Tag: syngoniums

syngoniums:

It’s 30 Farenheit degrees cooler than yesterday, which is not fun when you have a ton of seedlings in the middle of transitioning to the outdoors. It’ll pass by tomorrow, though, so we can’t complain too much. The amaryllises are putting up scapes left and right; the first to open is ‘Dancing Queen’, pictured here.

syngoniums:

One of the more subtle indications of unnaturalness in the buyout area lies in what is not there. There are many mature trees, and a chaotic mix of grasses and herbaceous plants, but there are no native understory trees and shrubs. It feels curiously empty at eye level. As one approaches the greenbelt itself, however, there is a sudden reappearance of those plants, including a number of red buckeyes (Aesculus pavia), currently in full bloom.

syngoniums:

These planters at the front of the yard also did fairly well, though they’ve accumulated a lot of leaves and other debris. There are empty spaces in the pots left by plants that did succumb over winter, so I’ll be cleaning that junk out to see if any stems or leaves survived.

The big plants are graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’, which is one of the best plants of this kind for my area. It tolerates the summer heat very well and is reliably hardy to at least 25F/-4C, though it will be killed by the coldest freezes we get here in zone 8b. It goes through a variety of color changes over the course of a year, which is particularly dramatic in its crested form. If you have trouble keeping echeveria-type plants alive in your climate, give this one a try.

I’m also pretty pleased with sedum ‘Bertram Anderson’, the dark purple plant in the bottom pic. I’m going to prune it back to try and get it to fill out the pot a bit more. Sedums with less succulent leaves than, say, Sedum adolphii tend to get pretty rough-looking in our summers, but I’m hoping this one can buck that trend.

syngoniums:

We returned home to some new flowers! The mammillarias on the left (Mammillaria spinosissima subs. pilcayensis?) were two of several cacti I got for a dollar each last year. This is the first time they’ve bloomed with me. The one on the right was supposed to be Parodia herteri, but the flowers are not quite right; it could be some other form/cultivar/hybrid of Parodia/Notocactus.

syngoniums:

Another flower from the Glottiphylum. I think it’s time to move it back to part shade; it’s getting quite red and going limp very quickly. It’s a good idea to get in the habit of gently squeezing or poking your succulents, so you learn how they feel in various states of hydration. Well-hydrated plants are firm to the touch. As they dry out, they may start to feel spongy or rubbery, and even shrivel if very dry, but they do not become fragile and retain a tough “skin”. Overwatered plants that are not rotting may stay firm but split open in places, while overwatered and rotting tissue will be soft, easy to damage and leak fluid. Non-woody parts that are dry and tough may be natural corking, scar tissue, or dead tissue that did not undergo wet rot. You can use a blunt object like a chopstick to prod plants that are too spiny or prickly to touch directly.

I also recommend feeling the soil so you can learn to correlate soil moisture to the state of the plant. If a given plant stays firm for a long time in dry soil, for instance, you will know that it is unlikely to appreciate weekly watering. It can give you clues to plant health; if a plant feels underwatered, but the soil is moist, for example, it may have rotten roots or other damage that is preventing it from taking up water.

Bear in mind that unless you are growing in a very controlled environment, a plant’s needs will vary according to variables like temperature and the amount of light it’s getting. Feeling a plant gives you more subtle info about its status than just looking at it does, especially if you’re new to that kind of plant and aren’t sure what it’s meant to look like in your conditions.