Exploring Succulent Propagation

As you know, I'm interested in propagating plants, especially some of my favorite succulent plants. I have a few plants that are actively reproducing themselves via fallen leaves and through offshoots.

My favorite "Blue Bird" Echeveria has a few little offshoots coming out, and I noticed little plants growing on the diagonal of it's lower base on two sides, where the leaves have fallen off. It was a happy surprise, as this plant is gorgeous and I would love to share it with my succulent collecting friends. I haven't seen this on any of my other plants. Here's a picture of the babies that are growing. Click on it to get a good close up of them.

You can see tiny little plants growing on the side, right? You can also see the little offshoot that is growing on the side too. Below is a bigger picture of it, which you can click to enlarge too. This plant is making it very easy for me to propagate new plants by simply cutting offshoots once they have matured a little more.

Below are some Kalanchoe leaves that are producing new plants. Because this is representative of asexual reproduction, the new plants will be exactly like the original plant. This makes it nice when you want to reproduce a plant that you really love.

Offshoots and taking cuttings from plants represents asexual reproduction too; The plant is basically cloning itself. Only with seeds do you see a change in the DNA of the plant, a new mixing or blending of genetic material/coding that gives you a unique and one-of-a-kind plant, not a clone from it's parent. It's amazing that succulents have come up with a variety of ways to reproduce themselves in order to insure their survival.

In the pot below are the following Kalanchoe common names: "Panda," "Chocolate Soldier," and "Lambs Ear." I found the chocolate soldier leaves laying at the bottom of the pot and they were already cloning themselves, however, I pulled off the Panda Kalanchoe leaf (big leaf on the left)and experimented with it, hoping for a new plant, and boy was I successful! The Lamb's Ear, however, hasn't done anything yet.

You know what's funny though? The Chocolate Soldier is growing as slowly as the original plant. In fact, the growth on the parent plant has been very minimal. The Panda is doing great, and has really only been growing for a short period of time, at least a couple of months less than the Chocolate Soldier. It goes to show you that they are definitely exact copies of their parents, mimicking even the growth patterns of their parents, and subject to the same diseases as the parents also. It's something to keep in mind when choosing plants and methods to propagate.

Kalanchoes are extremely easy to propagate from leaves. I've got all sorts of neat plants growing, some I started myself by pulling off leaves from the plant, and some just reproduced themselves via fallen leaves in their pots. Below are some leaves from Guinevere and Sir Lancelot with little plantlets growing on them. You can click on the picture to get a good closeup of them. I love these two plants (Guinevere and Sir Lancelot). They are growing beautifully, so I'm happy to have more of them. I pulled a leaf off of one and the rest started on their own. They are really beginning to take off!

Here's another nice picture to see how they propagate from leaves:

Here are some Echeverias growing from leaflets. Do you see the little plant with the wrinkled up dry leaf? I found it at the bottom of it's pot. I was happily surprised. I think that might be a tiny little Kalanchoe growing in the back towards the right. I decided to pull another leaf off (on the left) and see what would happen. It seems to be rooting nicely. I'm curious if those are little plants though or roots? Click on the picture to enlarge, so you can see what I mean. There's a lot of roots or plantlets growing on the edge that lies on the soil.

Below are two favorites that I'm propagating via cuttings: Sedum clavatum and "Kiwi" an Aeonium. I cut them from the plant, let them dry a few days and then put them in a pot. I check them here and there by gently pulling at them to see if they are rooted. If the plant gives away easily, I know it hasn't rooted. I wait a few more days and then try again. It's fun to create new plants from ones that you love.
Above is the Sedum clavatum I propagated from cuttings from the mother plant.

Above is the Aeonium "Kiwi" that I propagated via cuttings from the mother plant.

My Weekend Wreath Project

I went to the Dollar Tree in San Fernando. My husband goes all the way out there to pick up flour tortillas at his favorite place. I told him I was hitching a ride along with him, which annoyed him a bit, but he got over it. Hee-hee. Anyway, I picked up some really neat things there. I bought the three wreaths, all for a buck each and then the flower arrangements were a buck each. You couldn't beat the price. I made the orange/red and yellow/white wreaths for $3 and I made the pink wreath for $2. I had the ribbon at home. Cool! I wanted some more permanent colors in my home. I love how my friend has flower wreaths throughout her house, so I'd been thinking about doing this for a while. Here are the other two that I made:


It was a lot of fun. All I used was the wreath, flowers, ribbon and a hot glue gun. Simple and fun!

Still Playing with Flowers!

I played with flowers this weekend! I did a whole bunch of different projects, including creating some wreaths, which I think came out pretty good. Above is a fun little flower arrangement that I put together in shades of lavender, pink and white. I found the little turtle at the 99 Cent store. (My favorite place it seems these days)! I had a fantastic time putting it together.

Here's the plants I chose for this arrangement: Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus), Mexican Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia), and Alyssum (Lobularia maritima). Here's another picture taken in the morning:

I gave up on my strawberries. I was tired of trying to get them to behave and grow right, so I threw them out and decided flowers would be fun!

