Todays plant is a grape ivy (Cissus rhombifolia), the perfect plant if you have a black thumb 😂Insanely tolerant of many conditions! Its native habitat is tropical Venezuela, so misting especially in winter will please it but equally you can forget to water it for months. It will suffer but likely live. It is also super easy to propagate! I did a vase full of tip cutting about a month ago, and about half have developed roots. It is important to plant these up ASAP once that root forms. Roots that develop in water are different then ones that develop in soil. Getting these guys straight into very damp soil will support them to transition into soil roots. You can of course also do the cutting straight into soil, but I have less success with this. It is critical that that your cutting has one leaf node in water as this is the location that the roots will form, rarely from the actual cut end. I will pot these up with 3 to 5 cuttings per pot to get a nice bushy plant. The cuttings without roots i will pop back in water. Even if you don’t want more plants, cutting your grape ivy will help it to become nice and bushy, and you can share cuttings with friends! These guys really trail so a hanging pot or a bookshelf is a great location. They can tolerate really low light levels, but will not grow. A nice solution for a dark bathroom is two have two, place one in a nice bright diffuse light situation and the other in any dark corner. Switch them every 3 or so months, radically reduce watering in the dark space. How great is that! BTW all of the above also works with a spider plant. Have you tried this? I have had this grape ivy for many many years and it has produced dozens of new plants!
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Spring forced bulbs are where houseplants and the flower farm worlds collide! I have enjoyed forcing bulbs to bring some much needed January joy for many years. It is pretty easy to do, even more so now with our big farm cooler! You can totally do this at home, but its too late for this year. Pop down to @kootenaycoop to get one of our super cute paper pots of forced bulbs this year anytime between now and early April they should be in stock. The paper pot is actually a take out container, but I thought a super cute alternative to plastic!
Next year if you want to give this a go here is what to do! Buy some dwarf bulbs from a local garden centre. Tete a tete daffodils, harmony iris, or snowbunting crocuses make excellent choices. Plant these up in containers and leave in a cold spot either outside in a sheltered spot or in your garage. Must be lower the 4 degrees for sure! They can take some freezings no problem. A fridge without fruit also works! In early January move to a space that is around 10 to 12ish degrees, in either a bright windowsill or with a grow light.
Once they start to flower your kitchen or office is just dandy. If you either pick up one of ours or do your own what to do after flowering? Move back to that cool bright windowsill. Lightly keep watering. Once the foliage starts to die back stop watering. The bulbs will go dormant. At this point you can either remove the soil and store in a cool dry place until fall or you can plant outside in spring. Either way they should flower again next spring. A nice place to plant is a path edge (they are dwarf!) or straight into grass. They will flower and die back before the grass needs cutting. They will naturalize and multiply over time! Yay spring joy in February!
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