Short Attention Span Theater

Somehow this blog tanked in the last few days. My other blog on this server was just fine luckily. While it was totally unusable, I took the opportunity to upgrade to WordPress 2.0.3. Everything is running much smoother now, thank goodness.

I’m getting settled in here rather nicely. I’m ashamed to admit though that I’ve been too busy (and sleeping well on my own) to try Pzizz. It’s just a matter of time before I’ll need it though, so I’ll continue my review then!

Tugger is very happy at his new daycare. I have fun because they have webcams set up so I can watch him play!

My plants are all doing very well, you can check out my plant blog at http://flowerpot.iwritethecode.com.

Not much else going on, I really need to do better about writing over here, but now that I’ve finally got this install working well, it’ll be a lot easier. Before I was practically having to sacrifice a kitten just to post here.

I did it..I created another blog on my domain specifically for my plant posts. I haven’t deleted them from this blog yet, haven’t decided if I will or not. The link to the plant blog is over with the other links and will always be there if you want to jump over. If anything noteworthy happens, I’ll mention it here with a pointer over there.

For now, here:

A Bit of Earth

Oh yeah and since I read an article today about getting comments in your blog - if you’re reading this, say hi! I want to meet people!

I did a little bit of plant work. I took a few cuttings off my ficus trees in hopes of them rooting so I can use them for my first mame bonsai attempts. I also braided up the other ficus a bit further. It doesn’t appear that any of the bark from the initial braid has grafted together, but that’s ok. I really only got about another twist and a half further up from where it was before. That’s ok though. I think it’s enough. I’m going to sign up for the bonsai class at the Conservatory after my next paycheck comes in. Yay!

Oh yeah, my clitoria vine seeds came yesterday. I couldn’t help it, I had to have them!!!

The orchid I bought the other day had a bud that was very close to blooming. It started the slow process yesterday morning. Since I work from home, I was able to watch the process throughout the day. I took pictures every few hours to document it. Unfortunately the lighting in my office isn’t the best, so a few of the pictures taken at night aren’t very bright. I put together a slideshow for your viewing pleasure!

[Orchid Slideshow]

Or to be more specific, Phalaenopsis Bonica. It followed me home, I swear! It has one flower in bloom at the moment, one bud that looks just about ready and 4 other very small buds. I’ve never had an orchid before, I hope it behaves! This is a picture I found on Google, but mine is almost identical.

I finally bought a bamboo stalk. It’s a spiral stalk, about 12 inches and very pretty! Kate and I went to Urban Gardener yesterday and were talking to the owner about various things. She mentioned a bonsai class at the Franklin Park Conservatory, so when I got home, I decided to look into it. There’s one coming up in April - I printed out the registration form. I can’t wait! They’ll give you a tree and tools, it’s a 6 hour class spread out over 3 Wednesdays. That’ll be my birthday gift to myself maybe.

Not much else new in the plant kingdom. I did buy a bottle of SUPERthrive and will use it when I water the plants tonight. The water is sitting out now to let the bad crap evaporate. The avocado still looks happy, though I have no roots yet. I have one seedling in the peat pots, lavender I believe. No seedlings yet in the perlite. I really need a nice warmish day out so I can do some major repotting. And I still need to find a local place that carries “No Damp Off”.

I just filled up a plastic container with peat pots and planted a bunch of things. I’m not overly fond of peat pots, but it’s the best I’ve got at the moment. I’m going to start a project with using only perlite as a growing medium and see how that does. I should do that right now with some of the other seeds from things I just grew, so I can compare growth rates. Anyway, planted: 3 pomegranate seeds, 3 things that I think/hope were African Violet seeds, 3 pots of ornamental pepper seeds, 3 sage and 2 lavender. Now I need to find the heating pad so I can give it bottom heat.

Five minutes later…

Ok I put some pomegranate seeds into the perlite as well as some cactus seeds. I’m curious to see how it works. Perlite is great for seeds because you can see them so well once you’ve set them down, so you don’t overcrowd an area!

I wanted to post a picture of this because I love it, and because I’m testing out something with posting photos. I know I have jade and a few types of lithops/mimicry stones/living stones..not sure what the tall ones are, another form of jade? Not sure about the one in the middle either.

Baby lithops (~3 months post planting)

My book on “mame” Bonsai came today! It’s called Miniature Bonsai, by Herb Gustafson. I can’t wait to read it. These bonsai are so small that they can fit in the palm of your hand!

I haven’t planted any of my new seeds yet. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow while it’s snowing outside.

I think my Alpine Strawberry has pretty much bit the dust. It’s a perfect pot for herbs though, and I have several types, so that’s something I definitely need to get started on. My calceolaria is doing really well, I need to get some good pictures of it soon!

I don’t want to jinx anything, but I just might have a sign of life from the cactus seeds I put down last week!

Ok so I might just keep my gardening stuff here. I started an avocado seed today. I hope I can make it grow, it’s been almost ten years since I’ve had one live. My calceolaria is doing really well. There’s a lot of new growth coming up and lots more blooms which makes me happy. The pink polka dot is reviving nicely as well.

I have a bunch of seeds that I need to get started on. Dwarf pomegranate, purple carrots, japanese maple, toothache plant, several herbs from my cousin and desert rose.

Still waiting on the cactus seeds to germinate…too many things I need to repot as well. No time, no room, no pots!