Ashley, my wife cares for our 3 house plants. We have an Aloe vera, Pussy Ears/Kalanchoe tomentosa, and Crab Cactus/Schlumbergera truncata.
Here's a pic of the Pussy Ears.
Houseplants
Crab Cactus, pic was taken almost 2 wks ago. Some of the blooms were opening this morning.
Crab cactus - we always called it Christmas Cactus, I ahve a very old big one - blooms its head off if you let it sit outside on night that stay in the 40s.
It was given to me as an Easter Cactus, then someone said "no, that's a Christmas Cactus!", then someone said "no, it's a Holiday Cactus!". Well, I'm calling it a Crab Cactus, because it hasn't bloomed on Easter, Christmas or any other holiday and it does have a crabbish look to it.
Got it - mine bloom any time we hav a night in the 40s - I let it sit outside for a few hours and bring it back in - it makes it bloom over and over and over.
Mitch, you are right. This is the plant I was asking about. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53707/
You know I have seen it for sale on Ebay. They are such a nice plant.
Guess what I found today? At lunch I ran to Lowes... cheap houseplants, I had heard a rummor they planced all their plants on sale here sure thing they had. I found prayer plants for .49 cents!! Peace lily for 99 and a red arrow head for .49 cents... So left with 3 plants for under 3 dollars with tax!
I just went to an A&M plant sale today....they had 10'' pots of rosary vine for $10, prayer plants as well, two different colors. I picked up a nice angelwing begonia, pink in the leaves, and a variegated lavender (lost my other one). $8 for the pair. We went actually to look at blackberries but they aren't in yet. Mom wants to get some more, and they are supposed to have gal pots at $5 each.
I love black berries...
That is wonderful for those two plants, what a great find.
Sounds like I need to get off the 'puter and go to Lowe's!
right? They are getting new plants in too - the fresh ones are going to be 3.00 and here will be out today at least.
i'm checking my lowes too--i just love a bargain and just love when someone helps me find one!! a question about the fiscus--i have one that was given to me this summer--it is 35 years old and a tree --it is loosing yellow leaves a lot and of course i just can't take the thought of killing off a 35 year old tree!! but i read that they don't like being moved and that they sometimes do loose yellow leaves in winter---(it was moved from outdoors)---what do you all think?
Yep that they do - they will drop their leaves at a little move... and in winter too.. wait for spring and see what happens.
thanks --i needed some encouragement--i think about how my friend had it all those years and i feel responsible for it --besides loving the way it looks!! she hadn't meant to give it to me--i was to store it in my atrium but she had to get it into a truck and bring it over, my son and husband had to lift it out and pull it through the front door and then thru the atrium door and it just was too much bother to do that each year so she said that my atrium was a better place for it (in the past she would put it in her green house but it got too big)
The ficus will shed leaves in that manner at a change in lighting. When days get shorter it will do that. Mitch is correct, just wait till spring. DD had her ficus loose all leaves she thought it was dead and in the spring moved it to the back yard to dispose of... a week or so later, she walked by and noticed it had totally sprouted new leaves. In spring, I know you will report that all is well! 8 )
Mitch I just looked through the notebook again and I didn't' realize what all was in there....she has clippings on how to re bloom poinsettia's, potted chrysanthemums, christmas begonias, amaryllis, cyclamen & azaleas.....then there are notes and clippings on violets....and some others I didn't look at yet.
Here's a few things in the book anyone is welcome to copy them.
she has written in it to use 1 teaspoon sugar to 1 pint warm water & spray plants that seem to be at a stand still. Use at night never in the morning.
************
Mildew an be controlled by spraying once a week with 1/4 teaspoon of melt able dusting sulphur in a quart of water. This is prayed above the plants & let settle on the plants. Water should be warm
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Soil Mixture for violets
2 parts garden loam
2 parts peat
1 part cow manure
1 tablespoon beon meal (per quart of mixture
4 tablespoons charcoal per quart of mixture
****************
African Violets
Pitch and mealy bugs
cygon 267 or cygon 2E
Use 1/2 tsp to 1 gallon water & a pinch of detergent. Set pots in mixture until soaked.
