Pics of my first plants, with some ?'s

First, my Hyacinth. When I brought it home a few weeks ago, it had lovely blooms, which then proceeded to die off. Then, somehow, the stalks ended up broken, probably either the cats or the dogs (It sits on a low window sill where the cats like to jump up). One day I noticed that one of the plants was dying, and I tugged on it, and it came right out! The bottom part was rotted. The container the plants are in is (well, was) a metal bucket. A while ago I noticed the bucket had a lot of water in it (I dont remember watering it that much) which I dumped out. Ive been dumping water out every couple of days. Im thinking someone in the family is watering them (even though Ive told em NOT to!), because I find a lot more water in the bucket than I use to water the plant. So Im just wondering if the plant will be ok if I keep an eye on the water. Will the stalks regrow? Should I prune em off? Should I do anything other than making sure its not overwatered?

Heres my beautiful Norfolk Pine ^_^ I realize the pot is awfully big, I put it in there before I learned that big isnt better >_< I repotted it today in a smaller pot. I hope it does ok cause I read that Norfolk Pines dont like being repotted very much. When I was repotting it, I was removing the extra soil from it, and I noticed the root ball seemed really small. I dont know if Its just cause its a small tree or what. The roots also seemed kind of wrapped up, so I loosened them a bit. I also noticed something else when I was loosening the roots. There was a mass of small grey "balls". I picked one out and squeezed it and liqiud shot out! ewww! I have no idea what those things coulde have been. I dont think they were larvae of any kind. I didnt know if they were good or bad, so I picked out as many as I could without disturbing the tree -too- much, then I repotted it. Also, it had 3 "trunks" (I put that in " " cause the "trunks" are so little! lol), but one died, so I pruned that off as well. I hope it does ok >_< Im not sure if Im helping or harming the plants!

Also, the little bitty pot you see next to the pine is the pot it came in *winces at size difference*

This message was edited Mar 16, 2007 10:56 PM

And this one Im just showing off a bit ^_^ The pic is blurry, but its Catnip thats growing. Only a few of the many seeds I planted have sprouted. One is about an inch tall, and theres another thats only about a centimeter tall *lol* I used regular potting soil. When I was living in CT, I had a pot of Basil (Lemon and Sweet) plants that I planted in regular potting soil, no special additives (food, etc), just water, and they did awsome. I might have to do Basil again :)

I think your hyacinth was being overwatered--it'll probably be happier if you take it out of the bucket, that way even if people in the family water it when they're not supposed to it's less likely to end up getting too much. You will still need to watch the watering frequency, but when you have a plant in a container like that bucket where water can't drain out, it ends up sitting in water and most plants are not going to enjoy that. As far as whether it can be saved...it all depends on how long this has been going on and whether the roots are rotted too badly yet. If they're all the way rotten then there's not much you can do, but if you caught it quickly and fix it right away, it could recover.

I think Ive had it for about 3 weeks (maybe 2 1/2?). I decided to permanently remove it from the bucket today, I just need to put something to catch the excess water under it. The plants are in a pot that was sitting inside the bucket.

Whatever you put it in, make sure that the pot is raised up enough that it's not going to be sitting in water. A lot of the saucers that they sell to go with pots don't raise the plants up very much, so if you put too much water in the plant can still end up sitting in water. So make sure you keep an eye on it after it's been watered and dump out the extra right away. If the roots have started to rot at all, it might also be a good idea to repot it in some fresh soil, then add a bit of hydrogen peroxide to your water the first couple times you water it, that will help to get rid of any fungus that might have gotten a start.

the little grey balls may well have been remains of a timed release fertlizer.(osmocote)
I think you're on the right track with the NI Pine.
Watch out for the cats when they smell the catnip!

Here's the link to Plant Files for your Norfolk Island Pine Tree:

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/31757/index.html

Set your plants in saucers where you can see if water is collecting. ( I use old flea market plates) Also raise the pots off the base of the saucers by putting something under the pot to act as 'feet'....bottle caps, milk jug tops, those decorative flat marbles...anything to put some air between the saucer and the bottom of the pot. This way, if water happens to stand in your saucer, your plants won't get soggy roots.

Thanks everyone for the ideas and info! ^_^

I read somewhere that Norfolk Pines need at least 4 hours of direct sunlight. I get hardly any direct sunlight in my house but have one. When we had our warm spell, I took it outside for about a week in full sun....I saw a noticeable difference in growth. It will do fine inside, but if you want it to grow quickly, try to find a nice, sunny spot.