Hot Propagation Summer

May 20, 2022

Hello! It's been a second. I know I said I was going to do plant updates monthly. I have spectacularly failed step 1. In my defense, the past almost-two-months have been a doozy, and it's difficult to write things for fun when you have to write things for not-fun.

Anyways, I'll preface this with two non-plant updates that aren't significant enough for a standalone announcement:

1. I will be moving in a few months, very exciting! By moving, I mean moving-1-mile-across-town, so maybe not as exciting, but I'm hoping the new place will have more light so I don't have to rely on the grow lamps as much. If nothing else, it will definitely have more space, which means I'll be able to take back the plants I temporarily forced upon my mom.

2. I've decided to finally sign up for an art fight account. I've been aware of its existence for almost as long as it's been around, but I never bothered participating. Better late than never. My page is here if you're also participating and want to keep tabs on me. My days of consistently churning out grand painted pieces in short timeframes have been over for a long time, so don't expect too much out of me, but I'll do my darndest to make everything look nice.

Back to the plants: they're out of control right now, which led me to go on a chopping spree in preparation for what I will be calling Hot Propagation Summer. The following plants have received haircuts:

The polka dot plants have, as predicted, gotten unsustainably tall. I suspect the largest plant in the older pot was crowding out the smaller ones, so I left the little ones alone and chopped off most of the giant branch. In the younger pot, all the plants were roughly equal levels of huge, so I cut virtually the entire plant down. The plants were healthy outside of the legginess, so I'm attempting to root all the cuttings.

The angel wing was growing very vigorously. I did not realize just how vigorously until it completely flopped over one day. I took two small cuttings instead of one large one, so with any luck, I'll have two more of these guys eventually! I'm also trying to press all the leaves I cut off because I think the foliage is too nice to throw out. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I'll figure that out once pressing has finished.

One of the leaves on the snake plant had a growing yellow and brown spot on it that didn't look good at all, so I cut the entire leaf off and saved the tip in an attempt to root it.

Those are all the cuttings I've taken for the time being, but I'm considering trimming down the rhizomes on the tiger paw begonia because it's starting to look a little wild. I'm also considering taking leaf cuttings from the black mamba. We'll see!

In other news, here are some plants that I think deserve shoutouts:

If you remember the plight of the purple plant from March, I am pleased to report that he's back and better than ever! I started watering him every two days instead of every three, and he's been very happy with that. I'd love to get a bit more fuzz on him now that I'm not concerned about his survival, but I don't think I have a shot at that until I move.

My croton and marble queen pothos, two of the plants that are currently with my mom, have been doing great, which confirms that I really don't need to micromanage the plants as much as I think I do. I'm particularly happy with the marble queen, which recently has been pushing a vine out of the pot. The croton is no slouch, either. It's unfortunately very green, but I'm hoping to fix that once I can stick it under the grow lamp.

Finally, I have a new addition to the family: another snake plant! I separated it from my mom's plant, and my friend gave me the pot, so it cost me nothing. Free stuff is great. It looks very healthy and happy, and so far it doesn't seem to be too mad about me cutting through its rhizome, so I think all is well for now.

I'm not sure when Hot Propagation Summer 2 will premiere, since it largely depends on how fast these cuttings want to root (assuming they root at all). I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats waiting for the results, but we'll have to live with uncertainty for a short while. In the meantime, I'm hoping to resume my usual writing schedule now I have a bit of down(ish)time!