Why I Oughta...

Earlier this Summer, I moved my Firesticks cactus outdoors onto the back patio to take in the full sun and heat of the summer.  I've done this every season since it was planted in Spring of 2018 .   I showed this succulent just a few days less than a year ago (early August 2023), when it was putting on new growth last season .   When I first moved this out, I kept it in the shade for a while, but now it is taking in the full sun and seeming to respond to being outdoors with new orange-tipped growth (hence the name Firesticks) emerging on all of the tips.  See below for the current state of this succulent: Does this need to get repotted?  Probably.  But, at the same time, it seems to be doing just fine in this small container.  Why change something that is working, right? 

My Staghorn Fern journey started back in March of 2021 with the purchase of a small, potted Staghorn Fern from the orange Big Box store.  As I learned a little bit (or...'got to know') Staghorns, I decided to just leave this one in the plastic container that it came in, but modified to provide for A TON of drainage/airflow with holes all over it. That first Summer, I put it outside and it seemed to thrive .  I brought it inside as the weather turned and put that Fern - along with other houseplants - under a grow light during the Winter.  Two years ago tomorrow (Jan 24, 2022), I posted some photos showing the first real 'Antler-shaped fronds' that the fern had grown .  This was a real milestone as the fern started to *look* like a real Staghorn Fern.  That small series of successes lead me to take on even more with Staghorns. I bought more, mounted some of them.  And...didn't really get the results I wanted.  But, I also gave away a pair of the mounted...

The time has come to bring the houseplants in from outside.  We haven't gotten a frost yet, but I know that the first frost isn't too far away.  I don't move too many plants outside, but there are a few including staghorn ferns, my firesticks cactus , Nat's big fern and my standing Mickey Mouse topiary.  This year, I kept the Creeping Fig Vine topiary on the front porch all Summer.  That meant that it received a tiny bit of morning sun, but was in the shade for the bulk of the day.  It was just six weeks ago that I last posted an update on my Mickey Mouse that showed off a good seasonal growth spurt.  If you go back and look at the photo in this post from early August , you'll note that his hands were (at that time) not covered and that there were a few 'shoots' poking out.   Today?  See the photo below for what Mickey looks like after a full season of outdoor growth: This is 18 months of growth and it is pretty well close to being totally f...

This is now - unofficially - Staghorn Fern Week - on in my garden diary.  This is the third post in as many days about Staghorn Ferns starting with my first post about bringing home a small 4" Staghorn Fern that the kids and I mounted on a pine board .  Then, yesterday I posted a little story about how I found four 6" - and more mature - Staghorn Ferns at Home Depot and decided I was going to make up a few mounted ferns for Valentine's Day this year.  In that first post, I showed a little look into how we (the kids and I) put together the first mounted fern.  Here, below, is a closer look (with more photos) of how I put together one of these larger Staghorn Ferns using the same process.   I started this larger, more mature Staghorn with the same size board, but I used a larger bowl to make a slightly larger circle.  Below, you can see the circle I drew in pencil along with the 1-1/4 narrow-threaded drywall screws that I put around the circumference of...

After experiencing the joy of mounting our first Staghorn Fern on a board that I shared yesterday , I decided that I was going to do another one and give it away as a Valentine's Day present to my Mom.  So, one evening after work last week, I ran out to Home Depot.  Now, we live in a spot where there's a "close" Home Depot.  That's the one I normally go to on most occasions.  It is a normal HD in terms of size and inventory.  But, we also have two other Home Depots that are *pretty* close.  Like a couple of minutes further away - but in different directions.  One of those other Home Depots is one of their MASSIVE stores.  I don't know if you've been in the B I G Home Depots, but some of them are just bigger than others.  And that means that the garden center is usually bigger than most.   Because I KNEW what the inventory was of my "normal" Home Depot was (in terms of Staghorn Ferns), I figured...why not run to the large one.  ...

Sometime in 2021, we bought a couple of prayer plants.  They were on a deep discount sale at Home Depot and as you all know:  I love a deal.  These are formally called Calatheas and are part of the family Marantaceae .  And, they're always listed as one of the houseplants that tolerate 'low light' , but after having this one around for a bit, I've learned a few things.  When we brought this one home - you can see how it currently looks below - it was a more-full plant in a 6" plastic container that had drainage holes in the bottom.  What happened?  Well, the plant struggled.  Brown tips, die-back and curled existing leaves with very little growth.  It was spending most of its time on the screened porch, but like everything else, I brought it in during the cold weather in January.  Below is a look at one of the mature, existing leaves.  These all had brown tips that I trimmed off and have been monitoring them since that haircut....

It was a little bit over a year ago that I posted some photos showing the successful reinvigoration of a wire vine that I had brought in from outside but had suffered some indoor, Winter neglect.  I give it a haircut to get rid of all of the dead/dry vines and it bounced back.  We kept this container in the screened porch almost the entire year - until it was brought inside in early January.  It went upstairs to our extra bedroom - which is where good plants go to die.  This vine was in great shape when it went up and it was, as expected, promptly neglected.  And dried out.  The humidity we have inside the house isn't high enough to provide the ideal environment for most container house plants.  So, I decided to bring it down and try to give it some life.  That meant that I submerged the entire container in a large bowl of water for about 45 minutes to completely saturate the soil and roots.  A day or two later, the dried, brittle fronds ha...