A new camera!

Well as mentioned in the previous post, I got a new camera. I bought it brand new off of ebay. I have had Sony cameras before all Mavica's, this is the first one I've had with a card, not a floppy disk. I recently bought a Kodak easy Share, it is fine for far away, but I wanted the macro more. An online friend showed us his setup, and I decided I needed a better camera. I got a Song DSC H7.

I also got a set of magro lenses. I am still learning the macro part, but I am really happy with just the camera. A tripod is needed for macros, but I have been pretty successful without.





A few pictures with macro.

A Visit to Grow!

I know it's been a while since I've posted here, life has been long and hard lately. I trust that the Lord will give me some rest soon. Anyway, I have a few posts which I am going to stagger date wise. I will try to get the dates about the right time of the happenings....



You all know if you've read any of my posts how much I love going to Grow in Cambria, CA. It is about my favorite nursery by far. Nick the cactus guy, as my children call him, is a really nice guy and goes out of his way to please his customers.



He is also the President of the local Cactus & Succulent Society. Richard, who works there is also really neat, he makes some of the pottery for the shop. I can't say much about the pottery because my mouth is drooling thinking about some of the beautiful pieces there. hehe Anyway, it is a must stop, if anyone is in the Cambria area.



Our tour begins at the front door. The front garden area is more than one picture can handle, lucky you! This visit, Nick's wife was there to greet me and was kind enough to let me take a few pictures. While my husband sat in the car waiting impatiently.



Usually my husband is forgiving of what I buy, but his eyes glazed once he realized I was coming home with about eight large plants. I think I got an excellent price. He didn't. This visit, I got VIP treatment and got to talk to Nick while he was out of town.




The open sign shows a sense of humor. When closed, it says, "Shut." My usual day for visiting is Mondays, since I can drop DH off at work and do some shopping while in own. I love the feel of the front walkway. It is very inviting, and precludes what wonders are inside perfectly.





To the left of the door, there are all sorts of goodies to be seen. My daughter loves looking at the Lithops. She calls them all "Teds" and "Ted Friends." My eldest son named his first Lithops, "Ted" his baby toes was "Tedville" then there was "Ted City" and "Tedtropolis." When he was younger, he named everything "Rocky." All I could think of was Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa. Imagine a Lion Fish with Stallone's face. Anyway, she took after her big brother in calling them "Teds." Don't get me going on "Grandpa Fish."



A beautiful Euphorb crest and some nice Sansieveria. Sans are about the easiest plants to neglect and thrive on neglect. If you are heavy on the watering Sans, are not for you. One of these days I'm going to buy a few Sans from Nick. One I really want is a club Sans, which I haven't seen for quite a while. Look in the next post for a Sans that is to die for which came from Nick's shop. Nick is also beginning to sell begonias. I know they wouldn't last a wkk in my house. They are pretty, but a complete waste of money. Nick top dresses ever plant which comes in. I really prefer them not to have a dressing, but I guess he sells more that way.




Here is another nice Sans with some of the beautiful pottery as a background. Don't they make you want to drool also? If I ever get into Sans, this would probably be the first plant I'd buy, if it's still there. I'd also buy a nice Richard pot to plant it in. ;) It is a beautiful fan shape. This really appeals to me. some sans I see are just a large mess of leaves with no rhyme or reason to their shape. this one is lovely. I would put it in the shallow pot in the right hand corner of this picture.




Aeonium tabuliforme is huge in it's 10 in pot. I have never seen one so big. It's a lovely plant, which is another thing I'm sure to kill with kindness. The last time I was in he had some smaller plants which were tabling, this one he sold to someone, hopefully it's in a nice shaded spot where it won't burn. My Aeoneums have all sunburned. I'm ashamed to show them to anyone. I finally had to uproot them and I put them in a hanging basket with a few agaves. I hope they do better shaded.




Now for the back area.... I love this area, although I'm not a big pokey fan, I do like to look at all the plants, I'd probably kill within a week of having them. I'll stick to Epiphyllums, Hoyas, and Rhipsalis. That's great, because I could really go bankrupt if I did. This is a really nice Variegated Aeoneum crest. I killed my last one, so I'll leave it for others to grow.





