Monday, November 30, 2020

Plant Day

 


Hare's Foot Fern

I never realize how big my plants have grown over the summer until I bring them into the house before the first freeze. Of course I don't bring them all in. Not by a long shot. Some of them are just way too monstrous for me to haul inside and I don't know what I'd do with them if I did. The room we used to use for that purpose is now the laundry room and although I actually have a few in there now as well as the rooting nursery and babies-in-pots daycare, there isn't room for nearly as many as there used to be. So I brought in what I could, what I could find room for, and covered up the rest with my stash of old tablecloths, sheets, and blankets that I keep just for that purpose. 

Here are a few more of the ones I did bring in. 


This lovely thing is a Banyan tree and I just figured that out today with my wonderful Picture This! app. Kathleen gave it to me and I've had no idea what it was and I'm pretty excited because I love Banyan trees. I've just never thought of one being in a pot before. And yes, it does need a bigger pot and that will happen after winter but I read that they do like to be potbound so I've accidentally done the right thing by it. It sort of takes up half the hallway. 


The plant up there on the left is an arrowhead plant and it's gotten all sorts of out of control. I have the polka dot begonia on a little child's chair under the window and Mr. Moon isn't going to mind that his toilet area is compromised with that set up, right? 
I'll change it before he gets home. I promise!


There's another begonia and a pineapple plant in the dining room. That window does not get much sun but it'll have to do for now. I've got a few plants more stuck here and there and it's rather nice, having the green company. 

The first thing I did this morning before I moved plants around was to go out and cut my banana stalks off their trees. I did my research and found that what I thought was true IS true which is that those little banana fingers will get frozen and die when it gets below 32 degrees. One of the stalks was easily accessible to cut but the other one, the one I just discovered, was way too high for that so I had to cut the main part of the tree down with a sharp knife in order to harvest the fruit. That is fine because once a tree has produced fruit, it dies anyway. Now the fruit stalks are set to ripen in the old laundry room and I hope they do. 


Exotic decor, right? Goes perfectly with my darling Sue-Sue's vintage bark-cloth curtain. 

I also cut a bunch of fire spike today to stick in vases to root over the winter, some for Rachel and Hank and some for me to plant in the area where I pulled the poison ivy. So I have great bouquets of that all over the house too. 



While I was at it outside I picked up some branches and twigs and hauled them to the burn pile. 
Feels good to get some stuff done. 

And now it's closing in on night time, already dark, chickens up in the hen house, and the temperature is dropping. I know- I KNOW! We make way too much of a big deal about it around here when the thermometer goes down past thirty-two. We can't help it. 

Mr. Moon made it to Tennessee safely and has been sending me videos of SNOW! That transplanted Floridian is going to freeze his ass off in the deer stand. 
He'll love it. 
Last night as we were settling into our cozy bed I asked him to please kiss me good-bye before he left in the morning. He said, "You can kiss me after you make me a big breakfast," and we both laughed and laughed. I informed him that there were two packages of granola bars in his snack bag and that would have to do. I'm not best-wife enough to get up at four in the morning to make oatmeal.
But he did kiss me and I told him to be safe and that I love him and he said he'd be safe and that he loves me too. And then I turned over and went directly back to sleep although I could not sleep as late as I usually do. The house was just too quiet. 

Love...Ms. Moon






30 comments:

  1. Your house looks so cozy, the light around the plants is so warm. Glad your good man is safe.

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    1. It's a cozy house. I am so lucky to be the lady of it.
      And yes- Glen is safe. All is well.

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  2. Glad Mr Moon is safe (if not warm) And love that you have the companionship of your plants inside with you! That *hares foot* as you call it (we call it rabbits foot) is huge.......I've got you on that one. Mine (in guest room- which is rarely used) has fronds almost 4 feet long and it's a beast to deal with.....if lovely, though. Be kind to yourself.... in your alone-ness
    Susan M
    PS.....those bananas you brought in should ripen?

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    1. Fronds four feet long? Now I have frond envy! Dang, woman! Is there room for a guest in the guest room or does that fern take up the whole place?
      You're supposed to cut bananas to finish their ripening but I am not sure that these are far along enough but since I had no choice due to the freezing temperatures, I just did it and will hope for the best.
      I am being way too kind to myself, to be truthful.
      Thanks, sweetie.

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  3. I hope Mr. Moon has a safe trip home as well.

    Your outdoor plants are my indoor plants:) Do you get many bugs from them being outside? I have fungus gnats right now because of a plant I tried to save. I hate fungus gnats and actually enjoy killing them. They don't actually hurt me but I just hate bugs in my house.

    Enjoy your quiet time.

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    1. The only problems with bugs in the house, or at least a major problem, was two years ago when we got a wasp infestation but I don't think it was from plants. I don't know. It was a mystery- more than one species of wasps seemed to appear out of nowhere in the house, stunned and sleepy.
      I am enjoying the quiet. Believe me.

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  4. I just looked out the window, and it is snowing right on schedule in Ohio. If only I could get used to it.

