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.

Protecting the Greenhouse

What you ask does the greenhouse need protected from?

From Thing One...

...and Thing Two

What did they do this time?  The heathens chewed off a window flap and the mesh window and then had a feast on my succulents. 

Their entrance is taped up now, but they snapped a few branches of my 'Red Bird' Cactus and the non-variegated Jacob's Ladder...they're really the same thing, but one's variegated and the other's not.

My Kalanchoe 'Fantastic' is minus a few babies that were growing at her base.  We won't discuss the nice fat leaves that got chopped.

This one made me the most irritated.  They were cuttings that a blogger friend sent me that were doing quite well until they got plucked and thrashed about!  I think I salvaged most of them, now to just wait and see. 

The didn't eat any of the Kalanchoe 'Pink Butterfly', but they did snap one of the branches in half.  This is my most finicky Kalanchoe and they really need to leave her alone!

There was more damage, but the pictures didn't come out like they should. 

They're coming very close to being strung up by their not so little necks if they don't knock it off!

I thought about what to do while out Christmas shopping with my oldest and decided on fencing it off.  A quick call to my friend who lives across the street and it was settled...we'd build a fence around it when we both got home. 

The trip to Home Depot proved to be less expensive that I'd originally thought and the guy that helped me was a great help in getting me exactly what I needed without any overkill.  I think he felt sorry for me when I explained what I was doing and why. 

My youngest helped me get the posts where we wanted them and then covered up the damaged window.  Needless to say, that window won't be getting opened.  We also have an issue with this awful post from the phone company next to the greenhouse.  They've been working on it and some nincompoop left a ton of exposed wires, one that the dogs helped cut in half, so I decided to just fence off the whole space.  Amy got home just as I was bringing the fencing back, and we got right to work.  She taught me how to use a post pusher inner...it's amazing how easy things work when you do them right!

The cinder blocks help hold the covering down so the wind doesn't pick them up.  It's also come in handy to to keep out heathens.  It's classy I know, but the upturned laundry basket is covering the electrical outlet post that is there for the pool and my heater.  If they don't see it, they're less likely to want it.  I can untie and fold back the fence to get in and out.  Thankfully I don't go out everyday unless it's cold and I have the heater or lamp on.  

This should keep the heathens out and keep me a little more sane!  I'm not so sure how happy my husband will be tomorrow when he gets home from the deer lease, but sometimes a girl's got to do what a girl's to do! 

 Everything is tucked back in and we should be able to keep it this way.

Mandy



Puppies in the Greenhouse

Saturday started off just a tiny bit stressful.  It was raining and so I only let the puppies out just to eat and do their business before putting them back in their kennel so I could go back to sleep.  They did incredibly well at that and I was able to get another two hours of sleep in.  About 9 a.m., I was putting the ornaments on the tree, looked out the back window and realized that the zipper door was up on the greenhouse.  Thinking that I knew I had shut it, I walked out and the closer I got I knew something was up.   It had stopped raining so they were of course running around sloshing around in the mud and water.  They both followed me into the greenhouse and that's when I lost it.  Somehow, these two terrors; gone were my little angels, unzipped the door and then busted through the mesh window.  I had left one window up for ventilation, and it was definitely letting air flow through at that point!

The trampled the Palmer Sedum and made it to the back of the crushing things that were in their way to their prize.  I've decided that certain succulents must put out more appealing smells because they bypassed a lot to get to the one in the back.  And out of that pot, they only dug up the one.

The Sanseveria's took a nice hit too.

Needless to say, I sprayed the Boundary stuff all around the greenhouse and put bricks at the bottom of the door's zippers to keep them out.  They got a pretty good tongue lashing too.  They're lucky that I didn't catch them doing it or they'd have been in bigger trouble.

It's gonna be a long winter!

Lesson Learned - Writer's Workshop

This year, I bought myself a portable greenhouse and was very excited not to have to cart things back and forth from the garage.  Even better, my husband was thrilled not to have his garage overran with my plants.  Everything was going smoothly until record breaking (to my memory) low temps hit our normally warm city for a solid week.  By low temps, we're talking 20's, but that's not normal for us.  I had already bought a little heater for the greenhouse becuase my succulents don't like to be below 45 degrees.  Very diligently, I would go out and turn it on and then adjust it before bed.  I managed to still kill my only two Pitcher Plants, of course it would be some of the most expensive to bite the dust first.  I added another heater for the week of the artic blast and on the first night felt real smart when I went to bed with them both running.  It wasn't until the next morning when the blow dryer wouldn't work that I knew we had a problem.  I put the two heaters on the same outlet and evidently you can do that without blowing a fuse. 