A lovely Aloe which is probably well over 20 years old. This thing is huge, I think it's grown in the ground and holds well during the winter. Nick has an amazing aloe which probably came from this batch, it is in a tree form, which the others like it Nick said are clumping aloes. It sure is a beauty though, one I'd love to have in my collection. No maybe not, I'd probably kill it also.




I love this Pachy crest, it was at the C&SS show and sale. I do hope Nick sold it, I am tempted to take it home with me every time we go to Grow. I love how the waggon wheel accents the Pachy, I think this would make an excellent post card from Grow, hint hint, Nick if you read this!

And one of the ones which came home with me... Epiphyllum "Andromeda" You can see more of the beautiful pottery behind it.

Gotta Love Freecycle

Finally something blog-worthy. I made bank in the last couple of days off of freecycle. Yesterday I got some cuttings off of a large Crassula obovata and a division of a Sansiveria.

Today I got a whole slew of Echeveria, three colonies to be exact. Luckily the soil was sand, so it only took about an hour to pull them all up.


A nice haul, my helpers were wonderful. :) I also got a lovely Pregnant Onion.

Next week I'll be picking up some octopus Agave pups, and maybe a huge hibiscus. This guy was one which had to be left behind, but they still want it removed. So I'm hoping it's still there next week.

Plant Cleaning and Bug Remedies

I thought today I'd give a few recipes for different plant ailments and such. A lot of plants have went to the garden compost because of spider mites. More plants than I ever want to admit to, so let's start there. I was using veggie wash for using on my plants with mites and surprisingly it works wonders. I read the ingredients on the bottle and all it was was lemon juice, baking soda, water, soap, and grapefruit seed extract. Other veggie washes use vinegar, but I am leery of using vinegar because it can kill plants if used too strongly.
I have a friend who recommends tobacco for mites, but it does carry diseases which kills tomatoes, so again I am leery of using it.
So without further adieu a few recipes for mites and aphids.

#1 1 tablespoon lemon juice 10 drops grapefruit seed extract 2 tablespoons low-sodium baking soda 1 cup purified water three drops Tabasco sauce and a few drops of garlic juice
Mix well in a sprayer bottle. Shake before use. Spray plants and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Rinse well.

#2 Combine 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice to 2 Tablespoons of baking soda with 1 cup of water. I put this mixture in a sprayer bottle and keep it under the sink. Spray fruits and veggies and allow them to sit for a few minutes then wipe with a towel. This also makes for a safe cleaner for counters and such.

#3 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 tablespoons baking soda 1 cup water Put this mixture in a sprayer bottle. After spraying, let produce sit for a few minutes. Rinse well.

Now for scale. The best remedy I have found was given to me by a good friend on Garden Web. She says to add about a cap full to a quart sprayer and fill the rest with water, spray liberally and the scale is suffocated. I tried this with none of the burning which alcohol causes. I will include that recipe also since some people do not like the fishy smell.
scale/mealy bug removal:
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol/1-1/2 cup water, put in sprayer and add a couple drops of dish soap and some garlic juice. This works well but use it in a well ventilated area and do not let plant sit in sun. you can spray your plant after everything dries.

I also take plants into the shower and put them on the floor letting my shampoo drip onto the leaves, then rinse. This also helps if your plants get dusty or just need a perk.

Now to fertilizers.
A lot of times I find that my husband leaves half a pot of coffee when he goes to work. A lot of times I dilute this coffee and give it to my plants. It works he same way as peat does, but does not compact the soil as peat added to it does. Tea works in the same concept and a lot of times i will add the coffee grounds and tea bags to my potting mix.

I make my own fert sometimes which consists of 12 oz. of beer, 1/2 cup plain old household ammonia not sudsing or scented, 1 cup Epsom salts, plus 2 cups of water (making a quart or so), mixed and diluted to 1 Tbsp. (1/2 fl. oz.) in a gallon of water used every two weeks. I use this for plants which are yellowing and for my outside succulents. It gives too much of a push to some plants so I don't use it as often as nor as strong as prescribed. The lady who gave me this formula uses it on everything even her Hoyas with great results. I used nonalcoholic beer and it didn't change the carb intake any. Some people use black strap molasses in it also, but I'm leery because of the ant problem I have.