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  5. So jealous and in awe of your plants. Real bananas, wow. Our plants are runty and they do struggle, we try but unless it is some kind of pacific northwest weed, our success is limited. I LOVE your home, Even the toilet is charming. LOVE XO

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    1. Well, that's the bathroom that Glen redid a few years ago. He did a beautiful job on it.
      I doubt I could grow plants up where you are but I will say that when I visited up there a long time ago, I was astounded at the ferns in the forests. They were tremendous!

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  6. I never thought to try and root firespike! I’m excited to try it! I got a purple one not too long ago that I’d love to have more of. I have a nursery on my kitchen window sill where I’ve got a passion fruit cutting and Mexican flame vine. Arrowhead grows like weeds around here. Virginia creeper is definitely a weed down here and it’s a constant battle to keep it from taking over everything. Eagerly waiting for the front tonight, we’re supposed to get down to the 50s!
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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    1. I've been rooting fire spike since I discovered how easy it was one year by accident. I'd put some in a vase before a freeze, just for the prettiness and a few months later I realized it was still looking good, only to discover that it had rooted like crazy! Transplants easily too. Quite hardy. We have Virginia creeper too and yes, it's hard to keep up with it.
      Enjoy your cool weather!

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  7. Well, I had no idea Banana Trees die after producing their Fruit! That got me curious to google their life cycle and how they propagate. *LOL* Your Plants are magnificent, especially that Hare's Foot Fern! Here in Arizona the Frost can cause problems too, especially to Citrus. At our new Home we don't have anything we have to cover up, tho' we have Pine Trees for the first time ever and this Year a Blight has really decimated a lot of Mature Trees like Pine so I'm holding my Breath about ours. Only one has seemed to be struggling and we paid a fortune to try to Save it.

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    1. Truthfully, I did not know that either until I looked it up. But ours freeze back every winter so they just put out new ones from the rhizomes every spring. I've never heard of a blight affecting pines. That's horrible! I hope yours lives.

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  8. Your home looks so warm and cozy and now, green! The polka-dot begonia is crazy!

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    1. I've got that begonia rooting all over the place. Shall I send you one?

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  9. All those plants make your house cozy. There is so much wind here right now I actually thought it was raining but it ts bone dry. I hope you and Mr. Moon each have a good week.

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    1. I bet it's getting chilly in Tampa right now! Sorry you didn't get any rain.
      I think Glen and I will both have okay weeks. Thanks!

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  10. There's something kind of nice about bringing all the plants inside, to protect them from the harsh weather. Isn't there? I always like doing it. I have also never heard of a banyan tree in a pot!

    I hope your bananas ripen, but in the meantime they ARE a nice decorative element.

    We still haven't had a freeze here!

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    1. I go look at those bananas a couple of times a day just because they're so pretty to me.
      It is nice to have plants in the house but I just don't get enough light for them for very long. But they survive.
      Hard to believe that we're getting freezes before you do. How weird.

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  11. Your garden plants are my houseplants. So your house is starting to fill up like mine, all the windows crowded. Do you find as I used to, that you bring in little toads and frogs hiding in the plants? I used to find them climbing about the walls exploring their new habitat.

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    1. Mostly I've brought in little lizards- the anoles that we have here. They make nice little house pets although they're probably happier outside.

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  12. I did not cut down the last of my banana blooms/bananas. guess I should have. it got colder for longer than I thought it would. was still 32˚ at 7 this morning, frost everywhere, bird baths with a layer of ice.did I cover anything outside? no. so all foliage is lost but I think trunks and stalks are still OK. won't know for a few days yet. but the inside of my house looks like yours, plants everywhere.

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    1. I'm not convinced it actually froze this morning. If it did, it was briefly and barely. I'm expecting it to get colder tonight. Some years I've cut the bananas all the way to the ground and some years I've left them pretty tall. I can't see much difference come spring.
      We have house jungles now!

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  13. I'm glad Mr. Moon made it safely (freezing his buns off or otherwise). And behind that fire spike is it a painting of Frida?

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    1. Yes m'am. That is a Friday print that a friend gave me. I love it so much.

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  14. I do not have a green thumb so some of my houseplants are actually plastic! LOL!

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    1. Well, you don't have to worry about freezes, do you? Or watering. Which is nice.

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  15. When you cut your banana trees, don't they leak 'water' all over the place? We used to dig up our banana trees, put them into large garbage bags/pots with dirt and bring them into the double (heated) garage over the winter where they loomed over the space between two vehicles. But now we have way too many of them and they have gotten huge, so this year they were cut down at ground level and then the bases covered at least foot of mulch. So we'll see if they revive next spring. Guess it will depend on the harshness (or not) of our winter.

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    1. Oh yes. Bananas are full of liquid. And the stems I cut that the fruit is on bled a sticky reddish sap. I think that your bananas will probably come back next year. Mine always freeze back and then reappear. There's a rhizome that perhaps you could dig up without the plant if you were really worried. Hopefully, they'll be fine though.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.