(My work fittonia in Novemeber 2008 when it still looked beautiful.)
You may remember my Fittonia Propagation Project (see picture of healthy fittonia above, read the post here) regarding my desire to thin out my Fittonia argyroneura that was growing magnificently in my office. Well, unfortunately this plant threw a fit while I was gone during my long New Year's weekend. I had watered it on December 31st before leaving work and thought everything would be just fine. However, when I returned to work on January 5th the plant was "passed out" and was very unhappy. I promptly watered it and thought it would return to normal.

(My pitiful work fittonia in January 2009.)
The plant did bring itself back up into an upright position, but many of it's leaves shriveled up and needed to be removed. While this Fittonia now looks rather pitiful, as seen above, it is still alive. I am very happy that I decided to take cuttings from the mother plant when I did because I still have two healthy new plants from the two cuttings I took.

Hopefully this will not happen to any of my fittonia plants again.

Annah and I received three beautiful cuttings last Wednesday from one of our good friends. This friend, Valerie, left on Saturday to spend six months in Ecuador to study and explore South America. She decided to give us these cuttings as a gift for our engagement. Each individual cutting was presented to us in small jelly jars with glass pebbles and look very nice.

The first cutting is a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) and should easily root in the water in which it has been placed. All of my previous spider plant cuttings that I have rooted have been successful, so I anticipate this cutting to survive without a problem. I hope I can keep the variegated white lines on this plant since I have been unable to do that with my own Chlorophytum comosum 'Hawaiian' which has not received sufficient light to maintain it's variegation.

The second cutting is a Jade (Crassula ovata) which should easily root in the water. I have had success with propagating my own Jade plants so this cutting should not be a problem.

The third cutting is from her Aloe vera plant. From my research I have now found that rooting Aloe vera in water will likely lead to rotting. I will likely be moving this cutting into a small pot of soil to see if it will root. Have any of you had success with Aloe vera propagation? Please leave a comment if you have.

Annah and I are optimistic that we can keep these cuttings alive so that we can enjoy our beautiful and healthy additions to our houseplant collection!

Edit: The Aloe vera cutting was moved from the jar to a small pot filled with soil on the evening of 01/13/2009. There did not appear to be any signs of rot following it's removal from the water-filled jar.

If you have been reading this blog since last winter you will be happy to know that the Schlumbergera truncata (or Thanksgiving Cactus/Holiday Cactus) that I rooted and planted in a plastic cup -- (Read about it here and then in a subsequent post) -- is doing well and is currently flowering.


The Beginning of the Project: January 2008

In order to demonstrate how far this plant has progressed since I started this project in January, here are the photos from when I first started this project:

The cuttings were planted in their own plastic cup "pot" in the end of February. They survived the move to the house Annah and I are renting and have been growing in their new location since the middle of August.

The First Flower:

The cooler temperatures in last month or two have done wonders for all of the Schlumbergera truncata's (Thanksgiving Cacti) at our house and this is only the first of many blooms at our house. (The pictures below are close-ups of the flower shown at the top of this post)


This is the second Schlumbergera truncata post in recent weeks and will surely not be the last. Look forward for more to come in the upcoming weeks! Don't worry though, I will be posting about other houseplants/flowers besides Schlumbergera truncata's!

(Delightful tropical flower arrangement...)
Annah and I got this beautiful flower arrangement on Friday night at a fundraiser for the local Boys & Girls Club for donating ten dollars. The only plants that I think I can identify are the Anthurium and a Heliconia velloziana, and a Leucospermum cuneiforme or praecox (Yellow Pincushion Protea)[?]. If I have identified these incorrectly, please leave a comment in the comments section. Sadly, these flowers will not last forever and will have to be thrown out once they turn black and disgusting, but we will enjoy them while they are beautiful. (Scroll down to see the close-ups of the flowers.)

(Unopened Heliconia velloziana flower)
(Heliconia velloziana flower)
If I have indeed identified this flower correctly, here is some information on it: Heliconia velloziana have "Splendid splashes of color, dramatic form, long lasting, and a variety of sizes, make this a favorite for exotic tropical flower arrangements. The name Heliconia (pronounced "hell-ee-cone-ee-uh") honors Mt. Heliconia, home of the ancient Greek gods. There are between 250-400 species or more, with 98 percent native to tropical America." ¹

(Leucospermum cuneiforme or praecox. ["Yellow Pincushion Protea"]?)
Here is some information about the Yellow Pincushion Protea: "Resembling the spiny sea urchins, pincushions are a good accent to any arrangement. Although not as long lasting or to use as a dry flower, pincushions come in beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow." ²

(Anthurium 'tropical' or Anthurium 'osaki' ?)

In other news, my rooting project for my schlumbergera segments (and for the past few weeks a Zebrina Pendula 'Burgundy') has been steadily progressing. Each of the schlumbergera segments have sprouted roots and I have even placed a few of them in their own cup with some soil. Once these newly potted cuttings develop a more complete root system in these cups, I will post new pictures and new information.

(Schlumbergera cuttings and Zebrina Pendula 'Burgundy' cutting)
(Close-up of the Schlumbergera roots)
We also were able to do some plant browsing at Sargent's Gardens, which is one of the plant stores in town, and we saw some nice plants, including some astounding Aeschynanthus radicans in bloom, but it was too expensive since they were asking around thirty dollars for it. We also saw a nice Aglaonema x 'Stars' (there wasn't an actual tag with an ID, but I believe it was a Aglaonema x 'Star's) but this one was also too expensive for us being about twenty dollars.

Sources:

¹From http://www.hawaiitropicals.com/tropflowguid.html
²Ibid

Photo Credits: All me