The other fertilizer I use is Eleanors VF-11 which I can't sing praises loud enough for this one. It's not a fertilizer really, but a plant food. Whatever it is it is a wonderful addition to any one's arsenal of plant potions. Well there you have it, a few of the things I use to help make my plants beautiful.

Schlum for the Holidays

More of my schlums have bloomed today. Beach Dancer is by far the most beautiful of all the Schlumbergera hybrids I've seen so far, even more pretty than Christmas Fantasy. Already people are drooling over this picture and asking for trades from her.

Cyber Dancer, not yet opened, but still a beauty. Nicole again, a better picture of her, she promises to put on a good show for the years to come.Thor Alise, The red one with Thor Ritt behind her. Frontal view of Thor Ritt.

My Inheritance

It's been over a year since my grandmother died. I really didn't expect any inheritance from her because she was a missionary pastor's wife and has live day to day most of her life. My uncle had been taking care of all their bills and such and there really wasn't much left for him or my father to inherit all said and done. We kids didn't expect anything because all belonged to my dad and uncle.
I was surprised yesterday when my mom called and said I had received a (very) small check from my uncle for my inheritance. It was just enough to pay a bill or two and get something cheap for the kids for Hanukkah/Christmas. It couldn't have come at a better time since DH has been laid off for a month and I have quit my job working for the evil bird lady. The cupboards have been empty for way too long. To celebrate our good fortune, my children were given a few dollars to buy Hanukkah/Christmas presents at the dollar store and I got an anthurium at the grocery store. Hanukkah/Christmas is still going to be tight, but at least we will have a few little things to give each other. Isn't it a beauty?


Some more plant I've bought from my inheritance, I'd like to say that my Schlums all bloomed for me stupendously this year but to be honest, not one of them bloomed, not even a bud! So I had to rescue a few from various places so I'd feel like celebrating the holidays.This is the first installment of Schlum blooms, with more to come as the days go by.

Beach Dancer, a new one for me, $4 at Trader Joe's. The best price on 4 in pots I've seen this year. I've never seen this one before. I can't wait for the bloom to finally open. Nichole, The photo does not do her justice, she looks like a pink candy cane

Stephanie, an older bloom but the colors are nice

A NOID orange I rescued from Walmart, the stems keep breaking off so I may have to repot the whole lot of them in a smaller container.

and Victoria, a white from OSH. Whites are more likely to turn pink with the cold. The smaller Victoria I bought from Trader Joe's does not have pink buds, so they must have come from different sources.

It really feels like the holidays now. I may share a few with my mom, but then again, she has her own Schlum. She doesn't need any more.

Penduncles!

Well, I was going to chop off some of the stems on my Hoya obovata because I was tired of the stems with no leaves drying and falling off. I decided to take the clippers to them, but what did I find as I was going at a screaming fearful plant with hedge trimmers? It had put out penduncles! I'm told if you cut off stems with penduncles it will cause to plant to not produce any more and go into shock, I prefer flowers to aesthetic vines so I'll leave the dead twigs.

It's amazing how when you tell something you'll murderize it it decides to give you something to hang onto which will completely hijack your plans. Not that I'm not happy to see penguncles, I really am, but it could stop drying from the tip up also.

I really like the sony Mavica with the floppy drive, we've had three of them of different models. My camera had died on me about a year ago, so I bought a new to me one which was an older model. The two I have now are the FD-95 and FD-91. I like the newer model better. I was researching to see if I could find a local Sony repair shop so I could get the 95 model fixed. One of the suggestions was to bang the bottom of the camera on the but of your hand. After a few whaps it started working again. I still need to clean the floppy drive, but I've gotten a few more picures out of it. I am still looking for one that will go click,click,click and not wait a few minutes between pictures. In the mean time this one is just fine.

Thanksgiving was eventful, We went to DH's friends house for dinner. On the way home we stalled because we were out of gas. Luckily we had just enough fumes to get around the corner to buy gas at a whopping $3.55! 18 cents more than across the street, however we didn't want to get stuck while crossing traffic so we paid the ransome to get home and through another day of driving.

Today is my husband's birthday all I can offer him is some coffee, I hope that's enough to satisfy him because we really don't have much of anything else. The Lord is faithful though, so it will play out to HIS advantage.

