickin me out. Oops not edited, no clue on ids here

Kitt, this is one before bloom opens. It does not have any smell.

Are you enjoying your visit? Lovely weather here. Drop on over.

Broccoli and chard in the fish room are doing well. Onion bulbs on kitchen counter not growing. I think I will have to plant them

So many blooms here! This is a really nice type of retirement area. These are for you guys still in the ice and snow...

Thanks for thinking of us Kitt

well California is nice a lot of the year. Temperate. Beautiful blooms

The California I know goes from 130* to freezing snow and Santa Ana winds in brush fires. To desert smog thick enough to see 1 car length in front of you. This place is fortunate to have this weather be nice here.
There's no place like home in Texas.

This message was edited Jan 26, 2018 3:51 PM

I was thinking it was pretty stable near the coast for some reason

Here it is except the nights have been cold. Weather is bouncing temps, but they aren't getting ANY moisture this year at all and Jan is when it should happen. My stepmom loved your pic of the Sago and the update. Now she's watching to see the pink knobs unfold, chuckl.
Here we go, time to run for San Diego...

wow! great photos, from all of you. I actually felt warm for a minute. Sharon, your succulents are beautiful. I do have some kind here that creeps, about four kinds, they do great. My mil up in Buffalo has a huge collection all pot bound and on an outside shelf all summer and then in again for winter. She has me re-pot them if they are breaking the pots. I don't give them a much bigger pot, tho. Sis in law down in SanAntonio killed her Sago Palm, too much water and she kept it inside. The ones I saw outside down there are like trees. I've never seen one bloom! Thanks Kitt for posting that. It got up to 65 today, too windy to enjoy it. I've been helping some seniors ( older than me) out with housekeeping and stuff. Went down to the basement jungle to find my poodle hibiscus blooming, and my stictocardia is budding. I guess I' should take some pics. Kieth I hope you have warmed up a bit. All this crazy weather! Everyone here has the flu. ( not me) Kansas is the "sickest " state they said on the news. I use spray peroxide on everything around here. Stay safe ya' all.

Peroxide or vinegar, either one is a pretty fair disinfectant Debra.

I went out to plant onions but put in a small demo rainwater run off filled pond instead. It's not done but the liner is in.

Tired. Another day

The local tv news I was watching in San Diego had a guy running around germ testing keyboards and phones, chuckl, and he had on rubber gloves and wiped everybodies stuff off. The dog flu is bad, as well, and they tell people they can get that dogs flu and spread the 'cheer' every trip to the park. Most 'bugs' wont live on vinegar, or peroxide, and if its really bad, I see folks with breathing masks in public again, as well. You can also use a weak clorox solution, 1 part clorox to 20 parts water to help kill viruses I think it is, when mopping.
I made it home late tonite, tho the afternoon going east was definitely dark 2 hrs early. I have tomatoes starting to uncurl, but this room is chilly tonite...and I may stick those seeds closer to the light... Later guys, Wavin at ya!

Nice succulents, Kitt, enjoy seeing them.

News says flu bad here in FL too. My doc said vaccine she had wouldn't do me any good against the strain that is out-breaking, so I didn't get it.

I had to dig and find the pic I took of my brother's Sago palm blooming this past May, double blooms, it is a good six foot tall, total sun, only gets rain water.

The Sago and Soap aloe, I didn't get covered a week ago. Cringe,

!!! wow. I bet they had a little cold shock. but they will prolly be alright, Kitt...
well, I woke up with someone's something... that's what I get for going out of the house and into Wichita the other day... *sigh* random photos here ...... this is a bloom of 50 yr old ivy ..

I didn't know ivy bloomed

Neither did I. It's amazing what you can learn here ! LOL

Is that an English ivy? Zone things. I am eyeing my pothos, pitiful pothos after seeing what the stuff does in its own zone. Of course, not every pothos has to survive a kitten.

I have my pothos on a top shelf, little quarter circle corner shelf I built and installed in the bathroom back in 2009 (when my grandkids lived with me), and I potted the pothos that fall and put it in a big pot, with cobbles on top of the dirt to keep cats out and one of those bulb waterers in case I forgot. And it's still there. and huge. There are 2 quarter circle shelves below it but nothing nearby to hop up from and even Tux isn't bothering it

This message was edited Jan 28, 2018 9:48 PM

Hi everyone, shouting out that I am still alive.. that was a whole week of sickness I just lost out of my life. Glad its over, I feel better, and can't wait to start some seeds. It's a bit cold here , still, but the basement is a steady 65. That Ivy was over 50 years old and bloomed all year and was eating our house, so we had to take it down and repaint and reclaim our north side. The sparrows that lived in it are nesting elsewhere and I'm glad they were messy and noisy. Regular english ivy will bloom after a certain age. I started some at the back fence elm tree and it's climbing pretty good now. My mom used to have pothos in her bathroom and she put up cup hooks to let it sit in as she trained it to crawl all over the ceiling.
here is a Think Spring picture. Dame's Rocket.

Good to hèsr that you are still alive Debra. I was beginning to wonder if anyone was. Been pretty quiet on here. Not liking how long it's been since we heard a peep from Ju. Has anyone heard a peep from him on any other threads like maybe Fireside Chat?

Keith, Ju posted on Jan. 31st on the weather thread, probably just hibernating until it gets warmer. ;-)

Debra glad you're feeling better, I've got a bad head cold, four days now, starting cough stage...I hate coughs. That Ivy does bloom the older it gets, but most people hack it back before it gets to that stage.