Above is a close up of the Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) flowers.

Here's another Cosmo in shades of pink, lavender and yellow.

Here's my sweet little turtle. Isn't he cute? For some reason, even with the flowers, he seems like a he. Boys like flowers too, right?

My Little Flower Garden

I needed some color on my balcony to mix up all of the green. I wanted to do a color theme, and I love the color mix I came up with: oranges, yellow, and peachy tones. I need to pot them, but that requires money, which I am low on at the moment, so I'll have to hope they can hang on until the money comes in to buy pots. Would you like to know what I purchased? The following picture will be a closeup, and I'll give you a breakdown below it of what I picked up. But before I do that, do you see the little pot of greens next to the yellow flowers on the left? That's one of my herb pots. I've got basil, parsley and chamomile growing in it and I started it from seeds! I have some indoors too. I clipped some basil for the pizzas we made last night. Nice young leaves that were oh-so-fragrant and tender.

Okay, so starting in the back, the flowers are as goes:

Three each of "#1 Iceland Poppy" in Yellow, Peachy-Pink & Orange Flowers: Scientific name: "Papaver nudicale"

In front from left to right:

"#1 Dwarf Dahlia 'Figaro' Dahlia" - "Dahlia x hybrida" - Yellow flowers
"Daisies" - Red Flowers (I don't have a tag w/this one, so I'll have to look it up)."Gold Coin" - "Asteriscus Maritimus" - Yellow flowers
A nice close up of the peachy-pink poppies with a new bud getting ready to open on the right hand side.

Here's a close up of the Yellow Dahlias and Red Daisies.

And a closeup of the Red Daisies and Gold Coins.

Above is a picture of my orange poppies.

And another picture above of my peach-pink Poppies. They look more pink in this photo, but they do have a "peachy" tone to them in person.

New Patio/Balcony Shade Screen!

I was really busy this weekend. I must be nuts! It was well into the high nineties and I was out on my balcony building a shade screen to protect my plants from sunburn. I think it turned out pretty good though! Bruce suggested that I only build it so high, saving the both of us from balancing precariously from the third floor railing to hang it.

I went to Home Depot early Sunday morning and came back with the following supplies: a roll of shade fabric in a lovely sandy shade, 5 wood supports - 2" x 1" and 3 feet long, metal tacks designed to hook the fabric to wood (a staple gun would have been better), and electrical ties (think that's the name!). I got home and started building. I made myself nuts, sweating and swearing as I scraped my arm, stepped on my hammer and experienced many other mishaps. I had to redo it a couple of times too, which really ticked me off, but there it is, finished. Yes, it could be better, but my husband is really proud of me. He called me from downstairs especially to tell me how good it looked. He was really impressed and I did it all myself, except for having someone hold one end, so it wouldn't fall over the side of the balcony while I tied it. It comes up about three feet from the balcony ledge. I love having privacy while I play with my plants. Here's another picture, and I'll try to add an evening picture later. The flower lights look really cool against the shade screen at night. They sort of glow.

Fly Tape and the Gnat Problem

I've got a real big gnat problem, inside and out. I'm trying a couple of things. The first was a brand of insecticidal soap spray from Schultz, which is not working and the second is good, old-fashioned fly-tape, which I picked up at the 99 cent store. I got four rolls for 99 cents, a great bargain! I was told about using tape at the California Cactus Center, but I wasn't sure about it. Within about an half-an hour I had all those gnats stuck at the top. Needless to say, I was shocked. I have one hanging by my tomato plants, which have a really bad infestation. I have to say that though that my tomatoes aren't doing so good generally anyway. I have some little caterpillar eating up all my plants. Darn caterpillar! At least you can pick them off fairly easy though. Still they ate a bunch of leaves before I caught on to them. Anyway, back to the gnats: I'm hoping the tape will eliminate a few of them from laying more eggs! Imagine all those babies!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Boy have I been busy with the garden, amongst other things. I came down with a really bad sinus infection, after a bout with the flu, plus Micaela had her VMA competition for her middle school at Disneyland and Fullerton, which kept me hugely busy! Anyway, my fellow friend and blogger Julie asked where I was and I figured I better get busy. (Thanks Julie for asking about me! :O)) ).

Okay, so I've been increasing my garden like a crazy woman, even adding some strawberry plants, herbs, lettuce and tomatoes. It's so exciting. I'm having so much fun digging in the dirt that I've neglected my blog. I thought I'd get back into things by adding pictures of ALL my plants. I've got a ton, so now you get to witness my plant addiction problem. Here goes (click on the pics for closeups):

Here's a picture of the garden on the left hand side of my balcony. We have two balconies that have their own sliding doors. Below us, (we're on the third floor), is a two bedroom on the left and a one bedroom on the right, which gives you an idea of how big our apartment is. The apartments below each have a balcony lined up under and below us. Anyway, click on the pic for a bigger look at all that's going on. We've got my salad bowl hanging on the left with the pink flowers. I planted the lettuce seeds about a week and half ago, and the other bowl with the orange flowers has herbs. Those are strawberry plants on the center table and closest in the pic are some great cactus that I found at the 99 cent store. I kept meaning to blog about them, but I'd get busy. I got some great flowers from them recently. I'll post some individual pictures later on. That's a rather "weedy" bushy lavender plant to the right of the cactus and a stapelia between the two. I love my stapelia. It's growing beautifully!

