So far, propagations haven’t been my best results, but as always, this takes practice. For some plants compared to others, this method of making new plants, through the leaf cuttings of a bigger plant, often should work, if you do things right.
With the coleus plants, this has never failed me, and I’ve used water propagations to make this work. It is possible to use soil propagations, which have also worked with my coleus plants, but it hasn’t really worked for me with other plants, such as any of my carnivorous plants.
It’s been hit or miss, for most of my efforts with carnivorous plants, especially for my venus fly traps; none of which has shown a successful propagation for me just yet. The sundews haven’t been so successful either, until recently.
I’ve went through putting some remaining leaf propagations, and this of course requires three things, besides the leaf cuttings: a small container with a lid, distilled water (which may need to be refreshed every now and again), and some patience. It’s also best to have them under some adequate light source, to aid in making the propagations happen a bit faster. Often it takes well into a month before seeing any results.
What I did was take a cutting from a cape sundew, and it has to be a healthy leaf for it to work. Then, I placed it into distilled water, and then just wait. If I check back and see any murkiness, then it’s time to change the water. After a while, should there be anything different, such as seeing a little something on the leaf or leaves that wasn’t there before, that’s a good sign. Now, it’s a matter of how long do I leave it, before I bring it out to transfer into a plant pot. I’ll have to do a bit more research, to figure that out for myself.
What’s interesting about sundews, they can propagate in many different ways, which makes them easy to replicate and multiply. It can happen with growing flower stalks and begin flowering. These flowers self-pollinate, which means it doesn’t need to mix with other flowers, through standard pollination, either by insects or by hand. This will create the seeds, and all that’s needed is to collect them, or to let them spread out on their own. Sundews can also replicate new sundews through the flower stalks, which helps. I haven’t seen this work, but I’ll definitely try it sometime.
To add to this, some sundews have been known for multiplying on their own, where under an existing sundew, will appear a smaller one. I’ve seen this with my spoon-leaved sundews, on several occasions.
So, just know that if there are successful periods of growth, you’ll experience the likelihood of continuous sundew growth and replication, for some time. The propagations will only aid in making this result happen even more. You just need the right conditions, and you’ll be good.
Most of us have seen plants flower, and it can be quite exciting, especially if you don’t see this very often, or haven’t seen this before. We should think of plants flowering, as both a good thing, and a bad thing. I will explain why this is.
You have many varieties of plants that do flower, and some that don’t. However, when you do see a plant flower, in your home, it often means you are doing something to aid in making the plant reach this goal. In some instances, it can be on purpose, versus, unintentionally. If you have a grow light, which can aid in making plants flower quite easy and fast, you will see this happen very fast. For some plants, like carnivorous plants for example, look at the venus fly trap, when the plant flowers, it will result in something both good and bad.
The good first. What’s good about seeing a VFT flower, is that you will see a different phase that this plant will experience. It takes a bit for the flower stalk to form, and that results in the next section, the bad. The bad, is that when you allow the flower stalk to grow, and depending on how you are growing your VFT, it can grow very tall, or maybe a few inches tall; 2 to 3 inches tall. It doesn’t take much, but allowing the flower stalk to grow, will take away from the traps growing, especially to full size. In some instances, the traps will stop growing, or slow down significantly, until the flower stalk is removed.
Although I did discuss most of this in the previous journal, the emphasis here, is more about the use of grow lights to speed up the process. Under other conditions, natural without such use of grow lights, this will not occur as fast, unless they are by a sunny window sill, or getting enough sun light nearest to whatever window is bringing in that sunlight. In order to have the VFT grow traps properly, you need to cut the flower stalk, but also remember, if you have a grow light, refrain from using the setting that leads to pushing flowers in plants like these. Now, it’s not to say that you can’t use the flower stalk for propagation, which you can. I haven’t been successful with this – yet, but when I am, I’ll discuss it here.
Can I say this about other carnivorous plants? Maybe. I have sundews that have this same issue, but in a slightly different set of results. The sundews I have that are flowering right now, are of the drosera spatulata variety – the spoon-leaved sundews. These I have separated in several pots, and what I see currently, for these, are most of them pushing flower stalks. Some are continuously growing, while the leaves aren’t developing dew, or are developing dew at a very slow rate. For many of the sundew plants, when the leaves develop dew, the stems holding the dew will change to a reddish color with the dew staying clear looking more like water droplets; not all of them are this way, but I’ll explain what I mean.
