Our Little 'Flora' Family

Just about every day I tend to my plants. I play reggae for them, and I swear they dance. It might be that the window is open.. But lets pretend for a second that they like island music. I talk to them, and tell them "everything is going to be alright". They nod their leaves at me. They create an ambiance- An island style. They also clean our air. We have a mutual understanding. I need them- They need me. I call that family : ) The majority of our plants are Hawaiian. Wayne had a few of them sent as gifts from the Hawaiian airport.

Let me introduce you to our little 'flora' family.

In the first photo is our 'Mirabilis Jalapa' it is said to have been exported from the Peruvian Andes in 1540. It enjoys full sun, and lots of water. At full height she will be almost 3 feet tall. Next to her is our Hawaiian family members. The Hawaiian tree fern also known as 'Hapu'u pulu' or 'blond tree fern' was one of Hawaii's first exports in the 1800's. The soft hair on the fern was sent as mattress and pillow stuffing for gold miners in California. It enjoys lots of sunshine, and LOTS of water all over, even the leaves need water. The Hawaiian pineapple was a pineapple we ate. Yes that's right.. You cut the crown off and plant it! Learn how to do that here. The 'Plumeria' loves LOTS of sunshine, and likes to be watered all over. I use a spray bottle to keep the girls smiling. Plumerias originated in the Caribbean, and the yellow plumeria in specific is the most common flower used in Hawaiian leis.

This herb is my newest trial and error project. I have been over watering my basil. I am so used to all of our Hawaiian plants drinking lots of water. The Hawaiian plants make basil a breeze. So much of a breeze that I am slowly killing it.. You know you are over watering when the leaves start to turn white. You are under watering when the leaves are shriveling up. Basil loves full sun too. It is recommended that basil is watered once a week, and only to the soil. Wet leaves can lead to rot or disease. See more Basil care tips here.

If you follow my blog you know about my growing sweet potato starts. See that post here.

This is our survival water source. Also known as the cheap cactus from Ikea. : )

You should also be familiar with my green onions, and celery. Those posts here, and here.

Our Ti Leaf plant enjoys shade. We learned this the hard way.. Poor thing turned brown and lost all of its leaves a while back. We have slowly pushed it further, and further away from the window. It seems to be pretty happy now. It doesn't drink as much water as our other Hawaiian plants. I water it every few days. Its soil stays wet for a while. There are lots of healing practices, and alternative medicine uses. Read the Ti Leaf plants historical background here to learn more. As for our 'Easy Girl' Tomatoes, Wayne's mom just picked them up for us (Thanks Mah!). So they are new to me as far as care goes. One thing I do know is to water directly into the soil, not on the leaves, and lots of sunshine. You are also not supposed to rush the watering, a drip system works best for tomatoes. Last is our Red Bromeliads. Bromeliads do not like direct light, Their leaves are also designed to catch water in the center- This is called a 'cup'. The plant drinks as it needs it. Bromeliads rot easy, so its best to let it dry out. Watering once a week is what is suggested. A fun fact is that Bromeliads are part of the Bromeliaceae family, which means it is a distant relative to the pineapple. Also Bromeliads only bloom once in their life. A new plant must grow before a new bloom can be generated. Once blooming is complete, the mother plant will produce small “pup” plants on the outer perimeter of its base. A bromeliad is a very slow growing plant. The pups will take about six months to grow to approximately one-third the size of the mother plant. When the pups reach that size, separate them from the mother plant. Allow the young plants to grow for at least 6 more months, after which time they could be mature enough to bloom. Interesting huh? Read more on Bromeliads here.

So that is our little 'flora' family. I hope you enjoyed meeting the gang. I also hope you learned something new. Maybe I inspired you to get your own little 'flora' family going : )

Not pictured- Avocado plant growing in water, & Green pepper.

Update: Sweet Potato Starts Are Growing Roots

I updated my post on how to grow sweet potato slips! It took me a while-because the slips started running wild. Every day I planned to take photos I got called in work early. I had slips that were 4 feet tall! They were so tall, they were falling over and acting like vines- latching on to every other plant I have in the window. I am quite excited to know how to do this. Head on over to my "How to Grow Your Own Sweet Potatoes" post to learn how I did it, and what to do once these bad boys get roots growing!

How To Get Sweet Potato Starts, Plant and Harvest!

Grow Your Own Sweet Potatoes!

Ready for some free health boosting beta-carotene, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory nutrients, and blood sugar-regulating nutrients?(See here for full list of health benefits) You can get sweet potato starts in your window. Let me show you how! (This is a fun project for kids!)

Sweet potatoes aren't started by seed like most other vegetables, they're started from slips. Slips are shoots that are grown from a mature sweet potato. Each sweet potato can produce up to 50 slip sprouts. To create sprouts, carefully wash your potato and place it in a jar half submerged with water. Hold it in place using toothpicks. Some tutorials I read said to cut the bottom portion off. I am not sure if this just makes the roots grow faster? I didn't do it, but you can. The slips need warmth, so put them on a window. 

"In a few weeks your potatoes will be covered with leafy sprouts on top and roots on the bottom Once your sweet potatoes have sprouted, you have to separate them into plantable slips. To do this, you take each sprout and carefully twist it off of the sweet potato. Take each sprout and lay it in a shallow bowl with the bottom half of the stem submerged in water and the leaves hanging out over the rim of the bowl. Within a few days roots will emerge from the bottom of each new plant. When the roots are about an inch long the new slips are ready to plant. To keep your slips healthy be sure to keep the water fresh and discard any slip that isn't producing roots or looks like it's wilting."

"Before you plant sweet potato slips, you have a little extra work to do. Sweet potatoes need loose, well-drained soil to form large tubers. You don't want the roots to face resistance when they try to expand within the soil. Loose soil is more critical than almost any other factor when it comes to growing sweet potatoes successfully.  Using a small hand trowel, dig a hole about 4" or 5" deep and 3" wide. Place one slip in each hole with the roots pointing down. Position the slip so that the bottom half will be covered with dirt while the top half with all of the new leaves is above ground. Carefully fill the hole with dirt so that you don't bruise the new plant. Sweet potatoes don't like to be bruised or bumped around too much. When you have completely covered it with soil, gently press the plant and surrounding dirt to set the plant and to remove any remaining air pockets. Continue the same way until all of your slips are planted. 
Once all of the slips are in place water them. You'll need to give them a thorough soaking until all of the surrounding dirt is wet. Stop watering before your mound starts to erode. New plants, like slips, need to be watered everyday for the first week and every other day the second week. Each week the watering will get a little farther apart until you're watering once a week. If the ground is very dry or you've had a lot of rain, you may need to adjust this schedule in your own garden. Sweet potatoes can withstand drought but they'll produce less, so make sure you water them during the hottest part of the summer." The roots mature and are ready for harvest by late September and early October. This gives them time to harvest before the first frost, so the potatoes are in storage as the weather turns cool. For tips on harvesting, and curing for long term storage- See here.

 

The specific source I used was from DIY Network. Check out their tutorial for more photos here.