Getting Rid of Excess

When Creeping Jenny creeps it can get leggy and leafless, so I cut out the excess at a node (place where leaves emerge) at each end—so it can either branch or sprout roots.


I pushed a pencil (we always seem to have plenty) into the soil to make a space for the cuttings to grow. I’m trying these cuttings in an indoor pot for the first time to see if they’ll grow inside. If not, I’ll take them outdoors. My friend G. often puts cuttings of this and that in her big pots along with the big plants—she would probably say that they keep each other company.


Creeping Jenny roots easily so these two cuttings should make a nice cascade down the side of the Hawaiian Ti plant’s home in no time.

Yesterday and today are the kinds of days, sunny and warm, when it’s a pleasure to do almost anything though it got to 82 degrees yesterday! And it’s only mid-March. But it’s good. ☺

Hope Instead

Where one leaf of the Hawaiian Ti plant had to be removed, six more have taken its place and are growing well. To me it’s a sign of hope that where one thing goes wrong, the Lord Jesus can bring in many good things to take its place. These new leaves are slow-growing but growing steadily.

Cold weather has returned with frigid, blustery winds. After “Noah’s flood”, God covenanted with Noah:

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Genesis 8:22).

Cold (“global warming” notwithstanding) and heat will never go away as long as we’re on this earth so we’d better learn to deal with them especially since they are a promise of good. What a paradigm shift!

In the Pink

The Hawaiian Ti plant has a lovely new leaf. Overall, the dark green leaves have a hard, shiny appearance—nothing spectacular though they do reflect light. But oh those pink edges! The sun and even today’s pale “liquid sunshine” shines through the pink and lights it up. What a creative touch God, the Master Painter, added to this plant!

I’m ready for him to brighten up my edges—I’m still recovering from a nasty cold. But recovering is the operative word—I am rounding the corner!

Slow & Steady

In looking through my indoor garden on this cold gray day to see what I might write about, I found nothing spectacular—tiny new leaves on the crotons and the Hawaiian Ti, the smallest beginnings of hibiscus blooms. Nothing but small, steady growth, which is of course, what gardens do—grow. And that’s good. Most plants are reaching for the sun and need turning to avoid leggy growth.

In fact, if my plants were experiencing rapid growth I’d be overrun. Slow and steady growth can be a very good thing.

Spots

The baby prayer plant has spots! Animals such as deer, tend to lose their spots as they mature but in some cases, plants gain them as they grow.

I searched the internet for pictures of the “rooster plant” and mostly cockscomb celosia came up. However, when I searched the croton family, I found my plant among them. One site said that in low light the leaves are dark green with yellow spots (like mine) but when they have stronger light, red and yellow predominate. Hmm…the rooster plant looks nice in that window but it seems that more light is needed.


I see a similar trend in my largest croton; since the winter sunlight in the southwest windows has been brief the new leaves are only green with a few yellow spots, contrasting with it’s gorgeous red and yellow spotted and veined fellows. Though the overall aesthetics won’t be as pleasing, it’s time to move it closer to the sunlight, swapping it with, possibly, the Hawaiian Ti plant that aesthetically, is perfectly suited to its window perch though it can get by with less light.

Spots can be a good thing. Plants show their maturity and health with natural markings and Jacob of the Bible gained his fortune in livestock by having the foresight to choose the spotted, dark-colored and speckled sheep and goats as his payment for years of hard work for his father-in-law. And God multiplied them(Genesis 30:26-43).

Tropical Growth

New growth is showing up in lots of places. These new shoots on the Hawaiian Ti plant have been making slow but steady progress for awhile but it seems possible that now that the larger one has made it this far it might just speed up.

The Hawaiian Ti plant is, according to one garden book very difficult to grow and to another, very easy. So I’ll give it the prescribed light and water and as always, pray for the best.


Its large, smooth leaves beautifully reflect the morning light, even on gray days like today.