Polk Dots Enter Hibernation Mode

This may be the second winter for some of these plants.  I am finding that when the nights get colder and sunlight is fleeting, these plants will bunker down into very dense, low, furry clusters until the winter passes.  Sometimes the long stems from the summer's growth will brown and drop all of its leaves, and sometimes they will hang onto their color and leaves.  However, with this plant, it is so stringy in shape and fickle with its leaves, that it is quite messy.  So, I have decided to prune them back even though some of the stems were still green.

Below is a "before" photo where you can see the stringy-ness of the plants and how much of the green is long since gone.  What you don't see is the pile of wilted leaves and blooms that have drifted into a pile on the floor - such a messy plant!

The stem on the right has a lot of green left on it yet, so I left it on for now.  Additionally I don't think it quite had the furball mass of dense foliage at its base like the others do, so I should probably leave something attached to help it generate energy.

Ugh, this just looks like a gangly mess.  But you can see the short dense furballs at the bottom quite nicely.  I'm not sure why they have almost no green in them, could be just an energy conservation sort of thing for the winter.

Some of the stems had furball growth at the ends.  I am taking this as a sign that I should experiment in propagation.  I'm snipping off some of these ends and setting them in water.  I don't know if they'll take to that strategy of propagation, but we'll find out soon enough.

Here's another furball at the end of a long stem:

...and the after shot!  Like I said, a couple stems were still quite green, so I let them stay to help feed the plant during this draining season.  It looks much better, although that begonia in the middle is driving me nuts.  I think it just hates that stinking plastic pot.  I'll see if I can find something better for it this weekend.

Here's a shot of the three lucky clippings that may one day grow into their own little clusters.

I've set them in a shot glass of tap water, making sure no leaves are in the water and attempting to get as much stem submerged as possible.

Another angle..

I'll check in on these every couple weeks and hopefully will have something good to report soon!

Thinking about making some changes

I tried placing my newer polka dot plant cluster outside for a few days, to give it some extra direct sunlight and hopefully turn those leaves anything but green (or crispy brown!).  It seemed like keeping them outside only helped to dry them out quickly, so I moved them back inside to an East-facing window sill.  Now I'm facing with almost entirely green leaves!  Granted, I pulled all my blinds down to half-way this week because of the blistering sun and high humidity.  But now I'm thinking maybe I'll put these suckers outside again?

What I'd really like to try is just straight up pruning this sucker so it simmers down its growth.  This is the second polka dot plant I have purchased and it seems to be growing in the same manner as my first one, i.e. growing out table and weak rather than short and full.  I may give this one some snips and see what happens!  In a subsequent post of course.

Also, it seems to have been a few months since I attempted my african violet propagation.  As such, I have decided to remove them from their zip-lock shrouds and expose them to the "dry" air (the relative humidity has been in excess of 75% the past few weeks, even with the AC - granted I keep the AC pumping as little as possible!

I'd like to prune back my gerber daisy somehow.  It's on its 3rd bloom (maybe 4th?) since I bought it, so whatever I'm doing seems to be working ok, but it is just getting a little too long and floppy as far as the leaves and bloom stems go.  I'll post a photo of that in a subsequent post.  Just wanted to check in and make my first post of the month!

Weekend Clean Up

When I returned home this weekend I went around to check on my various babes.  It looks like I may have gotten some sprouts out of the gerber daisy seeds I planted last week!

At least I hope that's what the growth is and not some miscellaneous plant that came in from the soil or more likely the rainwater.   I noticed this past week that a few of my pots have fungi growing in them!  I can only imagine the rainwater batch I was using had some spores.  Luckily they don't seem to last long, I think they get fried in the sun.

My original polka dot plant was looking like it need a new pot.  If you recall, that thing got pretty tall last summer/fall then fell into a deep dormant state.  Now it is starting to grow again, so I want the new root system to expand in fresh new soil in a new pot.  And hopefully divide the plant in the process!  So I dug it out of its pot and found quite the massive root ball:

I divided the ball and stems into two chunks, since there are essentially two stems coming out of it.  The one was a little larger than the other, so in the end I used three different sized pots.  The ittiest of bittiest pots is for what appears to be a new stem/baby altogether.  Observe:

In other news, my super ultra dense bajillionth generation wandering jew looks to be doing very well!  

This wandering jew appears to be making a comeback from its leggier, stringier beginnings.  I've placed it outside in what I hope will be enough shade behind this pot of future sunflowers.

You can see I moved my ivy outside, too.  It wasn't doing so well inside for some reason.  Half the leaves on one side were getting droopy.  I'm not sure if it was because I neglected to water it or if its this weird infestation that appears to have covered all the leaves in a cobweb like coating.  I didn't take any detail photos of it before I shook it off and attempted to drench the plant after setting it outside.  I'll have to keep you posted on those developments.  Not sure if it's a good idea, but something tells me putting the plant out in the fresh air and sunshine might help ward off whatever those creepers are.  Or the environmental shock may just put the plant out of its misery!  We shall see.

Aluminum Plant (Pilea cadierei)

I bought these plants probably because they were on sale and definitely because I needed something to fill a new little red container I had just acquired.  Also, I was at a point in my life when I needed something new and fun.  I had never heard of them before or seen them, to my recollection.  I potted them with generic potting soil along with this polka dot plant I got at the same time, September 2013.

While the polka dot plant took off, these two aluminums didn't do so hot.  After I repotted the polka dot plant in its own habitat, since it had gotten too large for this container, I moved the aluminums each to their own pots.

Shortly after this repotting in late fall early winter, I lost one - the leaves turned brown, shriveled and fell off until all I was left with was a stump.  The second lost some leaves in the same way, but I've managed to keep it alive.

April 2014 (you can see some browned tips on all the leaves, I can't figure out what this is from yet):

Here are some stats I found on this rascal.

1.) Propagate: cuttings set in water until roots form.
2.) Water: keep moist during the growing season, let dry out during the winter months.
3.) Light: bright indirect light
4.) Fertilize: standard balanced fertilizer, every 2 weeks in the growing months
5.) Soil: sandy soil mixture