There are other types of sundews, like the cape sundews, where they have some that do the same as the others, while there are some species that don’t change from green to red. The dew will be the same where they appear similar to water droplets. I have the white form cape sundew, where its leaves stay green, and the stems holding the dew, stays white. The typical cape sundew, the stems will turn red around the leaves that stay green. Now, I haven’t seen the cape sundews create flowers just yet, but when I do, I’ll discuss it here.
THIS JUST IN: My cape sundews are starting to push flower stalks. It’s curly at first, but it’s likely to stretch out and show something. In its curled state, I’m still seeing some beginnings to a flower developing, so it looks like it’s going to flower on both of my capes.
Point is, the sundews may slow down their dew production, when pushing flower stalks. Some are capable of both, while others, not so much.
We also have this issue more with pitcher plants, but I haven’t seen this for myself; not yet anyway. This does not just affect the growth of pitchers, but also the development of digestive fluid in existing pitchers. When I see this, I’ll discuss what I find here.
Having flowers grow, is often a trade-off of producing dew, or traps, which can be bad on the surface. Removing the stalks can be a quick enough fix, so that we can see the plants grow like they normally would. It’s even better for propagation, if it’s possible. VFT flower stalks are good for propagation, whereas sundew or pitcher plant flower stalks may not be. This isn’t about propagation, so I’ll move on.
For some other types of plants, non-carnivorous, you may not see this problem. I haven’t come across plants other than carnivorous ones that I’ve encountered with this problem. My coleus plants seem to be just fine, and I don’t feed them anything like fertilizer either. I’ve had some tropical plants or those that are in that setting, which is my big terrarium, “the tank”, where this isn’t the case. As stated, this may be an issue with the carnivorous plants making their ability to capture prey, being compromised from producing flowers. Since I haven’t see this with other types of plants, that I know of, it’s not really a trade-off in the same way it would be for carnivorous plants.
This isn’t a simple topic for me to discuss, because it doesn’t always come around for all plants; or at least not for all or even most of the plants that I have or had, that I have owned to some extent.
For the most part, with natural sunlight, and clean water (obviously), plants can eventually grow long enough and eventually, they can grow and produce flowers. Given the right media for the plants to grow in, along with the water and sunlight, this can happen, naturally, over time. It’s often different for most plants, and depending on weather conditions, you will see this happen eventually. However, if they are indoors, then it may take longer. Of course, with the advent of using grow lights, of all varieties, you can advance this result much sooner, and not simply during the standard blooming seasons. For most plants, that is usually spring and summer.
For some of the plants that I have, they don’t flower at all. This doesn’t mean that your plants’ growth isn’t a success; that success can be something other than flowering. It can be large growth, and enough growth to show that the plants are happy and content to keep on growing. That’s fine. If you have a plant that you get in a small pot, that eventually is repotted, and grows to maybe close to five or to ten times its original size, and is also healthy, I think it’s safe to say, it’s a success.
For other plants, this can happen, and flowers can also appear and bloom. Many flowers that bloom, won’t stay around for very long. They are very nice to look at, and often in the best or most ideal of conditions, the flowers may last for a few days to a week; maybe longer depending on the plant. If it continues to bloom, almost non-stop blooming for some plant varieties, once a flower goes the distance, and eventually withers and/or falls off of the plant, it often is replaced with another flower, nearest or in the same point.
I’ve seen this personally with a few plants. One of them was a plant I had for the spring and summer of 2023, the kawaii soiree catharanthus, the white peppermint variety. This plant I bought randomly, and it was already flowering. After I repotted it, it didn’t bloom that much, but after enough time passed, some days it would bloom to see flowers increase. I bought the plant with maybe three or four flowers. I’ve seen it consistently blooming to replace flowers at a near record pace. At some points, it would bloom as many as seven, eight, or nine flowers at once. I’ll admit, the environment wasn’t ideal, but it was okay, but because of the grow lights, that was enough to make this happen.
I did mention earlier, that grow lights can influence flowering in plants, and for some, settings may or may not matter. For the white peppermint, this was made apparent, with the grow light bulb setup, in a window that wasn’t facing direct sunlight.
I had something similar to some extent, with another plant, which I salvaged off of another plant, and eventually it grew larger, and large enough to push flowers now. It’s been doing this, since I placed it in, “the tank”. The humidity, and the grow lights, helped speed up this result. I’ve seen this happen, after a few months, and it’s happening even more recently. It’s not just the fact that it’s flowering, but it’s also growing tall, to the point where it’s touching the top of the fish tank.
