You Grow Girl™

flowering Mexican Coriander, aka culantro

Ouch! I just took a few photos of my indoor plants as there was lots of afternoon light streaming in through the windows, and I accidently brushed my left hand ever-so-lightly against the the Rat's Tail Cactus (Aporocactus). The knuckle on my picky finger is now red, swollen and itchy as hell. That is one nasty plant! It is very large, and I am very clumsy so it seems we are always doing battle.

And speaking of battles... yes I am still fighting the scale insect. Ugh I HATE them! I'm very busy right now and don't have time everyday to get up on a stool and eradicate insects one-by-one. I give the staghorn fern a few spritzes of water everyday for humidity (reverse osmosis processed water no less. I'm watering all the epiphytic plants with this now) but within a day there are always lots more to deal with. They are prolific breeders. And why not since they have such a lovely environment to live in.

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Help my cardamom! I've read all I could find, I've followed the rules, I've repotted into a bigger pot just in case I was choaking out the roots and damnit my cardamom continues to wither and make its slow descent towards death before my very eyes. Now I have read that they can die back and go dormant for a time. I'm just not willing to believe this is what my plant is doing. The leaves are just going dry. No changing colour, no immediate dropping... they're just drying right on the plant. I really want this plant to live and I'm at a loss. If you know anything about cardamom please comment! No comment is too small. I want to hear it all.

I'm thinking of offering a reward to the first person to provide me with the tip I need to help this poor thing. Or to at least explain whether or not the sysmptoms for entering dormancy seem right.
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In other news I am proud to announce that apparently I am successful at creating a tropical environment in here. On Saturday we had some people over and the second they stepped inside everyone commented on how humid and tropical the apartment was. I was delighted to hear that. I've been complaining it is too dry but when we turned the humidifier up our walls started to sweat! It was a mess to clean up. But I've been trying to pump up the humidity in at least one room as much as possible because 1. I like it warm and moist and 2. I have all the tropicals and most of the epiphytic plants in that room and they like it that way as well. It has been extra cold outside recently and I've been concerned about making sure it is warm enough for the plants. I can always put on a sweater, but the plants are exposed.

Look at my culantro up at the top! Can you tell it is a relative of the sea holly (Eryngium)? The flowers are very similar but on the culantro they seem to stay green like that. I was trying to be all smart the other day when guests were over and I was playing plant show-and-tell but I couldn't remember the name sea holly and fumbled around for ages trying to figure it out. I have a really bad memory sometimes and often fumble over the simplest words. Just two days ago I was trying to read out an url over the phone to a client and couldn't remember the word 'slash'. For a good minute I sat there saying "You know, the line thingy" before I finally ripped it out of my feeble mind.

The culantro is doing so well since I brought it inside for the winter. I wish I could say the same about a few other cold intolerant herbs. The stevia problem has been fixed by-the-way. Wrapping up the pot was exactly what it needed. When in doubt, check that the plant doesn't have cold feet. Some plants hate that and so do I.

This gal has the garden I want! Or one of the gardens I want anyways. Pure bliss. (Link found via grow.devileye.net