Lookie, My New Fishies…

Coleus Cuttings Aquarium (Front View)

Coleus Cuttings Aquarium (Top View)

San Francisco Botanical Garden

Today, I took advantage of the break in the rains plus 11 days off of work and took a trip to the San Francisco Botanical Garden. I took numerous photos and will post them shortly…

Live Christmas Tree for My New House…

Just a thought… When I get my own house, I want to get a live Christmas Tree to plant in a large container. I’ll keep it in the back and take to the front of the house and decorated with lights at Christmas time. I’ll so some research and see what trees don’t grow too big or can be controlled with pruning.

Does anyone do this?

Cactus Book…

One of the gifts I received from Christmas was “Cactus: The Most Beautiful Species and Their Care” by Elisabeth Manke. Thanks Howie :)

Cheap planting pots that are readily available…

My Coleus and Plectranthus cuttings at work have rooted, so I really have to get some pots and plant them in soil. I don’t want to bring a bunch of mismatched 4 inch pots to work, because they are sitting my co-workers office, and I don’t want them too look too unsightly. I searched the internet for bulk pots that were taller than regular 4 inch pots, but not wider. I couldn’t fine any; they were either too expensive or too large a quantity to buy.

I went to my friend’s Christmas party this evening and they had clear plastic Solo drinking cups. Measuring 4 inches at the top lip, 2.5 inches at the base and 5 inches tall, they were close to the size I wanted… so, at the end of the party, I helped clean up, collected the drinking cups and brought them home. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that they were clear.

I stopped by the grocery and found opaque ones called SoloGrips in different colors. I can use these as the pots. I’ll cut the clear one to about an inch tall and use those as the saucers. Very Cool!!!… Cheap planting pots that are readily available!

I’ll make one up and take photos to illustrate what I said above.

Garden Status…

I didn’t have work today, so I was able to do a little garden work and snap more pictures.

I checked the Brussel Sprouts and Swiss Chard and they are doing okay, but there was a lot of snail/slug damage :)

The Sugar Snap Peas that I planted on the 8th are sprouting. I can’t tell if the leaves have not opened up, or if they were eaten by snail, slugs, pill bugs and/or earwigs. I’ll have to recheck tomorrow.

I turned the leaves in the compost bin, and you can see the steam rising. Looks like the BioStack is doing a much better job at heating the compost up than my garbage can bins. I did notice these weird bugs under the lid with ants tending them, kinda aphid size, but they looked a little different than aphids.

The Dutch Irises and Spring Star Flower that I potted up on the 8th are emerging.

The Coleus survivors are surprisingly still hanging on, but I really should get some cuttings… and I should get off my behind and get the old aquarium in the patio and bring it in and put some grow-lights!!!

I started a Coleus group on Flickr…

I’m so excited, because I took my passion for Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides) and started a group on Flickr devoted to… guess what?… Coleus!!!

My ultimate goal is to have a central location where you can view photos of Coleus from people all around the world. There is also an area where you can discuss these colorful plants.

Coleus

So, if you have any Coleus photos and a Flickr account, stop by an share with the group. Here’s the link:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/coleus/

( Also posted in Gardening )

Found Christmas Kalanchoe + Wierdo Kiwi Fruits

As I was walking to carpool after work and saw some broken Christmas Kalanchoe plants. Knowing me, I searched for any leaves that were broken off. I was able to collect these, which I’ll try to propagate.

Found Christmas Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana)
Found Christmas Kalanchoe

Once I got home, I took my Mom grocery shopping and we saw these weirdo Kiwi Fruits which we bought for a $1 (for 4).

Weirdo Kiwi Fruits
Weirdo Kiwi Fruits