First of Spring [2015]

Friday, March 20, 2015 marked the first day of spring! I cannot even express how excited I am. However, at first I was not as excited as I should have been. Friday morning started off normal... What couldn't be great about it? It's Friday! But, as I stared into my lily pots... I became very sad - nothing was happening. No sprouts, no signs of life anywhere. My sister would tell me how every pot she owned had some kind of activity, but mine did not. I was so worried I messed up in Fall and killed my lily bulbs... So, I went to work sad but still kinda hopeful that maybe.... just maybe they would sprout soon. 

Wouldn't you know it, I came home that afternoon to a large, purple tip poking out from under the remainder of last years stalk! I yelled inside the house for my husband to come out saying "IT LIVES!!!! IT LIIIIIVVVEEESSS" channeling my inner Frankenstein. 

Saturday morning, I was up a little late, sleeping in and enjoying no work. I ran outside and wouldn't you know it!!! ANOTHER purple point popping up from the other bulb in the pot. As I stared in admiration at the second new sprout and the crazy growth of the first, I noticed two little bitty white nubs coming up from little bulblets. By Sunday morning, I counted 4 little ones mixed around the two parent bulbs that sprouted first.... Later that evening, after looking back at the pictures from Friday, I noticed there was a bulblet sprouting Friday afternoon...but I had missed it in the excitement. 

This morning, Monday, March 23, I have counted 6 little ones mixed around the two first parent bulbs... still nothing out of the third bulb in the pot... Fingers crossed that I'll see something soon!

I've taken a picture every morning since and will post them maybe...once a week, to twice a week ... I can't do the everyday thing. But, about once or twice a week I'll post several pictures of the bulbs progress.  


Friday - March 20: 


















Saturday - March 21:

Sunday - March 22:














Monday - March 23:

Yes, yes, I know that one of the bulbs is slanted... I messed up when I planted them since it was only my second time to plant bulbs. I will fix them this fall... My other pot of lilies is even worse........ x.x

Need to record things better...

So, last year my two amazing lilies bloomed: Sumatra and Anastasia. My Anastasia bloomed first, being ahead of the Sumatra by maybe.... 3 - 4 weeks. I have only a few pictures of my lilies ... I wish I had taken better logs of their growth, but alas, I did not. 

Not sure if this is the Anastasia or Sumatra

Here is the one picture I took when I first saw little sprouts coming up in my pots. I actually planted them the fall before, so.... Fall 2013 to bloom in Spring 2014.

In the summer of 2014, I got married; all of the wedding planning and shopping took up most of my time and although I enjoyed their beauty and fragrance, I really didn't have much time to ogle or photograph everything. There was lots of running around... all free time was spent watering flowers and cleaning the house.

Not sure which this is.

Both Sumatra and Anastasia

My Anastasia actually bloomed out the few weeks before my wedding, it's last blooms on the same week... My Sumatra started blooming while I was away on our trip...but I still got to enjoy the majority of the blooms when I got home :). It was a nice surprise to pull up after being gone a week to see dark reddish/purple blooms wide open. 
On the left: Pictures of my Anastasia. On the right: Pictures of my Sumatra.



My Aloe Vera is doing very well, in spite of several .... accidents. My father accidentally knocked it off the porch, along with my little succulent featured in the last post in the adorable little pot....which is now broken. My sister was very kind and re-potted them both for me in spare pots she used to propagate her airplane plant.  The Aloe Vera was then knocked over by my now husband one day when he was running late for work.... It was winter by that time so I had the plant inside under a little lamp. 

The two original plants

Re-potted smaller plants

So... my poor Aloe Vera is all bent and funny looking with several broken shoots, but it's doing very well... I've already separated out 3 new baby Aloes into a new pot with two more little ones starting to show...so where I started with three (lost one in the first fall), I now have 7. :D 

The picture shown is where I had them sitting on the sink to drain after watering them thoroughly after re-potting. I did this during winter, so I could not put them outside. I need to get a bigger pot for the older plants..... 






Hopefully, this year, I will be able to better document the growth of my lilies and not have crazy things going on so I can enjoy them much longer. 

Set Back....

Just a small update here. Bit of a set back: due to it being late in the season, my soon-to-be pretties - the Sumatra lily - has been placed on back order. 

