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!

Succulent Fix...East Austin Succulents

Last week I was really close to shopping for some succulents on EBay.  I exercised a bit of self control and was rewarded with an email from East Austin Succulents letting everyone know that they were having a sell.  My friend Amy and I did the only logical thing any succulent obsessed gardener would do...we hopped in the car and made the hour and a half road trip to Austin!  They had moved since the last time we were there, and I had really been wanting to see their place as well.  I remembered my camera this time.  These are just a few shots of their lovely new greenhouse.  This top one is an aloe that I also snapped a picture of the name tag.  It's one I'll be looking for.

Aloe Ramosissima

 

This next one is full of one of my favorite Kalanchoe's...Kalanchoe beharensis 'Fang'.  This is an entire little tray of starters and they were lovely!  I wanted to touch them all!

Now for what I brought home...



A Kalanchoe of some sort...it's not the panda plant because it's much fuzzier than that.  I'll figure it out eventually!  My main concern was that it was one I didn't have and I wasn't about to leave it there.

I think this next one is in the gasteria family or something like that.  She's nice and fat and a very nice color!

Another Kalanchoe...I think this one is referred to as 'Copper Spoons'.  I like it and can't wait for it to get big!

This one might be in the sennicio family, but again I'm not really sure.  The one laying flat obviously fell over and started rooting on it's side.  Amy's looks much more "put together", but I needed this one!

A little Stapelia, Stapelia scitula, love it!!  I googled it, and I can not wait to see it bloom.  It's blooms have the foul smell like the 'gigantea', but on a much smaller scale. 

I don't know what these next two are.  They're fuzzy...one's serrated and the other is more smooth edged.  The bottom one has a bloom and it looks like it's going to be rust colored.  I'll share that as soon as it opens.

My luck with aeoniums hasn't been great, but I couldn't pass up a fuzzy one!

Another Kalanchoe that I might have, but then again, it could be one Charlie ate and I just haven't noticed.  Either way, this one has a bunch of pretty little blooms just about to open, so it only made sense to bring her home.

I think this one is a Crassula.  I had one this past summer, but the intense heat of the crazy summer burned it right up.  I'll be more careful with this one.

And my most odd find on this trip...a variegated Kalanchoe beharensis 'Felt Leaf' or 'Elephant Ear'.  I have the normal one, but this one is variegated and I really needed it.  In fact, I had already paid for my original purchases and spied this lovely when I was taking pictures of Eric's other lovely succulents. 

Had Eric been there, I most likely would have come home with all the names, but the name hunt is part of the fun. 

If you're in Austin, you'll want to take a detour and stop by East Austin Succulents.  For me, it's well worth the drive to spend the hour or so perusing through the interesting and sometimes special finds. 

Mandy

More Puppy Damage

The four legged kids are driving this two legged momma batty!  I wondered why they were being so quiet the other day and a peek around the side of the house explained it all. 

I keep all my extra plastic and little terracotta pots in my tiny greenhouse that I used a few years back.  Basically, it's just a shelving unit with a plastic cover that I started using for the pot storage.  I put the cover on it so that rain water wouldn't accumulate in pots.  Thing One and Thing Two however thought it had a much more useful purpose...shredding the plastic so they could then rip apart and disperse the plastic pots all over the yard. 

All the pots are now in a large plastic tub that is secured tightly on the porch.  I'm thinking that I've pretty much puppy proofed the backyard unless they decide they need to rip out the few things that I do have in the ground.  Fortunately, they've not showed any interest in these and they've had ample opportunity. 

Mandy