More on Pots

I have been waiting the last few days for my new orchid pots. I realized I needed some flats to put the pots in. I know Charley's Greenhouse Supply has them, but I didn't want to pay $2 each for something I know I can get at the nursery for free if I sweet talked them. However with no car, I' stuck with online buying. I looked up web flats and couldn't find them, I looked up web flats with little luck. I really needed them, so I went on a search for them. I found them, but I had to buy a case of 50-100 of them, I only need about 10 or so. I finally found them for 87 cents each sold as 1020 web flats. With shipping it comes out to about $1.25 each flat. I also found inserts for the flats, which hold the flats even better and tape plant labels. I'm happy with my findings, I hope they come soon so I can get my cuttings started. For the winter I'm going to get some seedling flats without holes to go in my shelves to protect the floor when I move them all inside.
My Epiphyllum "Elise" is not doing too well. She doesn't like the heat. I had her in a self watering pot and she was doing fine until about 6 weeks ago, then she started yellowing up the stem. I realized she was starting to mush. I re potted her into a two gallon pot, but all the new growth is slowly softening. I'm afraid I might lose her. I am waiting for payment for some cuttings I should of her on eBay. This was two weeks ago. I hope I get payment soon because the cuttings aren't looking too well. My King of Siam looked the same as Eilse a few weeks ago, but has bounced back since re-potting I'm hoping the same will happen to Elise. She's such a good bloomer and repeats her blooming throughout the year. I gave her some B1 root stimulator, hoping she'll recover any root loss from being in the self watering pot trying to escape. Somebody on the epiforums mentioned rooting her plants in Vegemite, we figured it was the B1 in it that was so beneficial. I am experimenting with B1 vitamins in my fertilizer, I bought a bottle of B1 vitamins just to add to my fertilizer. It can't hurt, since B1 is used to help root development. I heard the prenatal vitamins and aspirin helps plants develop also, aspirin did seem to help, but I'm not sure of the multivitamin.
Yesterday was my anniversary. I got a box of chocolate covered mint oreos. Wow, yippee, excellent! Can you feel the sarcasm? I bought a copy of The Holy War by Paul Bunyan and a thermos set for my husband. The boys made dinner, tuna helper and rice, yum, at least they attempted to make something nice. Tonight it's hamburger helper. I'm sick of box mixes, but they're as cheap as we can get. I guess it's going to be another rough year. We still have no car and he's been laid off for two more weeks. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Highway 41 fire when we lost our house. Maybe that's why I've been so soppy lately. I pray that I will get out of this funk and learn whatever lesson I'm supposed to so we can move on.

Sometimes God Whaps You in the Face..

For a couple years now it seems just before we have to pay smog on a car, it breaks down, or if I buy a large plant, our car breaks down. So I've been resorting to buying things online and on Ebay. There is one vendor of epiphyllums on ebay which I've ordered from about 20 times in the last few months. It seems when I'd get one order, it was time to send in a money order for another. This time we've been without a car for about 6 weeks. A friend of ours gave us a car, but then asked for it back. We had it for about a week before having to return it, just long enough to buy a huge hoya at Grow Nursery. I hope we get a car soon, because he called me last week and has an order of epiphyllums waiting for me to pick up. Maybe one day I'll learn.

On Saturday I was lamenting the loss of our car, and not being able to go to town, we live 30 miles from the nearest grocery store, my husband calls me outside in a frantic tizzy. I run, waddle more like it, outside to see what he's all fired up about, then he points to the wall. Right below the porch light was a cross. It was beautiful. I knew God was in control, and even if I didn't like it, he'd make sure we got food. I hope we get a car soon because our washer broke last week and we've been washing by hand. My uncle offered the use of his washer, but although he's sweet and kind, he's really weird.

My uncle has been working on a car my grandfather is giving us. He has been for the last few weeks. Apparently the only thing it needs is a new steering column. I don't know enough about cars to know for sure, but I'd assume it should take about a week max to finish. He's been working on it for a week now. I'm supposed to pick up my 9 year old daughter at the train station today. So I asked him how much longer, he said that my grandfather told him not to worry about it, I don't know what that means, but ok. Last night I went outside to check my plants one last time for the night and I smelled something akin to roses with baby powder. I looked very carefully and my Hoya shepherdii was hiding a few blooms in the recesses of it's pot. Sometimes when things are going rough, God makes sure you find little things that are enjoyable.

