You Grow Girl™

Yesterday was another big plant repotting day. My recent barrage of plant purchases all required repotting into appropriate containers which translated into hours of work. When I bought the Sarracenia I placed it, pot and all inside a glass fish bowl but meant to actually plant it when I got the chance. I've been unsuccessful so far at finding sand so I made up one of the potting mixes suggested in The Savage Garden which consists of half peat and half perlite. I put a layer of perlite in the bottom of the bowl followed by the peat/perlite mix with a bit of charcoal from an orchid mix thrown in. I planted the plant into this mix and then topped it up with spagnum moss. I'm keeping the whole thing wet and have it placed near, but not on a south-facing windowsill. As I indicated earlier, the plant was in very bad shape when I got it. I've noticed that some pitchers have dried up entirely or just along the edges. But when I removed the plant to repot it, I saw a few new pitchers developing from the base so I'm not worried about the future of this plant. I think I'm doing everything right. My only fear is that the plant won't get the air circulation it needs in the bowl. We'll see.

Next I moved onto succulents. I had a bunch of cuttings that required their own pots as well as a few new plants such as the Tiger Jaws that needed to be removed from the oppressive plastic pots they came in. Because I've been unsuccessful at finding plain old sand anywhere, I've been unable to make my own succulent mix. The premade mixes are fine for most plants, but the aloes, agaves and other members of the Liliaceae family require soil that does not have perlite in it. Every premade mix has perlite. So I spent an ungodly amount of time diligently picking perlite, bit by tiny bit from the mix. That's where the bulk of my time went.

After the succulents had new homes I moved onto the cacti that were purchased for the desertarium. I am so glad to be finally finding some little cacti to put in there. It is still bare, but slowly coming together. To accomodate the new plants I had to basically take the whole thing apart and rearrange some plants. It was a good opportunity to look at the health of the roots of plants that had been in there for awhile. One of the opuntias has grown so much, even during the dormant season, that it is emerging from the hole in the top of the tank lid.

My goal for the next month or so is to put lots of time and effort into pampering the indoor plants because as soon as outdoor gardening starts I'll be spending the bulk of my time on that. I haven't started seeds yet. To be honest I've accumulated too many indoor plants, and I don't have any space left under the grow lights for seedlings. I'm going to have to figure something out soon because I don't want this year to be a repeat of last year when I held off far too long on starting tomato seeds.