u/_Cheila_

I saw a YouTube short where someone carefully plucked all leaves of an aeonium head, and that resulted in an explosion of new heads. So I sacrificed one of my propagations to science, and I'm mind blown at how well it worked!

(Sadly, mealybugs are also mindblown 😑 I'm finding baby mealybugs in between the rosettes every day, and they're so had to remove with a q-tip and alcohol. I also used a spray for mealybugs, but they keep coming back...)

Anyway, scroll the pics to move back in time.

Now I'm wondering. Does this work if you deflower the bottom half of the rosette? The top half? A narrow middle section ring? Will different types of aeonium respond differently? I need to know!

Once leaves drop naturally, it seems a lot more difficult to stimulate that bare area to branch. When I cut a head off the mother plant, it only produced two new heads. Deflowering doesn't produce new plants, but it seems to work much better for branching and getting a super full aeonium.

Would love to hear about your experiments!!!

I've had my birdbuddy for over 2 weeks. Black Redstarts use it, but they’re so fast the AI always discards the videos 😑 It says "taking postcards" and then... Nothing. Hopefully they’re starting to feel more comfortable now.

My Aeonium Zwartkop is waking up from dormancy. Summer was brutal and it lost a lot of leaves. I'll move it to a shadier location next summer.

I'm also going to repot it into gritter soil and a round low terracotta pot. I have two propagations from last year I might add to the same pot as well.

But I'm thinking this one needs a chop to encourage branching. I don't have much experience with that so where would you chop and why?

Thank you!!

I got new shelves for my balcony, and reorganised my plants. I love how it looks 🤩 I just hope the wood doesn't rot 🤞 I gave it a coat of teak oil.

That long thin stem thing growing from the base 🤔 Is this a pup?

My son picked up a leaf from the floor at Ikea. When we got to the car I was going to trash it, but them I noticed a tiny root, so I had to try propagating it. I put it in perlite and have been giving it little drops of water almost everyday.

Is it time to repot or not yet?

I'm used to succulents, but never had a peperomia. What kind of soil does it like?

Any tips appreciated! Thank you!!

At the end of last summer there were a lot of flying ants outside. One of the little bastards must have got in, and lodged herself inside the pot of my calathea! Every few days a few tiny little baby ants came out. Sometimes none. Sometimes a small army.

​

I tried everything! Putting bait close to the pot (granules that the big ants outside love). Those plastic ant traps. They ignored them completely.

​

I tried going longer without water to force them out. Changing the soil. Cleaning the leaves and spraying for invisible pests that could be feeding the ants. Nothing worked!

​

Very slowly, some of her leaves went yellow and crispy. She stopped producing new leaves completely. Even when spring came she still wouldn't send any new leaves.

​

Finally I found these liquid drops that come in a little tube. The ants went wild! In less than 30 mins they formed a circle around it. The next day... nothing 😁 The little bastards are finally GONE!!

​

Less than a month later, she has FOUR new leaves growing in different stages! 😀 I'm so happy!

​

RIP little ants 🐜💀🙏👋

Took a bunch of photos yesterday 😁 The last 3 are indoors, everything else is outside.

She's so pretty I had to share 🤩

I've had her for about a year, always outdoors, and recently repoted and left her handing instead of on a trellis. I trimmed the longer bits (it was longer 🤯) and they seem to be propagating well 🤞🤞🤞

I have two Monkey Jars in my bathroom. I've had them for over a year. But they lost all their pinchers, and I think it's due to lack of light. So I thought it was a good idea to move them outdoors. But they got sunburnt 😭 One of them has a baby! (See second photo)

I moved them back to the bathroom. How can I recover them? 😢