Category Archives: houseplants

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No Blooms This Thanksgiving

I noticed late last month that my 24-year-old Thanksgiving cactus was looking a little sad and wilty. Upon closer inspection, the main trunk was hollow and crispy, and all the branches just broke off in my fingers. At the time, I found a votive holder to fill with water and shove them in, just so they would last until I got around to taking proper care of them.

That finally happened today.

Now, I have more than a dozen tiny cactus cuttings poked gently into floral tubes, poked gently in turn into a slab of floral foam to keep them upright. These are in addition to the four that I started a few months ago that now have delicate root systems floating in their tubes, and one that I’ve planted in a tiny one-inch pot. That one’s not exactly thriving, but it does have one leaf of new growth. Baby steps.

I hope that at least one will thrive and carry on the legacy of its parent, which I got from Aaron’s grandmother as a well-rooted cutting. I remember bringing it home wrapped in wet paper towels on our two-hour drive back from Lakewood, and sticking it back into a container of water… where it lived until its rootball nearly got stuck in the container, and I got it into a proper pot with soil.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever repotted it again. Twenty years in the same soil might have something to do with its stem rot. Whoops.

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Cat vs. Plants

I spent at least an hour yesterday repotting aloes and kalanchoes that Baxter had knocked over. I was proud of the arrangement of heavier pots in stands and supports, and was sure they’d be safe from kitty shenanigans.

As happens so often, I was completely wrong.

After I took the above photo, I went and had a good cry — because, seriously, how the hell am I supposed to make any headway on my general clutter if I keep having to rescue my plants? And not that I’m wishing kitty destruction on my family’s belongings, but I’m feeling a little singled-out here.

(I should note that he also gets up on the bathroom counter where I keep my bookbinding supplies and knocks my brushes onto the floor.)

Baxter doesn’t even spend time in this window; he specifically targeted my aloe plant. I only have so many windows, especially during the winter when the sunroom is too cold for most plants, and this shell game of moving plants from window to window to avoid destruction is getting old quick. He’s already eaten my purple shamrock THREE TIMES, and I’m running out of window options.

(BTW, remind me to tell you all about what happens when one accidentally leaves succulents in an unheated sunroom in February. The aftermath alleviated some of my plant overcrowding issues.)

So, as part of Laundry & Chores Sunday, I get to once again repot my aloe, AND rescue all my baby jade starts that got scattered across the kitchen floor.

EDIT: My Google research tells me that aloe is toxic to cats. Well, that’s just great. Hopefully Baxter just gnawed on the leaves and didn’t actually eat any of it. I’ll feel like a real ass if eating my cherished plants makes my cat barf.