The Little Troopers

I’ve had three wee cuttings of Tradescantia zebrina chilling in a jar for the past three-ish weeks, as another standard propagation of this prolific plant. For the last two of those three weeks, my negligent arse has not added water to the jar. At all. Somehow, the little-to-no water did not seem to put a damper on their parade. I finally repotted them with soil in another jar – recycled and sanitized from the now-departed Tradescantia nanouk. Fingers crossed these pups also survive in their new home environment.

The Outdoor Overachievers

I also started a new propagation for the behemoth T. zebrina that lost its arm last week. This outdoor child has a new buddy, bequeathed unto me by a dear human friend. The new Purple Heart plant got rather dinged up in the past week and I decided to give her a trim and start a bundle of propagation cousins to join the T. zebrina. Hopefully I’ll be able to move them outdoors in a couple weeks, since the parent plants seem to thrive best outside.

The Peppers

For a beginner plant parent, the propagation technique can bring a great deal of relief, where the loss of a plant does not necessarily mean the end of the line. I hadn’t thought that I could propagate the pepper plant, but a quick internet search indicates that I can. And I might need to, both because I don’t expect the peppers to blossom before the cold sets in, and because something other than me is eating them. I no longer think it to be squirrels. I’d want to say caterpillars, but I can’t find any. The bites are along the edges of the leaves, drilled through the center of some, and chomps along the stems! What does that? Not a rhetorical question. Someone please tell me.

Bill

Leaf # 4! Way to go, Bill!