Front Porch Succulents

Moving to the porch.  A few weeks ago, we got a new front door that has red accents in the glass.  I thought it would look nice to have red pots on porch, but I couldn't find any in the size or color that I wanted.  Instead I opted to pick up pots that were the size I wanted and just spray paint them.  I also have a pig planter on the porch as well, and painted it black.  The finished project came out very nicely I think.

The Palmer sedum will be gorgeous against the black once they start spilling over.

My hanging baskets have been filled back up. 

This next one is my mailbox planter at the curb.  I planted the Crassula 'Campfire' last year in the fall.  It survived the winter and is growing strong.  The other thing with the white flowers is something that I had at the beginning of spring last year that died out.  It won't last too long into the summer, but I figured since it's there that it could stay.  I love the way this one gets so red in the full sun.  It doesn't hurt that it's a fast grower, even in the hotter months. 

 

Front Yard Succulents

Now that Thing One and Thing Two have joined our family, I decided to expand my succulent obsession to the front yard.  Planted here, they have a chance to survive without being mauled and ripped apart by naughty puppies. I started with the tree planter; 24 lovely little succulents of various varieties are loving their new home here.

My last grouping came out blurry, but this is the majority of them.  In the few weeks since I've planted them, they have all had a little growth.  I'm really hoping that we won't have another summer like last year.  If we can at least have a couple of weeks of 80/90 degree weather, they might grow a little more before stalling for the summer. 

I can't get more pictures to load on this one, so tomorrow it's the front porch.

Kalanchoe Pinnata Experiment

I'm not sure how it's almost been a month since I've posted, but I guess the only offering I have is that I've been busy.  Last month I posted about a new kalanchoe that I found here.  Most of the kalanchoes that I have grow babies on their leaves while they're on the plant, but if I've read it right this one prefers to have the leaves off  in order to grow babies.  I figured that I could spare two leaves and since the table is already cluttered with plants I would just add two more containers. 

I put one leaf in water and one just on dirt to see which did the best.

Februrary 11, 2012

A few days later, you have to look close, but there are tiny roots forming on both leaves.  The one in the water is most noticable.

February 15, 2012

February 15, 2012

A few more days and we a lot of little roots on the leaf in the dirt, but little babies on the one in the water!!

February 22, 2012

February 22, 2012

 And then today, we have even bigger babies and finally some green action on the leaf on the dirt!  The water leaf is still nice and plump, whereas the dirt leaf is a little wilty.  The dirt leaf has definitely put out more roots though, so maybe this one is going to be the turtle in this race!

February 28, 2012

February 28, 2012

I thought this was a longer process until I looked at the dates and realized it was just really a few weeks.  I'm looking forward to plumping the babies up and sharting them with friends once the weather warms up. 

Mandy

Greenhouse Succulent Blooms

There's action in the greenhouse.  Good action that is, and not more puppy destruction!

I bought this one again because of it's blooms.  They're dusty shade of pink.  I think it's an Echeveria variety, but all that's coming to mind is 'blue'...I'm sure it's part of the name, but also sure that there's more to it as well. 

The plant producing the pretty bloom is below.

The recent purchase from East Austin Succulents is finally open.  I still don't know what it is, but I love the orange shade.

 It's got quite a long stalk for such a tiny little plant!

I think my Kalanchoe thyrsiflora 'Fantastic' is protesting being in the greenhouse.  This is the first time she's bloomed and I'm excited to see these open.  I'll share those once I get to see them. 

In the meantime, she's gotten quite tall.  She was one of the one's that got trampled in the last "let's bust throught the greenhouse and see what we can eat" escapade of Thing One and Thing Two. More on that here. With that said, she took quite a beating and is less a good number of leaves on the bottom.  This summer, she started growing crooked, so come spring I'll chop it off and replant the top. 

These next two aren't blooming, but the Kalanchoe delagoensis x daigremontiana 'Pink Butterflies' is recovering from the last attack as well.  The top is rooting and the severed stalk is getting new growth...yippee!! 

This Kalanchoe synsepala 'Cup Kalanchoe' or 'Walking Kalanchoe' is doing quite well in the greenhouse.  She's got two new plants shooting out for me.  I've also got the more pointer, serrated one, but that one is recovering from a Thing 1 attack. 

This one is one of our finds at Spicewood Spine Nursery this past summer.  I'm thrilled at how big she's gotten.  You can see her starting size as well as the other version here.

Kalanchoe Pinnata

Last week, I saw this really cool bloom on an equally cool Kalanchoe that guess what...I didn't have!  I wish I could remember the blog, but I'm pretty warn out right now, so maybe it will come to me later.  I know I follow it, which makes my "I'm tired" pretty sad, but the more important thing right now is that I found one of my own! 
After a quick lunch on Friday, we realized that we still had a full half hour left and made a mad dash to Schultz Nursery.  They don't always have a wide variety of succulents, and it's still not time for them to have them in the first place, but it's close and I generally have good luck here.  Friday was no exception.  We walked in and I immediately saw her...

It so happens that East Austin Succulents is one of their suppliers and this was just brought in.  They had no clue what it was, much what it's cutesy blooms look like.  A quick Google search on my phone confimed that this was indeed the plant that I thought I'd have to search months for. 

According to another website I was on, it's also called a 'Miracle Plant' and a number of other neat names.  I personally like 'Mexican Love Plant' and 'Floppers'  I found some neat information on it on this website Gardening On Cloud Nine and Garden In Paradise is the blog I originally found it on.  Kimberly has the pretty blooms on her blog.  

The dogs are driving me bonkers and the kids have resorted to calling me on the house phone from their cell phones...I can take a hint...Mandytime is over!

Good Night...

Echeveria in Bloom

My largest Echeveria that is also in the ground is blooming!  She seems to be loving the winter weather and is blooming. Her actual leaves aren't that pretty at the present moment, but the blooms are beautiful and she's got a number of babies growing as well. 

It seems as though these blooms are more waxy than the blooms I've gotten from other Echeveria's.  I'm not sure if it's becuase of the bloom time or if it's just a natural defense from the cooler weather. They're also larger than one's from other plants; I'm guessing that's a result of the plant's size as well.   

I'm going to pull her out of the ground in the next week or so and get her in the greenhouse or at least take some of the new plants off and tucked away. 

New Beds for the Puppies

At the beginning of January, I picked up a new "living room" bed for Charlie, and he really does enjoy it.  Molly always opts for the carpet, so I really wasn't worried about getting her one.  That was working all well and good until I rearranged the living room and Molly discovered the "cool" bed!  Charlie wasn't really appreciating her in his spot, even if he wasn't laying in it to begin with, so we picked her up one today.  Molly likes to lay up on things, so we went for one with the raised edges.  She's been trying it out in spurts this evening and so far, so good!

Of course, Charlie needed to check it out to make sure it passed his approval as well.  Molly wasted no time in trying his out again as well.  She didn't get to lay there long once he realized that she had his spot. 

Of course these are just for their family time naps.  At night and during the day, they are still in their kennels.  At eight months, there are no unsupervised house visit for these two hooligans!