Of course, with sundews I’ve had in the past, and currently, the spoon-leaved variety, referenced as drosera spatulata, flower stalks will appear during its blooming season, which is often summertime. Getting direct sunlight will induce this, no matter where they are set to grow.
To add to this, I’ve had other spoon-leaved sundews, but under grow lights. I’ve had them well beyond their blooming season, but because they are under grow lights, certain settings under these lights, will induce flowering. For these plants, they will produce flower stalks prior to seeing actual flowers.
The one thing we know about most (if not all) carnivorous plants, flowers are produced away from the plants, so that they are well above the plant leaves, that capture their prey. This is true for sundews, and VFTs. Yes, even pitcher plants, nepenthes and sarracenias, may do this, although I haven’t yet seen this personally, but there’s still time.
Unfortunately, for carnivorous plants, there needs to be something sacrificed, when they produce flowers, or severely compromised. Most of its energy is often focused on traps, or creating dew or fluid to capture and digest their prey. Once the flower stalk comes, then most of the energy is transferred to growing the stalks, and then the flower after it blooms. This slows down everything else, and it doesn’t always lead to the plant’s demise, but it will take longer for the main priorities to focus on capturing and consuming prey, because of the energy distribution.
This can be remedied, by allowing the flower stalk to grow maybe an inch or more, then cutting the stalk closest to the base of the plant, then you can either propagate it, or dispose of it. Successful propagation of this, I haven’t had this occur just yet; but when I do, I’ll discuss it in another journal. After cutting the flower stalk, the main priorities of the carnivorous plants can be focused on again, where the energy isn’t spent on growing flowers anymore.
(NOTE: This is mostly for the VFTs and sundews; the results may vary for other carnivorous plants.)
Other plants that have flowered quite well, are my coleus plants, where this took quite some time, because I didn’t have them under grow lights of any kind. It was direct sunlight only. This plant, which started out as two small plants. Now, as a result of propagations to produce many more additions, and repotting, eventually, this resulted in massive growth, and eventually, some flowers. These are my indoor window plants.
Understand, that most plants that can flower, will flower. Not all plant species can flower, but for the ones that do, it’s somewhat satisfying. Not all of the plants that flower will produced the best looking flowers. However, the job of those flowers, are often to attract insects that will aid in pollenating them. Just know that if you have an open window, and you all of a sudden have a problem with flies, bees, or even butterflies in your home, this is often why that is. If you have carnivorous plants, that problem can be solved, when those same bugs, end up becoming their meal; but I digress.
It’s safe to say that when you do see these plants flower, it can be satisfying to see them, but it can also show your success in growing them, to get them to this point, both naturally, and artificially.
There’s a good variety of plants that I care for, and it’s not easy, but it is fun and a great learning experience. I say this because not all of them can be cared for the same way, outside of sunlight (or grow lights) and water, and even that’s being somewhat general. I have a good set of carnivorous plants, and let’s say, depending on where you get them from, they can be expensive, but if you know how to care for them, it’s a worthwhile investment.
Here’s a list of those that I have, and the difficulties that come with caring for them. For one thing, regular (tap) water is often a no-go for most (if not all) carnivorous plants. Instead, by default, use either distilled water, rain water, or reverse osmosis water.
The most common carnivorous plant that most of us know about is the venus fly trap, and in many cases, it can be not as easy to care for. Why is it tough? It’s not the humidity, generally speaking. It often does have issues of consumption of bugs, and dormancy due to cold weather exposure. Now, venus fly traps, or VFTs for short, can survive without eating bugs, and get good sun and hydration through clean and pure water alone (see previous paragraph). One thing about VFTs, is that they cannot eat too many bugs at once, or it will begin to struggle. This is why you are often recommended to not feed the traps, either with bugs, live, dead or freeze dried, all at once, but rather one or two at a time. The nutrients will increase a spike in growth potential, and lead to new traps surfacing, while the old traps will eventually die out, which is normal.
When it’s not normal, is when all of the traps, start to begin turning yellow, black or brown. That means something is not working right. If it’s yellow, it is leading to the leaf and trap it’s attached to, begin to die or is struggling. When all or most of the traps are shut due to eating bugs, it will be overworked, and some leaves will need to be cut, to reduce the work it’s doing. The ones to cut, should be the ones that are clearly the most yellow, black or brown, so that it relieves the VFT from all that work.
Not long after that, you should start to see some new traps growing. It should be maybe a week or two, before the traps should be fed again (ideally). It’s not always the case, so if you have issues with bugs, keep a close eye on the VFT, so that it does not get overwhelmed, and potentially ends up dying.