In the picture above you see a recent find! I was so thrilled when I came across these big, lush Cotleydon tomentosas, fondly known as "Bear Paws." I bought two plants and put them in a nice big pot to encourage them to grow even more. I loved planting these yesterday, 'cause they are so soft and velvety feeling. I made my hubby and everyone come over and stroke them. I love my Bear Paws. Do you like the green frog? I picked this cutey up at the 99 cent store! I bought one for my Mom for Mother's Day. She is a bigtime frog collector! She's going to love it I think.

Here's my indoor collection of succulents. I do have some others scattered about in my house, but here's where I store the majority. There's lots going on here. I took some close ups to show you. I haven't got all the names, but I'm going through an Echeveria addiction right now. I'm very picky, but I've selected some real good specimens.

Here's a table filled with Echeverias and Cotyledon tomentosas. I have two Perle Von Nurnbergs. One is supposed to be a gift, but I'm not sure I can part with it. It's the lower left hand corner purplish-green plant. It's such a nice specimen, that I might have to hold on to it and put together another gift for my hubbies co-worker. Then there's my gorgeous "Blue Bird" Echeveria who is still developing flower buds on it's ever-growing stems. You can see it in the center on the table.
And above are some herbs I've grown from seeds. From left to right you see parsley, basil (which grows rapidly), and chamomile They're really coming along and are actually growing better in my window sill than the ones I'm growing in a pot outside! Here's a nice closeup of the plants on the table. Lots going on here too. I love, love, love my blue-green sedum clavatum that's sitting in the front, second from the right by the Perle Von Nurnberg. It's my favorite and it finally took off! I learned from trial and error that it likes to be watered more often. I'm really beginning to get to know my plants and their unique needs, which is giving me much better results. Once it got warm and I started watering it more, it really began to produce for me. I even took some cuttings off this plant and I am trying to root them.

My Creeping Charlie cuttings that my Mom rooted for me are growing marvelously. I'm so pleased with the fact that they finally took off. They were really struggling, so I cut them back tremendously and between that and the warmer weather, they are doing much better. They are in the big blue-green ceramic pot.

Here's some more plants "stashed" under my table, 'cause I'm running out of room. It includes a conophytum, split-rock and a couple of lithops "hiding" amongst the rocks. I don't have all the technical names of the other two, but please forgive me, as this is a long post. Please write me if you want the names.

Here's another cutting from my Mom's plant. It's doing so good! I finally planted it, but I think the pot is just tad bit small for the plant.

Here's another new find, a real beauty that I had to have. It's called a Pachyphytum "Blue Haze." I got a tiny one to ship to my Mom for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, this guy came with some friends, some aphids. At this point they're not so bad, so I'm just hand picking them off. Still it's a beaut and you can reproduce it easily from leaf cuttings which I'm preparing to do.

Okay, I know I have the name of this Echeveria some where, but I'm not sure where I put it. It's inside, by my balcony window and seems to be doing real good there.

Here's a neato Sempervivum tectorum "Houseleek," that I picked up recently and it is doing great growing by the balcony sliding door.

I loved my Creeping Charlies so much that I got from my Mom that I picked some up at the 99 cent store and put them on my piano.

Here's some more things I've got growing amongst our rock museum. (Yes, we're nerds and my daughter Chloe and I have a rock museum that includes magnifying glasses and books). Hee-hee...! Dig our 70s wood paneling!

We're back outside on the left hand side balcony. Here's the mad-scientist-botanist-horticulturist's, (call me what you will), outdoor laboratory! Here's is where I start new plants and hope for some great success. I've got leaves budding and cuttings rooting, and there's five little beauties on the right hand side that are going to be shipped off to Mommy for Mother's Day.

Here's my Ruby Slippers Daisy-like flowers that I just had to have. I think they actually are a breed of daisies, at least that's what they told me at Home Depot. Aren't the colors beautiful?

There's a few things growing here, but I will talk to you about my tomato plants. I'm growing them organically and attempting "companion planting" where you plant them along with beneficial plants that protect them from certain bugs/diseases. These Celebrity and Better Boys tomato plants have been planted with Marigolds and basil seeds, which are just starting to germinate.

In the pot on the left are Morning Glory plants that I started from seed and in the terracotta plant 2nd from the left is the herb pot that I told you wasn't growing as good as the ones inside. It contains parsley, basil and chamomile.

And finally, here's my last tomato plant on hubbies side of the balcony called a "Big Rainbow Tomato." It's a nifty looking orange-red swirled tomato, that I hope will taste yummy, although I've read it's quite mild in flavor, AFTER buying it, of course!

I've got lots of seedlings going and it's keeping me so busy, but I love my garden. I need to post more specifics, but this is a good jump start on what's happening in my world of plants!