Somehow friends and neighbors are under the impression that I can save dying plants. Sometimes true, sometimes not. The aloe vera was one such -- planted in the lousiest soil I've just about ever seen, dry *beyond* expectations, no drainage. I replanted, trimmed, mulched, talked to it but was able to save only two frounds/leaves/you know what I mean -- and now two more!
Anyone else rescue plants?
jo
I have a few gardening clients who put in big annual beds (actually, they pay me to...) and there are often leftovers, the saddest looking or dried-up ones. I have had plants given to me so that I can root them for someone and give them back.
But most of the time, a poorly plant is not worth it and goes where all good plants go. Compost.
Kenton
jio, can you come rescue my lilacs?
What's the matter with them?
I rescue roses, daylilies. whatever I can stick in some dirt and make grow. You never know how it will turn out, and learning how to bring plants back from the dead may come in handy some day...
I talk to countless people and hear "It just died/ I don't know what's wrong/ It wsa fine then poof..." (often wanting me to conjur up some insect/disease or otherwise unfixable pest to blame it on... *) People just don't water their plants. They swear up and down that they do, but let's say I'm getting pretty used to seeing drought stress. It can happen fast.
*One gardening client has a new holly. It was severely stressed in the summer after no winter watering. I told her that. The burned leaves are from winter drought. Clearly.
"What do I spray on it?" She said.
I, usually more tactful, said "Water."
LOL. That is so true. One of my good friends asked me to help her with some changes to her back yard. I tried to get her started on "square foot gardening" because it is less overwhelming, and she is easily whelmed. So we planted a buch of seeds in a properly prepared bed, & I asked her to water it every other day until the seeds germinated. One month, nothing is happening. At 2 months I gave her some started rainbow chard, which she did put in the ground, but now (4 months later) things are germinating and the chard is growing. Why? because we have had fairly regular rain the last 4 weeks. She just wasn't watering them!
Being a codependent veterinarian I rescue all sick plants at the nursery. 10% of my population are ones that were given up on. Each recovery is a thing that makes me happy. ( Plants are much safer than women who need recovery) LOL
You are so correct. You would be much safer with your rescued plants than any of the women on this forum.... Myself included
This message was edited Aug 14, 2006 9:34 AM
I was told NOT to water my lilacs as much as I was. But I still dumped some water on them twice a week while we were in drought mode. The last couple of days it's deluged, it's poured, and the ground's nice and damp.
And my lilacs have perked up. They still don't look healthy, but they're not drooping quite as much.
I am really at a loss to explain what works and what doesn't work with these plants.
I love this: "...she is easily whelmed."
It's liek magic- water it and they will grow...
(Yeah, but Steve is rescuing me from the spirit-deprivation of acadamia next spring. I promise I'm an easy charity case.)
No you have to know that I always chose women who had "needs" and most of them were financial and I always made sure they got what they needed. Now I am still working hard when I could be goofing off. No more rescues, after 20 years of working on myself. Plants on the other hand thank me for the rescue and don't hurt me in their recovery. I love plants.
Indeed, we should all marry a plant.
Or my wife Karen. She is my purpose for getting up in the morning. I got lucky. She was my best friend in kindergarden. Should have stayed there. LOL
Don't worry; you have, old man.
Most of my indoor plants are rescued, from the side of the road, dumpsters or given to me by relatives near the brink of death. I had a indoor plant maintenance company back in Calgary in the 80's so needless to say when I go into a greenhouse I experience major price sticker shock on any indoor plant, thank goodness I was not into outdoor plants so I have a blissfull ignorance of pricing so shopping spree's occur. Where I really fall down on the job is remembering to h2o in the dry winters. (yes I mean outdoors not...);+}
Of course watering correctly is Key for any plant. That's why I have my water loving horsetail in a container "pond" I would never remember to water outside enough or would want to...as far as marrying a plant I do NOT think so unless you all allow for polygamy which my state is trying to DIScourage not encourage....
I was planning to try square foot garden this year but was not able to, there is always next year. Good book.
Kenton what are you doing with Steve? "spirit-deprivation of acadamia next spring"
Know watcha mean when people want to buy something or better yet have you MAGICALLY fix it for them.......I would go through my spiel about leaf symptomatology and sticking their finger into the dirt to actually feel for moisture then few weeks later.....same duh type question....
I'm not a plant rescuer. When they start looking crappy, out they go. I want my plants to look as good as possible, they have to live up to my standards, which are quite high. Of course, that imposes a very high threshhold of care of my part, which I won't do. I'm like most people, busy. Sometimes I can't water when they need it, so they tend to suffer water deficiency from time to time. If I have hope, then they get special care (if I have time). I not, out they go. DH can't tolerate throwing out "perfectly good" plants, so I don't ask him to do it. I do it when he's not looking and then he's happy. Such a life!
revclaus, have you considered an automated timer to assist with your watering, or those "self watering" containers?
My mom has a very direct method with her fussy plants. If they don't perform after a period of pampering, she looks at them straight in the crown and says "if you croak, you croak! I'm fed up with fussing with you." After that they usually grow quite vigorously!
I have some self-watering containers, but as somebody else somewhere has said, the self-watering only wets the canvas strip across the bottom so I water from the top. Those are doing pretty well! As for a timer, I have a Treo which would notify me, but just being a window's away from the garden isn't doing it, so I don't think a brrrrng going off in my pocket will help much. I just need motivation.
Mermaid, sounds like your mother and I would get along swimmingly! LOL
I love to hear about what are plant-priorites for people. Pamper it if its rare or chuck it if it is fickle. I know someone who will chuck perfectly good plants if they bloom and are not up to the asthetic. Someone else who completely forgets their names and doesn't care- just that they are pretty.
I have to laugh at "she looks at them straight in the crown"...
I also laugh at imagining Judith, whistling while her husband turns his back- shoving a ragged but big schefflera in the rubbish bin...
I tend to whisper with great intensity to it: "Compost... Composssssst..." if a plant is not performing. I baby the rarities. The not-so interesting rarities get given away. I am currently hanging on to a number of plants that don't like the way they are being cared for (alive, growing, not flowering). I can't give them up! I want to see those flowers! I may not know where they should go in the ground!
Steve and I plan to invade Canada as an army of two via boat to capture the best of their fish citizens. Just a plan.
Kenton
Kenton, careful what you say! You never know who's lurking, maybe the NSA.
I actually had my son come and get the overgrown "miniature" schlefflera and cart it off. It now has a place in his plant-sparse house, happily one of a kind being given tender loving care. DH grieved for days after it was gone. But I had to make room for my ming aralia! LOL
One of the reasons I'm overrun with plants is that I just can't bring myself to toss one in the dumpster. If just feels so....so...wrong! It's alive, how can I discard it. arrrgghhh!
The aloe vera mother plants keep having litters of puppies. The spathophylums just keep filling up their pots with vigourous bulbs. The bilbergias keep sprouting. What to do?
My DH is more ruthless ("practical" he says). I come home and find an empty pot in the garage and know that he has assisted one in moving on to it's next life.
I don't rescue plants except from myself. I order more than I can get in the ground so I pot them and let them sit around, less than perfectly happy for a year or two or maybe even three. Most survive but look a little worse each year. The catalogs have such pretty pictures and when I order the plants and bulbs, they come so quickly. It is an addiction. I am always planting but I am always behind, especially iris because I love the pictures so much.