What also makes it tough to grow VFTs, is the likelihood of them going into shock, when changing environments. They need to acclimate slowly. When I say slowly, I mean weeks to a month, if you choose to repot; and I’m not referring to first arrival to potting, I’m referring to repotting, from one environment to the next. I mean a closed terrarium setting, to standard potting. The reasons revolve around the humidity changes, which may be too much for the VFT to adjust to, so it needs to go very slow in acclimation. This is true for pretty much all carnivorous plants that have this type of issue, because many are often best in humid or tropical climates, but if they are in a lower or moderate humidity situation, then they can still be okay. The problem comes where it goes back and fourth, usually when it’s from tropical to moderate or lower, it can result in these plants going into shock, and end up perishing as a result.
For most people that have VFTs, it’s often unlikely to have them for longer than a year. I’ve yet to have one to live that long, and I’ve owned overall at least between four and six, maybe more. Currently, I may have three, with one with a bit of rehabilitation, so if that doesn’t work, then the number will be two.
VFTs aren’t first ones I’ve been introduced to. However, I tried to get a few different ones, along with sundews, and nepenthes pitcher plants. I made the effort to get these all at once, but it was in the winter season, where most were supposed to go into dormancy. This didn’t lead them living that long at all.
Believe it or not, the nepenthes pitcher plants are the first ones I was able to get. The ones I got first, were the hanging pitchers, with the long basil shoots. Most cases, the pitchers can grow to about two to three inches to full size. There can be smaller traps, but that may be because of something that may be lacking, such as the humidity. More humidity will aid in getting bigger traps, and also feeding the traps will also lead to bigger overall growth of the plants.
These plants can survive without making traps, and I had one particular pitcher plant that stopped making traps for well over a year, and I even propagated some from the original one that I have. Maybe around a year and a half later, some very small traps began to form. Since then I did buy one more, and after a while, I separated the plants, which led to me having two new pitcher plants, along with the ones I have prior to these new ones. I do have a smaller variety of pitcher plant, and since I recently got this one in mid October of 2023, it will be a bit before I can say what will happen. I do know this much. I’ve used sphagnum moss to plant them in, and it’s worked well for most of my carnivorous plants. I have another plant that’s referred to as a pitcher plant, called the sarracenia. These are quite different, and I’ve had at least two, for at least a couple of months. They seem to be growing quite well. Every so often, I will manually feed a freeze dried mealworm to a pitcher, to aid in advancing their growth. They are growing quite well right now, and under a grow light, with some sunlight during the day. The grow light is there to compensate from the changes during the day, whether it’s cloudy, rain, snow, or the transition to shorter sun exposure.
So far so good.
I’ll elude to this in a focused journal about grow lights, but I do know this much, for the sarracenia plants, there is that issue of plants becoming red due to some light stress from the grow light settings, forcing artificially this result. It happens with other plants, and it can be seen as a problem, but not in all cases. I’ll keep a good eye on these plants to see what’s happening.
As far as the sundews, they can be easy to grow, but difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. I can attest to both instances, because of the amount that I’ve gone through so far. Why do I say this is simple? My experience was to grow them in terrariums, where initially some would grow quite well, even to the point where some would even push flower stalks. Now, I can say this, the timing of purchasing sundews does matter, because there are specific seasons where they decide to push growing flowers. That would be in the summertime. Now, under grow lights, this can happen at anytime, depending on your settings.
I’ve been able to successfully grow as of late, cape sundews, and the spoon-leaved sundews.
The cape sundews seem to be the easiest to grow, and I can attest to this at the moment. All I did was place them in some sphagnum moss, in a small pot, and that’s it. Leave them near a window to get sunlight, with a grow light to make up for shorter daylight, keep them hydrated, and we’re good. Had them for a few months, and I’m seeing them develop dew from the light exposure.
For these I am using grow lights because of the late fall and early to mid winter months, where natural light is less and less. For most plants, it’s required to have somewhere between 12 hours of sunlight or more, for plants to thrive. So, for this picture, they are under grow lights, just as their neighbors are experiencing.
I’ve begun feeding these plants with dried bloodworms, and it turns out these are a good source for food, when these cape sundews cannot catch its own prey. By the way, the type of cape sundews do vary, and the one that most know of, are the variety that turn red and develop dew. The ones I own, are of the white form where it doesn’t turn red, but stays green, with the leaves developing dew, and appears to be white on the leaves. So far, so good.
