Airplant

This was a suprising early birthday present from Cindy! It is an ultra sleek and cute airplant that is placed inside a glass container. Airplants absorb water on their leaves so you actually mist it to water it. Distilled water is preferred so that there is no mineral build up in the glass. I love this! And it is always such a joy to look at!

Magnet Container

March 2010. I bought this magnetic plant container in taiwan. I love the little tea pot shape! The magnet is super strong and there is actually drainage built in! Looking forward to finding a nice tiny succulant to plant in it.


April 2010. With a succulent donation from Cindy (thank you!) I've planted something into the magnetic container! This hen and chick succulent is the perfect size for this plant. It is so cute, and the inner pot even has drainage!

Swinging Succulents

This is a cute way to display tiny plants! I found it at a night market in Taiwan. The center piece actually swings! I will probably repaint it white or sage though when I have time. It was actually pretty hard to get these tiny hens and chicks succulents into the mini pots. I ended up just throwing dirt on top of them, using a popsicle stick to settle the dirt around them, and then using a small make up brush to dust off the dirt on the leaves. I'm hoping they will stay this size! Credit again to Cindy for the plant donation!

Teal Pot

I found this teal pot which I totally love! You can't tell from the picture, but its got an iridescent coat of paint on it and shines in the sun. It is pictured here with some mint, which will be great to use on some desserts. Part of the fun of container gardening is defintiely scoring some cool containers!

Magnetic Kiss

These are two magnets that stick to each other and let you hold phots and notes. I thought they were so cute, especially the little spout of water on the tops of their heads!

Japanese Lanterns

I ordered some japanese lanterns from Brecks.com. These are fiery red blossoms that look like paper lanterns and make beautiful dried flowers. I've never seen the actual bulbs for these, which turned out not to be bulbs at all. When I opened the package, I thought Brecks had jipped me and left only dried sticks. But upon closer inspection, these "sticks" have roots.


This stick root is the most promising. It actually has some growth already. I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed. I was a little confused on how to plant them, and decided on a vertical orientation with the top of the sticks protruding from the soil so I know where they are.


My fury garden helper, Iopius.

Peony Planting

I planted two peony roots this weekend. One is my favorite, light pink Sarah Bernhardt, and the other, a magenta Felix Crousse. I have pictures of the shoots below, which were actually very different looking, considering they are both peonies. Wish me luck! It is possible to grow them in containers, but I'm more concerned about how they'll adapt to the SoCal weather. I read online though, that to simulate a cold winter, you can water them with ice cubes, so I may give that a try if we have a warm winter. According to Grandma, April 15 is Peony season in China. I don't know if I'll have any blooms by April of next year (highly doubt actually), but hopefully sometime!

Shoots planted on February 28, 2010.



First sprout on March 19!

Ok, I won't pretend to have waited patiently for a month to see some evidence that the peony was doing ok. I actually dug up the root, at the risk of shocking it, to see if there was any growth. I was really relieved to see that it was growing! But that relief came at the surprise of seeing the plant break the surface. Either way, welcome, peony!

As of April 4, 2010.
The peony now looks like a mini-tree. Its been like this now for about a week or two and hasn't really changed much. It needs to get a LOT bigger than this before it can produce or support the giant peony blossoms. Hurry up, little plant, April 2011 is just around the corner!

Rannunculus from Carlsbad

Went to The Flower Fields located in Carlsbad this past weekend and scored my favorite! A rannunculus blossom that has a light pink edge that goes to white with a sage center. So gorgeous! Best part? The $1.99 price!