I just got a call from my friend's niece, apparently her grandmother died last night and my friend hasn't been told yet. She asked me to call her after she found out. What an ugly affair. I hope my friend's sisters tell her where the funeral will be. This could be her breaking point. I hope not, she loved her grandmother. I pray that God gives her the strength and need to go on.

How It All Began

I have always had a love for nature. When I was little my Great Grandmother had a huge opuntia in her front yard and Naked Lady Amaryllis next to it. Every year she would have one of her sons cut the opuntia half way down, the pads would sit in the yard until somebody decided to throw them over the back fence. Since her property backed up to the creek bed the opuntia cuttings helped prevent animals from getting her chickens. I remember her swinging those chickens by the head to break their neck so that she could boil them into stew. When she died the opuntia was cut down and never seen again. My grandparents got some of the naked lady bulbs, which I now have a few of my own from her bulbs. Since I lived with my mom in one of my grandmother's houses, I couldn't have any of the opuntia.
My grandmother has a mint plant she curses ever planting, and has never let me grow any where I'm at, so I grow my mint in pots. It's not happy, but at least I have some. I would love to release it from it's confinement unit (pot) and let it run free! However I live in one of my grandparents' rentals and must abide by their rules. I have a love for all the plants she hates. I am down to four different mints, but at one time had over 35. I have been collecting opuntias also, and have about 15 different kinds, all in pots, waiting to be release out of their confinement. I may plant their seeds just to see if they will come up.
Another bane to my grandmother is 4 o'clocks. I love these easy to grow plants, they make huge tuberous roots. I have a few dug up that I planted 15 years ago, they have fairly large roots, but I'm thinking I must have got the edge of the group, because, they could be bigger. I want to try making a caudex out of them. It will be fun to see how it works out.
None of those compare to my real love in the plant world, jungle cactus. Epiphyllums are hybrids between epiphytic cactus and land cactus, most don't even have 1/10th epiphyllum in them, but they are called epiphyllums nonetheless. Schlumbergera the Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus started appealing to me, I have 15 of them now. Rhipsalis is a smaller cousin to epies. I fell in love with this plant when I bought about 5 pots of one from the plant shop at Cal Poly SLO a few years ago. I was thinking it looked like a plant I had called Epiphyllum oxypetallum, aka Queen of the Night. Which has enormous white flowers during the night, mine traveled with me from Tennessee to California when we were coming home. It didn't survive the winter.
A local nursery had a plant that looked like my oxy. When I asked about it, it turned out to be "Padre." I bought a cutting. Then I went back and got more and more, until I had a small plant of it.

I found another nursery which had a lot of epies, I bought a few cuttings. I was on my way! One day I was researching epiphyllums to see if I could find another, low and behold I came across a forum just for epiphyllums, so I joined. I was able to expand my collection, I have an epi called "Clarabella", my great grandmother was named Clara Belle. She and her twin sister both got a letter and picture of Ronald Reagan for their 98th birthday. Anyway, I gave a cutting of it to my mom, her plant looks way better than mine and she neglects things until they die, I hope she doesn't kill this plant.
I've lost a bunch of plants this last winter, mostly epies and rhipsalis. So I started again. This spring I remembered the old "Padre" so I went to the nursery with intent on buying it for whatever she'd take. It was frost damaged really bad, She gave me the whole plant for $5! I was able to salvage one cutting off of it. Sad but it was a beautiful plant, but I got some of it anyway. I hope one day Padre will look as beautiful as it did last summer.
Two years ago I found an old picture of an epi my other great grandmother had on her porch. This started another search, I was told this plant could be "Guatemala" an older hybrid. I have searched for this plant for two years. I finally found and bought a cutting on eBay for $25. It came with other cuttings, but this was the crown jewel! I can't wait to get it planted. Last month I got a plant of "Zola" I had been looking for this one for a year, this is just as exciting. I feel that my collection is and could now be complete. I hope so, since I have over 100 different epies, and by the size of the above plant, I am going to need a huge greenhouse to confine them all. Well, that's how it began, I was drawn to cactus by my inability to have some of Grandma's opuntia, other plants because grandma hates them and because I had an amazing bloom about 7 years ago one summer evening.