The Lily Pad : Sumatra Lily

I won't receive my bulbs for this amazing lily until Mid to late October.

One other pretty is coming my way in mid-to late October, but I'm kinda keeping that one a secret.  

I also have several bulbs that will be harvested from my sister's bucket =^-^= 















They look incredibly whimpy right now.. can't even stand up straight but I really can't wait 'till I can plant these for myself and watch them grow and grow. 






Meanwhile, I have this little one growing. 

Aeonium Kiwi 2012

This cute cactus caught my eye in the store last April (2012).

I adored the little clusters of flowers and the pink tips. However.... 


since the day I bought it... it has not had any pink on its tips....
It's slightly irritating, since that's the reason I bought it.. but I have to wonder if it just isn't liking its environment...

Aeonium Kiwi 2013

This is what it has turned into now:

All the pictures online and all the descriptions show this plant staying close to the ground or staying in a massive cluster. Mine, instead, chooses to no longer have pink tips... aaaaaannnnnddd looks like a weed XD. 


I placed it next to our aloe vera plant and have been experimenting with its watering cycle. Every where I read contradicts each other. One will say "Water only when soil is dry and soak thoroughly"; others will say "water daily to every other day and just barely soak the top." (mind you, these quotes are technically paraphrases....but this isn't a formal document so I can quote things as I please :3 ) I tried the first.... now I'm trying the second. 


My efforts seem to not be in vain. Within a mere week and a half, dark color began to return to the leaves - it's been raining here for over a week, so I held it under the soft sprinkles until it was lightly watered for a few days. We shall see how it develops. 


My main question is how did something so adorable turn into THAT?!??? Ah well, makes things interesting, no? :3



Among some of my other little baby plants:

Chlorophytum comosum

Commonly known as an Airplane plant

 Strange fact about this plant.... Apparently, if you take the little offspring the plant produces, it will have the multicolored leaves that you see here - just like the parent plant. It's a clone. 

However, and this is the odd thing, if you take a seed from this plant and try to grow it, it will produce a wonderful plant, but it will only be a solid green leaves and produce clones with solid green leaves as well. So, if you want to keep a green and white stripe, you have to only plant the little offshoots... 

Here's the parent plant.

Chlorophytum comosum

Commonly known as an Airplane plant

 I want to say that this plant is at least fifteen years old... Could be closer to twenty. Our grandmother had this plant for years. I barely even remember when she didn't have it. She gave my sister one about ten or twelve years ago so, I would almost bet it's between fifteen and twenty years old - especially since it's producing these little offshoots like crazy.





It also produces cute little white flowers on these offshoots. Before the little mini airplane plants appear, the stem is full of those little cute flowers. And at the tip of these stems will either be seed pods or a baby airplane. It's fun to watch as it sprouts off all over the place.












Among a few other plants that we got from our grandmother, the Aloe Vera is one. It is a decently sized plant by now - thriving and happy.

Aloe Vera

SO! I took these three little guys off the top and put them in my own pot to make my own plant!!!!

 Unfortunately, we had a storm come through about three weeks ago and blew this little pot off the porch where I had it sitting... broke a few of the little branches off. It's recovering, but I may lose a few pieces. News on its recovery shall be posted later.











A friend of mine found out that we really wanted to start an herb garden, so she sent my sister a rosemary plant. Well... I wanted one of my own just because I like it so much so we cut a few small pieces off and planted them and so far, they're living!!!!! They live! THEY LIVE!!!
[ pictures coming later... I keep forgetting to take a pic of them.... ^^; ]

Beginning

So my sister began to garden.... And during the times I've watched her, it made my desire for my own flower and herb garden even stronger. So, I have claimed the first two little sprouts from one of her lily pots to begin my own personal lily garden. 

 

Soon to be my own pretties:

The Lily Pad : Sumatra Lily

I ordered this pretty yesterday to be my first lily. My sister was generous to offer me all the bulbs I wanted from the lilies she already has - which I accepted with glee. However, I wanted my own lily - one that I picked. This one is gorgeous and I hope it will smell as great, if not BETTER, than the lilies my sister currently has.

The Lily Pad Bulb Farm