Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Post #200: Plant Obsession


I've been scouting the Internet for weeks to try to find more Mother-in-law's tongue plants.  I got a dwarf one from my mother-in-law last year, and I managed not to kill it.  The one she gave me is on the far left in the photo, in the terra cotta pot.  She gave me the spider plant in the photo too, over two years ago.

Six weeks ago, I ordered a little golden hahnii bird's nest variety.  I kept it at my desk at work for a while, but my desk is void of sunlight, and this little plant got depressed and started getting droopy.  I brought it home, but I kept poking it, and so it was suffering from over-loving, which apparently mother-in-law's tongues don't appreciate.  The sadder it looks, the more I want to adjust something to make it better.  I'm hoping it will pull through, while also looking for more varieties for my collection.  

Dwarf varieties are, predictably, difficult to find locally, but also on the Internet.  I think your best bet is to order from a person who has these plants and is selling due to splitting and repotting.  I ordered a dwarf black star variety from a person in California via ebay last week, and I haven't received it yet.  I went around looking for appropriate potting vessels today.  I happened to find two dwarf varieties for sale at our local greenhouse, and after all that time searching the Internet...These are the lighter-colored one, which I suspect is moonshine or silver hahnii, and dark with yellow edges, which I suspect is black star.  the varieties were not labeled.

So today I had a potting party, potting the new plants, and replanting that poor golden hahnii using cactus medium.  I put one of the dark pups in the same pot as the golden hahnii as a friend and for stability.  Now I promise not to touch it anymore, only water it when it's dry.

--吴碧芙

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