The spoon-leaved sundews were the ones I got first, and were tough because of me keeping them in a terrarium, but also in keeping them clustered and not separating them. At the time, I didn’t know that they needed to be separated. Every time I received a plant, like a VFT, they would often be single plants, so I went by that as a template. After a while, you figure out, for most plants to survive after you purchase them, you need to separate and then repot them. I didn’t with my first set of spoon-leaved sundews, and they pushed flower stalks, which was the reason that I knew they needed to be separated.
My second set, I separated them, and they’ve been doing quite well ever since. I also kept them in open air pots, and not closed terrarium settings. For some, I have an open air terrarium, and they are growing well. Not only are they pushing flower stalks, but they have enough space to root individually and they also are developing dew and changing from green to red. When the leaves become red, it may also produce dew and be ready to consume prey on its own. Some aren’t turning red, but they are still doing well in their growth, while also producing dew. I’ll still keep an eye out for those that haven’t done this yet, but I do know that many of them have pushed flower stalks, which may slow that dew processing down a bit.
As far as tropical plants go, there are so many, and it will take a long time to get the names of those plants. I can name a few, but often they go the route of thriving in tropical climates. Terrariums, and plants that thrive in tropical climates, are a great combination. One terrarium that I have, I call, “the tank”, is a good area for those tropical plants to grow, and has been for a good year or so. Few plants will be in distress there, because they are getting hydrated through the constant humidity, and enough light from the grow lights. Some of the plants I can name are as follows:
Parlor palms, string of turtles, “baby’s tears”, asparagus ferns, nerve plants (green/red and green/white varieties), “creeping figs” or “creeping Jennys”, and many many others I will identify and name later. Many of them can be acclimated in moderate humidity, and still grow quite well.
There have been a few that grow quite well in, “the tank”, where some will shoot for the stars, with their growth in that environment. When that happens, it leads me to remove them, and repot them in regular pots.
I also have at least one cactus that seems to be okay for the time being. Its needles are still very white and bright, and the flesh of the cactus is bright green. It’s planted in a simple peat moss, and watered weekly, or bi-weekly. It gets a bit of sunlight, so it’s doing quite well for now. Not much else can be said, other than, so far, so good.
I can say that I’ve had a few coleus plants, both of the green with red veins, and the red with green veins. Each started off small, being in plant pots of a small enough variety to be seen as what I call “starter plants”. This is how I started with these two plants, and I did start them growing in two settings. The greener one, at a dimly lit area, light only from a west facing window, and not much to be fair. The redder one, at the south facing window, with plenty of sunlight. The redder one grew fast, where the greener one was somewhat stagnant. So, I made a change for the greener one, and brought it to the window similarly to the redder one. It began to grow just as fast, if not faster.
Eventually I went to transfer those to bigger pots. Then, I propagated a few from both varieties of coleus, and it led me to moving them to bigger window planters, to hold several coleus plants. Many of them since has become bushy, and some are even starting to push flowers. It’s fun to watch this, and to see how easy it was to grow them to this point. From first purchase to the flowering stage, it took maybe six months or less.
When it grows so much, it takes a lot to water them. I’ve upgraded in spraying them with a simple trigger plant sprayer, to a pump sprayer, with a high enough capacity, to cover the entire set of plants. I do this for both window planters.
I have to add this one last, and that’s the variety of moss. First should be sphagnum moss, while the other will be sheet moss that I purchased locally. The one thing about moss, is that it can dry out, but also once it’s rehydrated, it can live and even aid in being helpful to the plants they are paired with, especially when it comes to hydration. I don’t know why this is, but it’s quite helpful so see it for yourself.
Often, moss is used as a decorative addition to many other plants, especially in terrarium settings. They can be used outside of them, however, depending on the imagination of the owner, you can do quite a bit with the moss.
Many can simply pick up wild moss from nearby outdoor settings, but if that’s not available, you can find and purchase them. I got a good set, for about $10 to $15, and it wasn’t even the entirety. Some stay dry, and most of it will, because they can be a bit much, so leaving them to be dry, will be fine. You can awaken them leaving them to soak in water for a while, but leaving it in various light settings will result in lighter, and pale colored moss, or darker green colored moss.
I’ve yet to make a separate moss display, with a small, fluffy moss in a pot, which is what some specialists often do. Maybe that’ll happen later.
I have to add to this sphagnum moss, because it’s dried, but not dead, and it’s used for a variety of uses, but mostly for a different option to soil. The long fibered variety, is dried enough so that it won’t (immediately) begin to growing and sprouting new growth. That can still happen, but it takes a long time, and with the right conditions.
