Schlumbergera Flowers amongst some others

I guess Winter doesn't exist anymore... Or he's just dragging his butt this year. It's sort of hard to believe that we're in December and my plants are still alive. The heater was used once thus far when it hit 30 overnight. I left out the two boxes of spider plants and while they got singed, they pretty much continued on.

Anyhow, my schlumbergera (Thanksgiving Cactus) are blooming. Got the red, pink, and Dark Maria going. Normally cold temperatures come and I stick them in the greenhouse with the heater. The plants lose their buds before they have a chance to open. With how warm it's staying, the flowers are coming out to play.

The yellow schlumbergera is always the last to open so this one is still working on opening their flowers.

And of course, randomness like a decaying angel.

And the shadow of a lizard. They're all running rampant still...

Also! Before I forget, as a personal note to myself, I received two new bearded iris bulbs about a week ago and I know come next spring, I'm going to forget and say, "I know it said 'cherub' something!" Instructions said to get them out before first frost so I stuck them in a pot. They looked pretty shriveled up as is so I don't know if they're even alive. Guess I'll find out come next spring.

Bearded Iris Cherub's Smile

Hope everyone else is doing well!

Winter Sowing and Schlumbergera

Pots ready for winter-sowing of the seeds!

I got these four pots ready for winter sowing. Iris (Black Mom/Purple Dad), Iris (Purple Mom/Black Dad), Asiatic Lily, and Clematis. I kept reading over and over that winter sowing was needed for these seeds so I'm just going to have these pots sitting outside all winter long and see if the seeds do pop out come spring. A fun new experience. At the moment, it's the Iris that I can't wait for. I'd love to see those pop up but the others would be fun to see too.

Dark Maria - Schlumbergera

It also turns out that the schlumbergera have started pushing out flower buds. I guess I was a bit surprised because a good chunk of them fell apart or got too much water or it was too hot or... It was a serious pain to keep them happy this year and I have just about given up. Though, it's refreshing to see them try to flower. I know the buds will fall off once the temperatures drop and I have to get the heater running to prevent them from freezing - which always shocks them into dropping their buds, unfortunately.

Pink? Red? Schlumbergera

Schlumbergera Seedlings update & Stapeliad

Stapelia Gigantea bud growing longer...

Schlumbergera Seedlings

I don't like the idea of posting pictures of my schlumbergera seedlings. I guess I'm so discouraged when it comes to them. With the utter total failure of the first pot earlier this year, I've sort of adopted the attitude that as long as I don't develop an attachment, it won't be no skin off my nose when they keep dying. With that in mind, I decided to finally add a smidgen of miracle gro fertilizer to the spray bottle. I figured if this small amount still burns them, oh well. At least I tried.

I can't help but feel some sort of excitement in the back of my mind that there's still a good amount that's still growing. With first leaves popping out of some while random others just keel over... It's survival of the fittest even though I'm trying to find advice online.

I posted on a forum that was meant for growing schlumbergera from seedling. After explaining that my first pot attempt was potting soil and this current attempt is peat moss, I was told that next time I should add perlite and vermiculite to break it up a bit. There's also suggestion of maybe buying a cheap grow light. With how long it's taking these to grow, I'm worried they won't make it in the greenhouse over winter. Maybe I could set up some small grow light in the laundry room and bring the seedlings in to keep them safe. It's something to think about.

Schlumbergera Seedlings

The seeds I planted back on the 21st of March are slowly coming up. They seem to just sort of.... sit there. A couple turned transparent and keeled over. Some seedlings just don't seem to know which way is up. I'm not sure. Oh well. My fingers are crossed that at least one will pull through and grow. It'd be awesome to say that I got a thanksgiving cactus by growing it from seed instead of receiving it as a clipping.

Schlumbergera Seeds

Terrible picture! hehe.

While moving the thanksgiving cactus and christmas cactus out of the greenhouse so that they'd get some rain, I found out that two of the seed pods fell off so I brought both of them in. Unfortunately one of them inexplicably disappeared somehow. I opened the other pod and pulled out the seeds. They look healthy so I figure I'll plant them tomorrow and see what gives..

Camera Fun

Schlumbergera



Clematis



Clematis



Clematis



Sun Plaque

So what am I complaining about, right? ;)

Schlumbergeras

I stepped out today and was greeted with 74 degrees in return. Where'd that come from?! It's been frozen around here for about two weeks. I knew it was going to sprinkle through the night but tons and tons of rain was dumped. Gnats are everywhere which is a bit surprising because I was sure the long-term freeze would've cut them down. Hmm...

