Houseplants

 

 I haven't got all that many houseplants left after this winter; and some of those that have survived are looking rather tired - including one of the African Violets. The lighter blue one has at the same time been in bloom, but with most of its leaves drooping and not looking well at all. I'm not sure if I managed to over-water it, or under-nourish it! Anyway, today I decided to re-pot that one (even while still in bloom) and cut off the lower drooping leaves that made it look sad and tired. Remains to be seen if that will do the trick... 

While I was at it (messing about with pots and soil), I also planted a Coleus ("painted nettle") plant shoot that has (barely) been surviving the winter on water only, in a tiny glass vase. (Bottom right in the collage.) The rest of its mother plant died back in winter... 

Behind the African Violets in the collage above, you also see a bigger glass vase with some green leaves in it.  Close-up of the same below. These are my Mystery branches, which were included in a bouquet of flowers that I got for my 70th birthday back at the end of August. Some of the other flowers in that bouquet I was able to dry and save that way. But these green branches just remained the same, and I left them standing in water just to see what would happen. The answer is: Nothing. 7½ months later, they are still standing in water, an looking just the same. They have neither formed roots, nor withered - and look and feel much like they might just as well be fake...

Google Image search has identified them as Ruscus, and further research tells me that what looks like leaves are really phylloclades - "flattened, green, photosynthetic stems or branches" - while the true "leaves" are the minute, scale-like things on the middle of those. Totally weird! But I'll continue to leave them in their vase for now, just to see if anything happens at all... 
 

In my living room window (below)  I decided to add some "properly fake" pink lilies in a coloured glass vase, just for a bit of colour, until perhaps I get some live splash of colour there...

The Kitchen Window

 

Rain pouring down outside today, and not much to do but be grateful that I don't necessarily have to go out. (It may still clear up in the afternoon, though.)

The photo above was taken on a  somewhat sunnier day. It's the view from my favourite place at my kitchen table. From that angle, I don't see the next building, and - this time of year - nothing but green trees and a bit of sky. It's my "breakfast view" every morning, and a good start to the day. (Also in winter, because even with the trees bare, I only see the top of other buildings far off.)

My African Violets

Painted nettles. They grow fast and are easy to propagate: just put cuttings in water. Actually, last winter I put some cuttings in vases and just left them like that (did not get round to planting them)... They lived on for months on nothing but tap water, just sprouting more and more roots - just like that little one is doing now...

PS. It struck me after I'd already published this post that today it's exactly 15 years ago that I moved into this flat. And the view from that window was one of the "selling points" to me the first time I came to look at the flat, about three months before that. (Figuratively speaking, as I wasn't buying it, just renting.)

Mother Ficus and her Babies

 

I somehow forgot to take photos of this Ficus (elastica decora, also known in English as India rubber plant) before I radically cropped it a couple of months or so ago. It had grown almost as high as the window. Its stem was bit crooked and the small pot in which it was planted was now almost tipping over from the weight of it. The tree had to lean against the window to keep upright. It also had never been replanted in a bigger pot or even had any new soil added for I-don't-know-how-long. It kept growing anyway.

But it had now reached a height that suggested something had to be done anyway. So finallly I radically cut it down to about a third of its size. From what I cut off, I took two cuttings and put those in water. One was the top of the plant, one just a piece of the stem. Somewhat to my surprise, the one that was just a piece of the stem (with two leaves) was the one most eager to sprout new roots. The top part proved more reluctant; but a few days ago I planted both of them - even the one on which roots were not yet to be seen (except perhaps as few little white dots at the bottom). So far, neither of them seems to have any protests.

The cropped mother plant (top photo) was replanted in connection with cutting it, and seems happy with that, as it now seems to be producing a couple of new sideways shoots. 

I know that the mother plant in turn was once cropped from an older plant, which I think I had in turn cropped from another...  Actuall I'm no longer sure how many "generations" back to the original plant.

What's unusual about what I'm now calling the Mother is that it never dropped more than one or two its lowest leaves. (Usually they do, when they continue to grow.) Which is why I waited so long to cut it in the first place; and decided to keep the Mother as well.