Tag: flowers

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New Developments.

I have been under the weather as of late, and this resulted in some of my plants being compromised. However, for the ones that were not, I have some very interesting news.

When it comes to my existing plants, the cape sundews especially, they began pushing flower stalks, and they were quite big. For the ones I had, they grew and showed some nice white flowers at the tops of the stalks. I left them there for nearly a month, and they did their thing. After that, I cut them, because I needed the rest of the plant to recover, and grow properly. Before I knew it, another flower stalk appeared, in both my capes. I didn’t hesitate to cut them this time.

There’s also a smaller pitcher plant that had some issues, due to my neglect, in not allowing the plant to breathe. This led to one of the main pitchers somewhat “foaming” at the top of the main pitcher. I chose to allow the rest of the plant to breathe, and before I knew it, I discovered a bigger pitcher, not yet opened up, yet it was much bigger than the previous pitcher. It looks great.

I also had some issues with some of my butterworts, and I have three of them. The main one took very long to root, before I saw anything happen. The other two, I’m starting to see some leaves begin to push more leaf growth. One of those two, also pushed a nice purple flower.

For the one that took longer to root, I’m starting to see some of the leaves lift up, which is a sign that it’s going in the same direction as the others; and may begin to either flower, or have bigger leaves added to it.

When looking at these plants, it does take time for certain things to occur. It’s not just the plants pushing flowers, but for the plants to settle into their pots and go from there. It’s very satisfying to see plants flower, because if you’re not used to it, it may seem like a surprise, and a welcome one at that.

Of course this also means I had to refill the trays, to make certain they don’t dry out. Using sphagnum moss, it does dry out, but not as fast. I think this is why most of my plants didn’t dry out, after not watering them for a while.

One thing I try not to do, is let my plants dry out. If it happens, that’s unfortunate. It’s not always avoidable when you are injured, or incapacitated in some form. This will mean I will have to replace some plants, or heavily rehydrate those that may still be able to survive this drought.

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Flowering Part Two.

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.

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Seasons.

Some plants can thrive in any part of the year indoors, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t be affected when the seasons change. What do I mean by this? If we see that they need regular sunlight, and they are by a window with bright or not-so-bright sunlight, depending on where you are, it will affect the plants and how they grow.

You may not be in a place that has all four seasons, or even something closer to two or three of them. But for argument’s sake, I’ll discuss the impact of all four seasons on plants outside, and indoors.

Winter.

We can see this as the season for most plants to already be in dormancy. For some trees, and bushes, this won’t always be the case. Some may be in a slow down, and some may have their leaves become a duller color, due to having less sunlight, and rain (water).

Spring.

Once plants come out of Winter, they begin to transition to their normal routines. Sometime after that, they will begin to bloom as the weather get warmer.

Summer.

For lots of plants, the flowering begins, and stays this way during the Summer months. Since they get much more sunlight during this period, it’s great for flowers to be produced, along with any fruit, which will more likely be seen in the Fall.

Autumn or Fall.

This is when the weather gets colder, and for some trees and bushes, the leaves will being to change color, and start falling. Leaves aren’t the only things that Fall from the trees and bushes. You have this from fruits (berries, nuts, etc.) also, and they will be known for falling during these months.

Those will affect most outdoor plants, regardless of how big or how small they are.

Now, of course, being indoors, the plants that you own, can thrive without having to be exposed in these extreme conditions, like Winter and Summer. The exception would be the plants and their owners, living in a place where there’s always Winter, or always Summer.

The areas where you are more likely to have Winter all year, are within the most Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, just as the areas closer to, at, or below the equator, which is near or within the Southern Hemisphere. Notice that dormancy doesn’t really come for warm weather extremes, because this is all year round. Those trees and bushes adjust quite well to these surroundings.

With the plants you have indoors, the issue is making the place comfortable in either instance, both for you, and the plants you own. Just like with the environments you live in (see environment) you need to adjust your surroundings, and know where the plants should be, and keep them there. Make those plants as comfortable as you possibly can, and you’re good to go.

There are some places, where the annual season, is either like Spring or Fall, is ideal for plants, and there are only so many places on Earth that are this way throughout the year. For those like many reading this, if you can’t have your home in such an ideal setting, how about adjusting your home, where it can be such an ideal setting.

Most of these steps, can be viewed in journals such as temperature/humidity, and lighting, as a potential guide to helping make this work for your plants, and for you. After all, you breathe out what your plants breathe in, just as your plants breathe out what you breathe in.

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Other Types Of Plants That I Care For.

This may be a short journal at this time. Most of the plants I care for, I’ve mentioned previously. One that I didn’t mention, was my experience with the orchid. It’s an interesting plant, where I’ve purchased it, after it has flowered. In a natural setting, they will be this way for the spring and summer months.

The same orchid that I had, all of the flowers, which was four of them, dried up, and all that was left was the stem and the leaves at the bottom.

For those that don’t know about orchids, they can survive without blooming or growing flowers, but also have their leaves continuously grow. I have one that has grown after that, and yes, I did attempt to propagate, unsuccessfully.

Potting the orchid wasn’t hard, but it did take some extra things I didn’t have. Luckily for me, where I bought it, I was gifted some wood chips so that I can use that to give the orchid a good setting to grow. It’s medium included sphagnum moss, those same wood chips I mentioned (some use cedar, and maybe that’s what I have, but I’m not going into detail with this), and some rocks at the bottom (optional). I give them enough water, and have them by a South facing window which gives lots of sunlight throughout the year, and there we go.

I only recently repotted and relocated the orchid to be under a grow light, to see if the results would change. Since I just put it there, prior to writing this journal, I can’t supply an update until enough time has passed.

Hopefully when that happens I will have some flowers blooming, and better growth in its new pot.

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More Successes With My Plant Care.

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.