It wasn’t until I decided to put into practice the “learn something new every day” habit, and began looking up scientific names for plants, that I realized these plants had any other name than African violet. haha! If I had thought about it, of course I would have known, but sometimes you go along in life and don’t question something that just seems to have always been. Anyway, this is a pan of African violet babies that are slowly growing bigger. I am hopeful that in a few months I will be able to transplant them into individual pots. For now they seem pretty happy. The droopy leaves are just the older bigger leaves that had some transplant shock when I split them off from the mother plants.

I grew up calling these Christmas cactus. The variety I have had most of my life are like the one more towards the front of the pot, with smooth scallop edges. Both of these are starts from one of my aunts – I am looking forward to seeing what color of blooms they will have one day! The more claw-like leafed one especially. Some people call them Easter cactus. A lot of people think they only bloom at a particular time of year. In my experience, if they have a cool cycle that maybe is a bit dry, followed by a lot of bright light with more watering, they will bloom like crazy no matter the time of year. It seems to be one of those things that is different for different people.

Epipremnum aureum, aka pothos (silver satin). The colors in the leaves of this plant are absolutely gorgeous. They didn’t used to be, but I put the plant in my kitchen where it gets a bright diffused light, and I also remember to water it pretty regularly. The green deepened and the silver really popped. One sign that it is happy where it is, the vines themselves go nearly all the way around my kitchen. I’ve used a bunch of command hooks to keep them up out of the way. Eventually I might do a post about just that.

This week I thought I would do something a little different. Last summer one of my boys convinced me to buy a small aquaponic kit. It didn’t take a lot of convincing – a little fishy in the tank and yummy herbs up top? Well, starting herbs from seed in the little pots of rocks didn’t work out so great; and the few things I tried as plants with roots didn’t think it was the best either. My opinion is most herbs just aren’t aquatic, and I probably need to get larger plants from a nursery this summer if I really want a basil or something to do well. I wasn’t willing to give up, however, so I’ve been trying out houseplants. The spider plant really likes being in the water. The Christmas cactus in the back is making little roots, but I’m not sure how it will do long-term. The latest experiment is with the crassula. It wasn’t happy about the chilly kitchen window, so I pinched off a decent sized segment and put it in one of the grow pots. So far, so good! I added a grow light over this area a few weeks ago (mostly for the pepperomia, but also for the herbs which didn’t make it). The tomato can with spider plant has been moved into my bathroom – I switched it with a dumb cane that wasn’t doing so great in there. Anyhow, don’t let what something is “supposed” to be for stop you from trying something different!