I’ve had some proof that this can happen, but it takes a long time. If it’s completely enclosed, no air, you’ll develop not just shoots of green leaves, but also sprouts and algae. To avoid the algae, you may need to get some springtails or other insects that will consume the algae. Since I don’t have them, I need to do something slightly different.
I’ve chosen to do this in a different container, with some fresh sphagnum moss, in hopes of getting this result, without the algae. As time progresses, I’ll update this in the next journal. This list may grow over time, and with other follow-up journals, I’ll detail what those are, along with the plants I couldn’t identify at this time.
Some things I need to add to my successes in this area. I mentioned in the previous entry, that my coleus, was growing so well, that it started growing flowers at the top of a couple of them. That’s what I said previously after discovering two. It turns out, it’s three of them now. Two of the original red plant and propagations, and one of the original green plant, in the same window planter.
Also, using the pump sprayer aided in some instances, gaining extra humidity when spraying the plants. The temperature hasn’t changed that much in the apartment internally, so I’m quite certain spraying these plants like the coleus, rose the humidity significantly. The day before I saw the humidity at around 40%, which happens from time to time, but it’s now at 70%.
I’ve noticed this in other areas in my apartment, where the humidity dropped near 50%, no temperature change indicated. Using that pump sprayer added humidity for the plants in that window as well. The humidity around the plants there, including the “lucky” bamboo plants, both of them, the nepenthes plants, both grounded and hanging, and the other plants, all saw some slight improvements. That’s because the humidity increased to near 60% to 70%.
Obviously, this has to be continuous, with the aid of a humidifier or an evaporative air cooler, which does work quite well.
In regards to my current crop of sundews, specifically the spoon leaf variety, there are a few, because of the grow light settings, beginning to turn red, and push out flower stalks, which are also red. As far as the cape sundews, they are starting to create some visible dew on a few leaves, so that’s a good sign.
My previous instance with spoon leaf sundews, I saw flower stalks push out, long before they turned red, but they stayed green, and it was quite interesting, but that didn’t last, because it dried out way too fast, and died possibly because of shock derived from being in a strong humid environment, to just airing out, in an already dry area, for a little over a day. I didn’t make that mistake again. This time, these sundews are placed in open area pots, where they can adjust and grow much easier.
I can add to this, from one of my hacks, to a successful set of results. This one wasn’t really expected on my end. I initially tried sowing some pitcher plant seeds, and I expected to see something after several months. I didn’t see anything from the seeds, but I did see this happen with the sphagnum moss.
Sphagnum moss is normally sold dried, but not necessarily dead. Leaving them to soak and sit in water, eventually after several months. Some advise to squeeze out the excess, which will make sense in order to not have any mold issues occur. This is especially good if the quality of the sphagnum moss isn’t processed all that much. This is the case for what’s often found in the pet stores (see Hacks entry).
I’ve began seeing what looks like weeds sprouting, and I’ve seen that before, and dismissed them. These “weeds” look closer to lemongrass, which shows more good things to come. What I’ve also seen, and still see to this day, are live sprouts of sphagnum leaves, in little patches scattered around the moss. I wasn’t expecting this, but I was welcome to seeing this, knowing that normally, I would have to buy live moss, in order to get enough to propagate, in order to get any long term. So far, there aren’t enough sphagnum sprouts for me to begin trimming just yet, but now that I know this method does work, I’ll definitely go a bit further, and push for something more.
That’s leading to the best results that I’ve seen with these plants. I hope for those results to only continue. If I play my cards right, I’ll be able to propagate some of them successfully. Once again, only time will tell.
I’ve had my share of failures, and often it takes enough failures to result in success, eventually. For some plants more than others, it is more of a trial-and-error process, in order to succeed in growing, or at least maintaining plants.
There are a handful of plants I’ve maintained for a good year or so, so I can say that some have been on the verge of growing and multiplying in various ways. There are others that will simply grow slowly, and they aren’t fickle about having the simple things needed for standard growth. No fertilizer, just water and sunlight.
Now, granted, it’s ideal for most (if not all) plants to be watered with distilled water, but there are some that are quite content with simple tap water. I’ll elaborate in a bit. I have a TDS meter to measure the quality of the water, and this is needed to say whether or not it’s safe to drink, and to show that it won’t be harmful to you, or to your plants. Right now, where I’m located currently, the reading is just below 30 ppm at cold temperature, but closer to 50 ppm, at either warm or hot temperatures. Usually higher than that, may be a cause for concern, especially if you are watering carnivorous plants.