I have pothos all over my garden, it started from a hanging pot many years ago that broke and fell to the ground. Now that vine grows up my trees, porch screen and well anything it can. I'm always ripping it down. As it climbs trees the leaves get bigger the higher they go. As a teenager back in Calif. I had pothos vine growning all around my bedroom ceiling with hooks too.
A picture of the pothos back in April growing up my oak.

I settle for keeping my pothos in the bathroom. Fortunately we get enough cold here it doesn't take over the great outdoors. Glad everyone is getting better. I haven't caught it yet, my turmeric paste C and zinc helped, had a granddaughter here that actually came down with the flu before my eyes, healthy and chasing chickens to headache fever and wanting her mama in 3 hours. I had mama come and get her, took my vitamins didn't catch

Kieth I am reading here . Great photo's and chat ,
Things being a bit off about here (my place) Bad tires on the front of the car , now replaced , Busted water pipes now replaced , Weather driving everyone crazy , making folks grumpy ( as your weather , I try to stay okay with it , but that is not true of everyone here where I am .

Debra Good to hear the something was not to awful bad ,

1 Cat last week waiting on a bath

Bath, yeah, I suspect as much as Doodle wades in the creek, fishes in his waterbowl, and lays in the sink, I could probably soak him good at least once...tee hee. Sunkissed, its those leaves I see that make me know I don't want the Devils ivy outside. My leaves show temp fluctuation issues, they thin out almost constantly. Thats ok, it was a cutting replant from an office pampered plant. More if needed. Keith, you guys are catching it up there too, hope the plants are doing well.

Have been out of town at my grandsons hockey tournament ever since I posted last. Good to hear everyone here is still surviving all the weather and flu issues.

Everyone is waiting on the Superbowl to finish. Only thing I am doing well at propagating is Doodle, as wide as his gut is, it was about time his eyes got farther apart. He is too heavy to pick up with one hand, its his tail- it appears to be made of lead. He found a leaning trunk today and thinks the squirrels are gonna make good chasing.

Kitty in the sink is so cute, mine don't ever do that, the two older boys can't even jump that high anymore.

Indoor plants just don't work here in FL, the palmetto bugs and ants find them quite comfy homes.

Both DH and I fell asleep watching the Superbowl, I woke up and watched the last five minutes to see the Eagles win.

My little gray kitty, Izzy knocked over a plant stand in the FL room this morning with all my aloe plants on it, chasing an outside squirrel running along the screen. What a mess, pots broken, so need to clean that up, coffee first.

Yuk, that doesn't sound like a very good start to your day Sherri.
The spring start is going to be a little messed up in Oxdrift this year. We have booked a small getaway right at the end of March (only 4 nights)to Laughlin Nevada. It is my brother and sister in law's 6th time going there and they invited us to join them. The resort that we will be staying at has monthly charter flights out of International Falls Minnesota in the winter. I would have been quite happy to go in January or February but I usually fire up my greenhouse around March 15th. I initially declined but Wendy is having a bit of a rough time emotionally right now with her best friend retiring and moving away in May and her boss just having retired last week. She really wanted to go so I melted. Then once we booked my sister and her husband jumped on board as well so it will be a nice family trip.
As you saw from the pictures I posted a couple weeks ago it is going to be tough keeping my coleus in the basement for an extra 2 1/2 weeks. I will also have to hold back on some of the seeding as I want to try to only have 1 of our daughter's come to the house to water once while we are gone. That will be difficult with newly germinated seedlings because they cant be overwatered or they will rot. So I will probably stop seeding about 2 weeks before we leave.
If the weather continues to be as cold as it has been it may be a blessing that I had the brakes put on. LOL.
We used to go to Mexico for 2 weeks every winter from 2000 to 2016 but we were always back by mid February.

my swiss chard seedlings are doing well but Tux the wild kitten developed a taste for broccoli seedlings. Hope to get 4 or 5 out of 24 pots.

Kitt Cute that Doodle in the tree

Enjoy your trip to Nevada, Keith. I have a few besties and if anyone of them moved away I'd be sad, but they're all FL natives so don't think they're going anywhere. I ended up putting the plant stand outside since it is the second time it got knocked over.

I planted some coleus and impatiens seeds direct sowed into pots outdoors last week. I trimmed back a bunch of plants yesterday since it doesn't look like anymore freezing temps coming down here...hopefully. New growth is emerging on some plants so that's whey I go by. It is going to get up to 80 today, will feel like summer.

anyone know when to plant petunia seeds? off to work this morning. have a good day

I guess you don't want my answer on that one Gypsi. Wouldnt mean much in Texas. LOL.

I have a refrigerator Keith. If that helps. I have the seeds. They came from my petunias on the porch. They need to be blooming by April so they don't cook before blooming.

and today I pruned my antique Queen Elizabeth and got 5 beautiful cuttings which I stuck in deep dirt after a dip in rooting powder. Hope it's early enough to get them going, I usually do that in December.

Says seeds go in ground Feb 16 for aboveground plants here, Gypsi. Belowground plants are Feb 6, 7, and March5. Flowers go in either above or below days. Petunias need 10 to 12 weeks from seed before going outside...not my experience seeding petunias


This message was edited Feb 7, 2018 9:53 PM