cactus

 

“New Beginnings” is this months theme for the Urban Jungle Bloggers . Just the right theme for this time of the year when talking about the plantworld.

At the end of March I decided I had to cut my figtree. Something I have never done before and have no experience with. I decided to cut at least one of the stems that grew straight out and made the plant larger than I wanted it to be. So I cut off that branch and dived it into two pieces after consulting the internet and some plantgroups on FaceBook.

One part of the cut off branch had no leaves and was put directly into soil in a pot with a plastic bag around it. I kept notice of what was up and down of that bit of stem before planting it. It just took a couple of weeks until it produced a small green thing on the stem. I hope that will be a new beginning for that piece of figtree…

The top part of the cutting I put in a decorative vase with water. All leaves except one soon fell off, but on the cut branch in the water small white growth appeared pretty fast.

I hope those small, white things that appear on the cutting in the water are new roots?

With a bit of luck I will get two brand new figtrees after cutting off that branch.

The new branches and leaves are growing just fine (and fast) on the tree itself.

My figtree is, against all rules, kept indoors over winter, in regular house warmth. I give it extra light by a special plant-lamp. It loses some leaves over winter, but not all. When the branch got cut, it immediately produced two figs… If it is anything like the last time it did that, it will take a couple of months to get ripe and will be almost inedible.

Also one of my old cactuses is showing new beginnings. (Reload page to get images to sort in another order, click an image to see a larger version).

Apart form those two new beginnings I am again, against better knowledge, sowing all kinds of seeds. I am usually not very successful in that, but I keep on trying. Those are for outdoor plants though and will be covered in another post later on. Those are tomatoes and some flowers.

I cut down my white geranium to get more plants and to give the old one a new beginning. This is the only one I kept indoors over winter as I simply didn’t have space to keep more of them. This kind answers well to get cut down and made more plants from and did so this year as well.

One of the small cuttings died since I shot this picture, but I will get at least three new white geraniums. These new beginnings will all get their own larger pots when they get big enough and I am sure that they will survive. They live outdoors on the patio over the summer.

The above is a fragranced geranium that also is a cutting from last years geraniums. It was two from the beginning, one died. This second one is growing though. The cutting started off in a glass of water where it got lots of roots. Only some time in January did I move them and put them into soil. Then its twin died, but this one survived. It needs more light to grow better. This spring has been poor of light and warmth, but hopefully that changes soon.

If the Ginkgo Biloba will get any new beginnings is doubtful though… Since I shot this picture two more leaves have fallen off and it is down to one rather withered leaf. I cannot yet see if the plant is dead or alive.

My oldest and largest aloe vera is very much alive though with lots of babies. Need to remove those, but waiting for warmer weather so I can take it outdoors. It is hard to handle it indoors as it is so big and heavy.

(And then there are the tomatoes…)