My current success happens to be the coleus plants, and I have both the red leaves with green veins, and the green leaves with the red veins. I can’t remember when I bought it, that’s also how I know it’s a success. It started out as a small 5″ or 6″ plant, in a small pot for each of them. I do remember growing some when I was younger, and I had the leaves grow to nearly a foot long – each! Since then, I figured, maybe I would have some different success with a new set. That’s an understatement.
Right now, I have a good set of coleus plants, to fit into window planters, as a result of some successful water propagations. Some I’m trying for moist soil propagations, and I think it will be just fine. I know this, because of the amount of time it does take to develop roots from cuttings, which can vary from a few weeks to a month. Water propagation is much faster, and that’s close to near half to three quarters of a month.
For the first set I’ve propagated, and allowed to grow, it took a while for it to spread out, to the point where it’s reaching out through the window guards. To add to that, in recent weeks, I saw something I didn’t see in my previous planting experience with coleus. It’s beginning to flower, while going into the fall months. I barely noticed this, because part of it was covered by the window curtains and blinds. I just thought that this was amazing! Not only that, but it happened with two of the plants (I have a total of seven cuttings at the windows; four in one planter, and three in the other planter). I’ve made sure it gets enough water, so there’s no need to worry about that.
Sometimes, for plants like the coleus plants, it’s more like a no-fuss plant. As long as it gets those essentials – proper soil, water, and sunlight – it will be just fine.
As far as watering, it’s not hard, but spraying to get the leaves some dampness, it can be tough, so I decided to go the route of looking for those pump sprayers needed to do the job, without wearing down my finger from pressing the trigger of the spray bottle too long. This was needed because the coleus in both planters, were getting very, very bushy.
To me, it’s just crazy to know just how well this worked, because I didn’t have to worry about doing anything. At times, some leaves every now and again would fall off, but that’s okay. It does happen from time to time, and it hasn’t hampered the growth of the rest of the plants. Besides, what I don’t pick up, will become fertilizer over time.
I did have a cactus, that I chose to buy, and there’s a word of warning about getting a cactus. Once you have one, you have to repot them, and because of the needles, it’s not that simple. This is why I got some decent leather work gloves from the hardware store. This made it easier to handle maneuvering the cactus when preparing it to move from one pot of soil, to another.
This particular cactus didn’t have a flower glued onto it, like most people tend to see, thinking it’s real. No, it’s plastic, hot glued onto a cactus. Is it possible for a cactus to grow flowers? Yes, but often you’ll know what they look like when it happens.
Since this didn’t have that issue of having a fake flower glued on top of it, there was no worry of the plant having any issues. The needles stayed bright white, and the flesh of the cactus stayed green throughout its stay in my home. So far, so good. I water it maybe once or twice a week, and it’s seems to be keeping its vibrant color. it is by a window, but nearest to my air conditioner. The sunlight shines from the window, since I didn’t anchor down the blinds above the A/C unit; and it shines right onto the cactus, giving it a decent dose of sunlight. I can say I’ve had this for maybe three to four months, maybe longer.
I have some other plants that I have hanging at the window that gets the most sunlight, and some of them also do even better in tropical environments. Now when I say tropical, I mean high humidity areas. Anything measuring 70% humidity or higher, would make these and other plants deemed tropical plants, very happy. These seem to be just fine with 60% or lower, but it will show some drying out, if it goes anywhere near 40% or lower.
These plants that I have hanging at my window, currently are the “baby’s tears”, and the “creeping fig”. I’m not really sure the latter is that, but this is what I was told, so I’m going with it; I’ll research the name later. These are plants that will grow, and hang, which makes it interesting. These are good for trimming every so often, to place the cuttings in a variety of areas. I have some small terrariums, a big one which is a fish tank setup, and some other pots, where they aren’t the kind that hang by the window. The “baby’s tears” are great and keeps itself with small leaves, even in the humid areas in my home. Both types seem to grow well in either grow lights, or sunlight. They are watered regularly, maybe two to three times a week, depending on the types of planters being used. Those that are sealed with its own false bottom, I water maybe less frequent to prevent any root rot issues from occurring.
I mentioned previously, the fish tank setup I had as my large terrarium, but not in such detail. This is where most of my successes, besides the coleus, has taken place. This is an interesting one, because it revolves around lots of plants, many of which I forgot the names of most of them. For the ones I do know of, I’ll mention by name. This tank setup I had to go through a few scenarios until I got the right one. In another journal, I’ll explain what I have, and how it works for me. For now, I’ll scatter some details here and there.