The weather must be wreaking havoc anyhow. Tomorrow's high was 71 and now it's at 58. So we'll see how it goes. Anyhow the warm temperature allowed me to open the greenhouse doors and take some plants out to inspect them. While the freeze/heater stressed some of them, they all seem to be doing okay.


The thanksgiving cacti dropped a good chunk of their new fruits, which was disappointing, but some are hanging on. I already wish spring was here so that the plants can get back to thriving instead of tolerating current conditions.

Seed Pods/Berries/What are they called?

Pods of Yellow Thanksgiving Cactus

You know, I pollinated every single flower on the white thanksgiving cactus and not a single one took. I pollinated a couple of the yellow thanksgiving cactus and a good handful of them took. I was surprised.

The others in the greenhouse also have a couple of pods swelling up too. I hope to have many of them growing and producing seeds because I am tired of working with only one pod and the seeds suffer some trauma. I'm ready to have tons of these babies and try to grow SOMETHING from seed! ;)

Schlumbergera seedlings

I wasn't going to post this because they never seem to live. The seed pod/plant that came off, I planted theseeds and every once in a little while, one or two would germinate then die off. So far, this one has hung on and even formed a "V" shape!

I would love for at least one to grow even if the other seeds are dying off.

New Experiences on its way...

One of the things I like to do when it comes to plants are trying new things. I remember a few years back, I grew pineapple plants. I'll have to do a search in my pictures for them.

But new things are happening fast now.




It seems that I finally have Amaryllis growing from seed in the flowerbox. It's been days shy of a month since I planted them and I was feeling discouraged because a wild fern grew awhile back. Oy.

Imagine my excitement to see grass-like plants growing! This'll be exciting!

But it appears I have a new undertaking. Back in December/January, I had a yellow christmas cactus that had three seed pods (fruits?). Two of them fell off a couple months down the road and were no good. The third pod started yellowing/pinking up and I found out today that it had fallen off. I was annoyed but when I cut it open, there seems to be healthy seeds inside.




I'll be picking the seeds out and planting them soon to see if I have any luck with these.

It's kinda neat to take a non-traditional route by planting seeds instead of splitting bulbs or rooting cuttings.

Summer Thoughts

Yellow Lily

You know, as the heat is settling in for the summer, My yearning to garden drops down to 0%. It's weird how it works. When it's winter, I can't wait to get to planting and watching them grow. Now, I find myself groaning as I lug around gallons of water on a daily basis to make sure they stay alive. It's a real pain in the butt to see plants falling over and dying from thirst.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't humid. My friend tells me that it gets up to 105 in Nevada but because there's no humidity, it isn't bad. It only needs to get 80 here before the air smothers you. As I glance to Weather.com, it's 63% humidity here and it hasn't rained in a week. Where is it all coming from? Oh yes, swampy areas nearby. That's where the overwhelming amount of bugs come from too. I know, enough complaining!

Despite a few disagreements, I lugged out the two remaining thanksgiving cacti and put them on the porch where they'll get shade. I think the air conditioning is causing the plants to shrivel up and not grow. They started to grow in spring during that time when neither the heater or AC was being used but now the AC is on almost 24/7 and the plants just aren't thriving. Hopefully being exposed to heat and minimal sunlight outside will get them back on track.

I'm surprised that my other thanksgiving cacti are growing. They're being exposed to sunlight for the same period as the jade plants are and they're doing wonderful. I wonder if they'll bloom when I move them inside for the winter.


Vegetable Garden

The vegetables are kinda growing. There's Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Squash. They're not vining out as much but I suppose that's a good thing. It won't be demanding so much water but we'll see how far long it gets in July or August... or September. From what I remember, Zucchini is on the far left but only because I see a vegetable growing from it. Cucumber may be on the far right. There's two random pots between the three vegetable pots. One has elephant ears and the other has several Amaryllis.


Amaryllis Seed Pods

Speaking of Amaryllis, It's discouraging that out of several attempts, only these two are hanging on. I wonder what causes a pod to be pollinated and then aborted. These two are of the pink/white one.

I could be horribly wrong but I believe the pod on the left was also partially pollinated by the pollen from the red amaryllis. If the pod does mature and give me seeds, I guess I'll know in due time.

The biggest one is starting to approach the size of the ones my friend sent me so at least I'm happy about that. At least two successful pods is better than none.

More Plants

Blood Banana/Musa Zebrina

(Salmon) Thanksgiving Cactus/Schlumbergera Truncata

(White) Thanksgiving Cactus/Schlumbergera Truncata