Rescue Or Folly

Yesterday as I pondered what do with this slowly diminishing, languishing, red leaf azalea plant.

         While today's rain that gave a break in heat gave me a pause and the idea to make a rescue,

which brings us to this point.

 Nothing much more traumatizing to a plant than to essentially be ripped from it's foundation and

then to be transplanted it to another foundation, we call a potted foundation. On top of that, this

 specimen is not in the best of health either, but hey. 

      It's not like the plant can just walk to another spot, at least not yet. Perhaps in another million

or two years they will have evolved to this ability, but for now it will have to rely on this human to

do it's thing.

       Rest and recovery along with some ....you got it.....time.  

                                                                  Rescue crater for reference.

Weeks Ago Garden Surgerys

 

This was severed from the parent plant and note the linear structure and you will get the idea why

this surgery was given the green light by me and if this plant could talk.

Perhaps this plant was thinking, I don't know what got into me, that strait shock of stems

just came out of no where.

Probably you just had some ancestral mutation that needed to manifest it's beauty, well, beauty

to some. I'm not a plant geneticist, but I might have played one on TV...

I take that severed limb, now that it has healed and scabbed and put it in a pot and watch it express

it's brilliance.

Surgery Two...what can I say, it was a busy day.

 This Dragon Fruit tyke that was started from a grocery store pinked fleshed, seeds, was an

involunteer to donating some of it's limbs for propagation.

     One them landed here in my orchid supporting tree. Although this cutting is a not an orchid,

I think it will be welcomed, if not by others, at least by me.

 Note the root already starting at the tip of this newly release and ready to start a new and

take hold of it's new surroundings with a little help with a frightfully bright and not a very 

good camouflaged tie.

   While some other cuttings went to a plant enthusiast with hopes of spreading the wealth of 

plant material and the joys of gardening.

 

Surgery Three... Cosmetic surgery was required for this Euphorbic grotesque type cactus.

 See that little guy off to the top right corner of this pic that looks just like this one in the foreground?

Yeah....this one. The one that was excised from the parent plant so this one could live on

in all it's infinite beauty, but the surgery has left a sizeable scar on the parent plant, that no 

 

longer exits due to some cuts here and there that leave only a small scar now. 

 

Dressed with some soil from it's own pot that has many many millions if not billions of 

 

beneficial bacteria that heals and mends.  See top pic for the results. 

 

 

 

 

What's one gratuitous yard cat picture to get the point across of propagation...hehe.

 

 

 

 

 I have yet to know if one can propagate cats this way...but hey, maybe time will tell...hehe.

 

 

 

 

Veggie Pots Update - Wow

 A week in and already jumbo sized leafs on the eggplant, which are unique to this variety.

Tomato plants not so much, however they caught a bad case of leaf minors , but not so much

for the eggplant, but hey, it's Summer and bugs do what bugs do they bug ya...ha!

    This eggplant is a happy Summer camper that it's getting ready to flower and set some,

I hope delicious eggplant for this human to eat.

 

Veggie Pots Setup

the
 You got ta love them Tomatoes and Eggplant.

    Tomato seeds from a last surviving tomato from my long standing, as in nearly four years,

Summer Sandwich tomato plant.

     The Eggplant is, now listen to this, a type of Ichiban, without saying what variety it may

be. Sounds suspect, but hey, it's hard to come buy, an Ichiban eggplant. Needless to say, I

couldn't pass these up. The leaves look a bit different than the variety I had years ago.

Once again, time will tell.

Newly planted and you tell how much they have grown in less than two weeks.

It never hurts to keep a swatch of shade cloth for our beastly hot Florida summer sunshine days,

for the newbies. Tomato seedlings have had almost a week jump on the eggplant seedlings and 

a couple of days with partial clouds to help welcoming these plantlets helped immensely.

Today's Props Snapshot

 

Front and center and looking rather ragged and a bit dehydrated and is today's newly

enrolled at this vibrant community of first and second year attendees.

Today's Props Graduate

 Looked over at my indoor props spot and it was time for this one to graduate.

Faster than you can say...break a branch.

It's outdoors with ...

it's new guardians, meet the Arecas. A palm whose roots will be forever bound. 

              So who would be better to serve such an anointed task and with me as water

carrier and a with a gardener's eye.

Monstera

 What's in a name like monstera. This term is used quite a bit when giving a plant

it's newly assigned botanical name. Most times it's a reference to certain obvious 

characteristic features, fitting for this family of plants, in this case, a bromeliad.

   This bromeliad is given this descriptor for many obvious reasons.

 

Here are some photos of it's late stage if life of throwing up a fluorescence. Some would

say, huh? You mean flower? Yes, but in this family of plants they are known as fluorescence.

 

So here you are, a bromeliad with it's characteristic monstrous base, fluorescence height,

but but but, not the actual fluorescence it's self.

   Exhibit A - Monstrous Base

        No banana for scale...oops!

        Note the length of the fluorescence at about half it's soon to be it's note worthy 

monstrous length.     Looking down, with it's base, but a blur...hehe.

 

Exhibit B - Monstrous Fluorescence

 

Taller than me and I'm six foot tall, well used to be, time and gravity had it's way.

 

And then there is this...

the actual fluorescence, the none monstera part of this other wise beauty.

   Hey, being a sculptor, ya ya, a shameless plug, having one, let a lone two really viewable 

aspects is a win win.  So there you have it.

                                                                                       A  Monstera beauty.