For the plants inside, there are many that are growing quite well, and are happy being in this environment. How do I know they are happy? Well, for one, they root much faster after being transferred from the pots I purchased them in, into there. Most (if not all) of the plants inside the tank, are seen as tropical plants. Once they begin to root and adjust to the soil, the leaves begin to spread, and for some more than others, flowers may bloom.
Now, it also results in new growth, and I found this out recently with the parlor palms I have inside of the tank. I started to see new shoots reveal themselves, well after maybe five months after purchasing them. There was another that grew ridiculously fast, and I had to cut and propagate them within weeks of transplanting them into the tank. After a few months, I had to transfer them to pots outside, because they were literally outgrowing the height of the tank.
I have two types of nerve plants; one green with red veins, and one green with white veins. The latter I got last, and wouldn’t you know it? It did something a bit strange, at least I thought so. I had some separated in a few terrariums, so I brought it over to where I normally buy most of my plants (this one I didn’t buy there). I wasn’t sure of the scent it emitted, but from what the plant shop owners suggested, it was somewhat of a minty scent, but it was showing how happy it was, by emitting such a scent. I was relieved that it wasn’t a bad reaction to the humidity, but it was the opposite.
I also bought the plant known as “string of turtles”, and these were quite fun to grow. These tend to also like humidity, so the tank, and other terrariums were perfect settings for these viney plants. These, along with other plants like the ones I have hanging by the windows, are good in the tank and the terrariums also, as mentioned previously.
One other thing I neglected to mention earlier. For the plants inside the tank, the humidity range is in the high 80% range, closest to 90%, which is a very tropical setting for them. It’s closer to 90% depending on how much water is sprayed, and every week or so, I let it air out maybe for a couple of hours on the weekend. When it’s closed, the plants get that strong humidity, which is great. Also, for some plants, and actually for most eventually, they begin to develop air roots, which shows that they are really getting a strong dose of humidity. At first, I thought it was a cause for concern, but no, it’s actually a good thing. I also have some large pieces of lava rock, and I placed one into the tank, and a few pieces in the smaller terrariums. Any of the viney plants growing on them will have their roots growing onto them, and the roots will feel as if they were hooked onto it. This doesn’t inhibit the growth of the plants, but it gives those plants a place to anchor themselves to.
The tank literally looks like a jungle in there. “It’s like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.” (I couldn’t resist!) If I were to have maybe a turtle, or a lizard, I’m sure it would enjoy that setting, and have lots of places to hide.
There was also a remnant from a lady luck nepenthes that was a small plant, and eventually after growth in a smaller terrarium, where I salvaged and placed it, from a previous failure, it began to grow and it grew fast. Once that happened, I moved it to the tank. Within some months, it grew to the point where I had to cut and propagate it, because it nearly outgrew the height of the tank. After that, the propagated cutting rooted, and before you know it, it began producing flowers. It was the first set of flowers I saw growing in the tank, and so far the only one that has done so in there, outside of the red dragon VFT I once had. For the most part, I’ve seen great things from these plants especially.
There are a few others, and they are the standard pitcher plants which are of the nepenthes variety. These were the wild nepenthes that are made available only certain times within the year, and are available in a certain flower district in NYC. Finding the right store was my toughest challenge, but when I did, that’s when I saw a pitcher plant in action.
After a while, because of the lack of humidity, it started to lose its traps, but it kept growing. I did have some success in propagating this, but it didn’t always work. I eventually bought another pitcher plant, and had this hang by the window, but not the one where the “babies tears” is hanging. It’s getting plenty of sunlight, and I water them as best as I can. I repotted all of these pitcher plants with sphagnum moss for a growing media for them. Since it’s lighter than soil, it’s best for hanging plants, so that it won’t weigh down the rod it’s hanging from.
There are a few others I can’t name, but these are still growing and have been for a while. Along with a small fern, right now, I have a good set of plants in my home, that are growing, and growing quite well. Just about every window in the house has a few plants on them. The only one that doesn’t have one, even hanging, is the bathroom window, with the frosted glass. That may change. I did try that, but that’s explained better in the failures section.
For now, these show just how I’ve been able to grow lots of plants quite nicely. There are some that are still works in progress. Should they be successes, I’ll add to them in a second installment of my successes. Should they be failures, I’ll add them in a second installment of my failures. Only time will tell, I guess.