Use Chlorodane 40% in soil
1 tablespoon to a bushel of soil
1/2 tsp to 1 1/3 gallon soil
1 C lime to a gallon of soil.
What a tresaure - that book is gold pure gold.
Mibus ~ that is truly an heirloom to be treasured. You (and she) will be able to teach us much!
Well remind me come April to bring it along and we can go through the stuff ....I am going ot try and get the rest of the clippings attached in the book so they aren't all loose and easy to lose.
plus there area a couple of lists in the back of flowers she used to have in her beds outside ....iris's with names so I may have to see if I can find them all and make some flower beds with them in it
That would be a very rare bed, I am sure it would be stunning.
mm let's see the list starts out with cascade splendor
Red Torch
Rocket
Vatican
Rose Top?
drool here...
*offers hankie and reminds you this is just a paper list of what she used to have in her yard*
I just have to find where to find the ones on her list then figure out where the heck to put the bed for them.....realizing finding and making all these beds and flowers is gonna take me some time not gonna happen this year unless I play the lottery and win ...LMAO
That is even more precious than a collection of recipes. I've missed the beginning, Phyl.
Where was your grandmother's garden?
Those are some stunning Iris... really stunning Iris
Oh LouC I have both and my mom has the cookbook but I know I will get my hands on it one of these days ...I already have the minutes book and family tree and great grandmothers bible....LOL
My Grandma Tredennick lived in Pontiac Illinois she had stuff around the house and the "beds" were on the south side of the house between some trees if my memory is right..the veggie garden was on the empty lot they owned south of the house with the grapes and gooseberries behind the garage.
I remember one flowering bush? she had on the driveway side it had these huge balls of flowers.....like a big soft ball but covered with flowers...maybe bridal bouquet????
You are one lucky,lucky girl. You also inherited her industriousness.
Once had a neighbor before we moved here that had what she called a "snowball bush". For about 2 weeks in the spring, it was to die for. Rest of the year it was just a shrub with no clue to it's beauty.
Anyone know what it might have been?
yeah well just need to figure out how to put it all to work so I can work only one job and have more time to "play" with plants and gardening and still get the bills paid LOL
I think it may have been a Snowball Hydrangea, they are beautiful I had one too, a long time ago.
ya know snowball rings a bell I bet that was it
Could ya'll talking about snowball viburnums? That's what Melva and I were talking about here. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/806865/ I love them, they're so girly.
I don't think mine were viburnum, but theirs could have been, I looked at the pictures of viburnum and the flowers are almost the same, but the leaves are different. They are both beautiful.
this was a big bush type plant ...I know as a child things seemed bigger then they may have really been but it was covered with Balls made of white flowers
Mibus ~ the strains that grow in the North are larger ~ not just your imagination ~ LOL
ok you say so LOL but it has been well over 27 yrs since I last saw it ...I know g-ma died when my oldest was still small .... I can remember the day but not the date as I was in a park with my then husband and my brother and his wife when I had this really sad empty gut feeling and that night my mom called and told us she had passed that day and the time and that was the exact time I had the feeling...but I remember it from playing in her yard as a kid and it was as tall as me LOL
no problem I've been sitting here for well over 2 hours searching for iris' from the lsit of my g-mas...LOL
yeah it is I have found 2 places that might be of use for finding the ones in her notebook (grandma's) just sent an email to one of them to see if they by chance grow them since they have over two thousand varieties.
squashes...mmm spaghetti squash is good, like to use the pan patty ones in a squash dish I make and the zucchini and summer one that looks like zuch. I like to grill of saute lightly in olive oil with shrooms & asparagus red onions..mmm yummy
A real East Texas person needs to grow cushaw! It is the BEST squash of all!