Before Freeze



After Freeze



Major losses in the greenhouse, I was in the depths of dispair, yes, the depths of dispair for days after this.  I'd go out and just stare at them and remind myself that that was a pretty idiotic thing to do.  Finally I came to my senses and cut all the frozen damage off so maybe, just maybe the little darlings will grow back.  We'll see. My husband ran another extension cord for me and they ran fine after that, but the lesson was learned...never, ever put two heaters on the same extension cord.

Stop by Mama Kat's to read more great entries in this weeks workshop. 

Mandy

Greenhouse Happenings

It's incredibly cold outside, the temperature didn't get above 40 today and for this warm weather loving Texan, that's about 40 degrees to cold!  I've been keeping, or rather trying to keep my succulents warm in the little greenhouse.  The little heater's been running through the night and some days to keep them warm.  When I went out the other day, I was delighted to find that several of them are blooming.  I'm not sure exactly what this first one is, but the blooms on this gem are a gorgeous deep pink. I think it's a Pachy-something, but whatever it is, it's one of my favorites.  Last year, she bloomed in February...it must be the greenhouse!

This next one has always been high on my list because it's so weird looking.  I found it labeled as a 'Maternity Plant' at Walmart only to find that it's a 'Chandelier Plant' Kalanchoe Tubiflora.  At one point, it was like a little bush...

 ...and then got kind of leggy

Shortly after this picture, I cut her back and started another couple of pots.  She doesn't look good at all right now, but decided to bloom anyways.

And what lovely orange blooms they are! 

As for the rest of the succulents...between the greenhouse, the laundry room and the garage, they're still holding their own and looking quite nice considering the weather.

That's it for today, I just needed some color and thought I'd share with you as well!

Plumeria Frost Bite and Puzzles

Whether it was last night or the previous night when then winds knocked my greenhouse around a bit, my Plumeria's were bitten by the frost.  They're in the living room now.  While they're happy to be in the house, I'm not happy about their leaves.  I went out today to move the greenhouse so that it wouldn't be sitting in water when it rains again, and it took me a while to figure out why the leaves looked so dark and icky. 

I could have gotten a better shot of the damage, but I'm being lazy and didn't want to get out of my chair!They're all crumpled and marked.  Hopefully they'll recover quickly come growing season!  When I went out yesterday, the greenhouse had gotten a little twisted from the winds the previous day/night.  I put everything back down, but still need to refill a few pots with dirt.  I figured why not just move it today and reorganize everything.  The Purslane that was exposed due to the movement also has frost burn on parts of her as well...again, not happy!  We're going to tie it down a bit better and I'll look for the halogen lights that my friend is using to add some extra warmth.  Hopefully all this will be done before the next front blows in. 

On a brighter note, Caitlin had a friend over this weekend who enjoys doing puzzles, and she and Shelby made some great progress on a retro bowling puzzle Shelby had started.  The friend eventually had to go home, so we moved the card table and puzzle party to the living room and finished it up. 

This is one of our favorite things to do during the winter when it's too chilly to enjoy being outside.  We have quite a stockpile of puzzles awaiting us, so we'll see how many we get through this winter.  By the time it's over, we'll be puzzled out for a while!

Mandy

Ready for Winter

My succulents are going to have a great time this winter in their new greenhouse!  They'll have to share the space with a few bougainvilleas and hibiscus, but it was bought with them in mind.  You might notice that we're in two different yards.  My husband got mine up so fast that I didn't get any pictures.  My Neighbor Friend also bought the same thing, so once we were done with mine, we went across the street to put hers together.  I also got pictures to share.

 It arrived last week in a box like this...

All laid out...

She had to do an impromtu mowing session once we chose the spot for hers.

My Neighbor Friend and me in mine....

It's up and in it's new home! 

This weekend I'll start putting the shelves in mine so that I'll be prepared for getting them in.  They're all loving the cooler weather, so I can't likely put them in right now.  The bougainvilleas are blooming again, so there's no way I'm putting them up.  I'm thinking it won't be until December that everything goes in, but at least I can put some things away.  My husband is excited and was more than willing to put it up for me if it means keeping his garage plant free for the winter.  It gets a little dangerous, especially before I cut the bougainvilleas back...they're awful spikey!