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.

Last week Annah and I, along with my mother, toured four gardens in the Annual Garden Tour around town. Each garden was beautiful and each one had ideas which both Annah and I and my parents can implement into our own gardens. We didn't really take that many pictures, mostly due to the fact that it was very crowded, but we were able to snap a few pictures during the tour.

The first picture (to the right) is a tomato plant that has been trained to climb up single pole, which is far different from the way we have been growing our tomatoes. Usually we just plant the tomatoes and then place a metallic cage around them. When the plant branches out and gets really heavy this metal cage holds them up and allows for easy access to the tomatoes. Using a single pole instead allows you to train the tomato plant to grow up the pole by pinching off the branches that aren't from the main branch. This allows for what seems like a more efficient growing method for growing tomatoes. Unfortunately, our tomato plants are already too far along to implement this method this year, but we will definitely be trying it next year.


In the next picture, if you click on it to see a larger version of it, you will see three different varieties of Lilies. The first Lily starting from the left is a dark pink variety with white mixed in, the second Lily next to that is a plain pink one, and the last one in the back is a stunning dark red color. We will definitely have to purchase some of these because they are simply magnificent!


I've always liked Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) for some reason, and at the last garden we saw a beautiful plant with a few blossoms on it. In our own gardens we have yet to plant any Foxgloves, but it is on the list of things to be planted. Regardless, I took two pictures (see below) of the pink Foxgloves. Enjoy!

I'm not sure of the identity of the last plant that I photographed (below), but it is a beautiful flower and as soon as we find out the identity we will need to add it to our list of flowers to grow! Update: While researching hollyhocks tonight I found out that this flower is a Malva sylvestris 'Zebrina' or "French Hollyhock" so now we can officially add it to the list!

Alissa, who is my eldest sister, and her boyfriend have an enormous garden this year. This is the second year that she and her boyfriend have embarked upon having their own large garden on the land which her boyfriend owns. Last year they had a smaller garden with tomatoes, beans, lettuce, kohlrabi, squash, cucumbers, melons, and such. This year, with the larger garden, they have tomatoes, sweet corn, field corn, onions, potatoes, peppers, lettuce, swiss chard, beets, carrots, beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, radishes, and apples. Once all of the fruits and vegetables are ready, my niece and nephew will be selling a lot of it at their own Farmer's Market Stand at the business her boyfriend owns, and if Annah and I get the chance to go help pick and sell the produce we will be happy to help!

My parent's vegetable garden is very bland compared with Alissa's massive garden since we only have tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, and some peppers.

I will continue to post more pictures as the gardens continue to grow!

Enjoy the pictures below!









Photo Credits: Alissa (my sister)

Annah and I went for a hike through one of Minnesota's State Parks on Monday and we had a great time enjoying the warm weather and the beautiful wildflowers that the park had to offer. Below are the pictures we took and I identified the plants that I could. If any of you know what any of the other plants are please feel free to leave a comment. Enjoy!

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum?)
Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum)
Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
(Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum?)
Photo Credits: Jordan

Last Sunday we went for a walk at small nature center in one of the surrounding communities and we saw some beautiful Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) flowering all around the path. It would be wonderful if we could have some of these plants in our garden someday, even though they only bloom for a short time.

(Mertensia virginica "Virginia Bluebells.)
Photo Credits: Annah

I decided to go take some more pictures of the Malus x. 'Spring Snow' Crabapple tree today and I got some nice photos of the flowers and an angry pair of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) that did not want me near their birdhouse. The tree itself has more blossoms today and is looking much more "snowy" and makes it look prettier.





When examining the flowers more closely, I noticed that some of the flower petals have pinkish-purplish streaks and I'm not sure what is causing it but its a nice surprise to see a bit of color mixed in with all of the white.

Do you see the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)?










I also noticed a lot of busy bees out collecting pollen and I snapped a few pictures of them as you can see below.



Photo Credits: Jordan

It has been a colder and wetter spring than normal, or at least it seems that way. The plants in our garden continue to wake up and get ready for the warmer months ahead. All of the pictures in this post are from my parent's garden. Their garden was beautifully landscaped in 1992 after they purchased the house from my grandma. A local landscaping business gave them ideas and created blueprints for the layout of the garden. Over the years several of the plants have been moved, or accidentally killed, or have died from the cold and frigid Minnesota winters. One of the focal points if the landscaping near the deck is a Spring Snow Crabapple Tree (Malus x 'Spring Snow') which flowers beautifully and profusely every year. The tree has grown quite tall and is in store for some trimming in the future. The tree is not yet in full bloom, but there are some flower blossoms on it now, and perhaps more will come as the warm weather continues. Below are some pictures of the flowers.

(Malus x. 'Spring Snow' Crabapple)


I also took a picture of the entire tree so that you could see that the tree is not yet in full-bloom. It is a spectacular sight to see the entire tree in bloom because the entire tree appears to be covered in snow. Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of the tree when it is like that but the bloom is different every year. Another thing to notice in this picture is the lack of railing on the deck that is next to the tree. The reason why there is no railing at the moment is because last fall there was a minor flood that resulted in some minor damage to the basement wall that is underneath the deck. In order to repair the damage my parents had to remove the deck and replace part of the wall. The trucks that were used to bring in supplies and remove dirt damaged a few of their plants and buried some of the wood chips that were around the plants. The railing of the deck still needs to be reattached and the landscaping needs to be redone, but there are still plenty of plants that survived.

The Sedum plant (pictured below) that was featured in the "Signs of Spring" post has grown quite a bit in the past few weeks and looks much different in the sunlight and when it is not covered with raindrops. Another plant that was in that post was the Fern-leaf Peony (Paeonia tenuifolia) and that will be blooming in a matter of weeks.

(NOID Sedum)
(NOID Sedum)
(Fern-leaf Peony [Paeonia tenuifolia])
(Possibly a Sedum repestre 'angelina'?)
(Fern)
(NOID)
(Hosta)
(Hosta)
For Mother's Day I bought my mom a pot full of Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum tectorum) since she absolutely loves those plants and has since she has several collections of them around the house. I personally think they are nice plants that will thrive on neglect, which would be perfect for me and Annah. I will have to buy a plant for the two of us soon. Once my parents get their deck finished it will be the perfect home for this new plant! The Latin name of Sempervivum tectorum for this plant is fun to say and sounds great!

(Sempervivum tectorum "Hens and Chicks")
The last thing I will mention in this post is that I purchased some new plants last week at a local Community College Horticulture Center plant sale. I purchased a Brazilian Fireworks Plant (Porphyrocoma pohliana Maracas), which will look beautiful once it blooms and I also got a Wandering Jew Plant.

(Brazilian Fireworks Plant [Porphyrocoma pohliana Maracas])
(Wandering Jew Plant [Tradescantia])

Photo Credits: Jordan