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I had a small cactus. His name is Edward. I've had him for 5 years and I took the best care of him I could, although my family is famous for killing every plant we touch. He wasn't much bigger than my palm, and he was my only little companion through college when I was living alone. This summer he started to tilt to one side. I tried to support him but when I touched his pot yesterday he just snapped in half right in my hand! I had a cactus funeral for him. I buried him between my lilac tree and my rose bush.

 

I don't know if I did a really good job for him to live as long as he did, or if I screwed up and killed him. I'm wracked with guilt.

 

Anyone know anything about small cactuses? 

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23 hours ago, Coheart said:

I had a small cactus. His name is Edward. I've had him for 5 years and I took the best care of him I could, although my family is famous for killing every plant we touch. He wasn't much bigger than my palm, and he was my only little companion through college when I was living alone. This summer he started to tilt to one side. I tried to support him but when I touched his pot yesterday he just snapped in half right in my hand! I had a cactus funeral for him. I buried him between my lilac tree and my rose bush.

 

I don't know if I did a really good job for him to live as long as he did, or if I screwed up and killed him. I'm wracked with guilt.

 

Anyone know anything about small cactuses? 

Cacti can be a tricky, since they need a lot of sunlight, a good soaking every now and then and well draining soil. I know I haven't had any luck with them! Your buddy could have been too dry or too wet for too long, or gotten a pest, or just snapped for being too unbalanced. If there was any green parts left on the plant, for example the top part, you could have technically tried to save that part of him by just cutting the dried/rotted part off and planting the "good" part to a pot (here is a guide). But since he already buried and honored, may Edward rest in piece!

 

I've been having very good success rates with rooting cuttings lately, and now I should just pot them all. I already potted the piece of monstera my mom gave me, but I still have six pothos cuttings (neon and marble queen), spring cactus cutting I got from a cottage we were at, some jade plant cuttings and so many leaves of an epiphyllum my grandpa gave me. My sister is gifting me a baby pilea next week so I should have a pot ready for that too. Really turning my apartment to an urban jungle.

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My family has always been big on plants, though I never got the chance to grow my own by myself until recently. I got three tiny little pots by my kitchen window that I'm super proud of! I have strawberry, chili, and tomato. I need to switch them out very soon though, they might be getting too big.

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When I was still living at home, my mom and I started a small garden in a big plastic tub in the front yard. We had basil, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, rosemary, and bell peppers, and they seemed to do really well.

Now that I'm out in an apartment, my brother-in-law and I have a little "garden" on the balcony. We've got a great big geranium plant (fantastic at repelling mosquitos!), basil, catnip, sunflowers, wildflowers, snapdragons, and some sort of grass (I planted some bird seed out of curiosity and that's what started growing).

I've even got a few small plants on my desk at work, I've got a little succulent, and I'm growing a small thing of wildflowers and another small thing of snapdragons.

I want to be able to plant more herbs, when its not so hot out I want to plant rosemary, thyme, oregano, more basil, and bell peppers.

 

Its funny because a few years ago, I couldn't keep anything alive (plant-wise), and now I've got a really nice little garden going at home and at work. I might be able to take some pictures of my balcony garden later on if anyone wants to see it (can't take any pictures of my desk, can't use my phone at work).

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I have to be honest...

 

When I was 11-12 yrs old or thereabouts, we raised chickens,and rabbits in the backyard and Mom decided that she wanted a garden.  She pointed out an area of about 20+feet square and said, Son, clean that up and prepare it...  It seemed like there was a foot-deep layer of crabgrass.  Yes, I know, it wasn't that thick, but to a young kid, YIKES!!!  At any rate, that turned me off of gardening, pretty much forever.  As a family man, we moved to a house that had a vegetable garden and we had some fun with that while we were there, but at other places, we took a family vote and my wife was outvoted...

 

At any rate, that is my opinion on gardening and I wanted to share it...  

 

Have fun with your hobby, green-thumbers!

Edited by Husky51

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I'm attempting to grow citrus in pots, because I need to bring it in for the winter. Apparently, winters in Seattle are too cold. Any tips? I'm growing them from seed for the first time. I have a lemon plant and a grapefruit plant that are still completely green. No woody stems. 

Edited by DangerousCuddles

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I like plants but I can never seem to keep them alive.

 

Currently I have an aloe, the only thing that's survived me so far lol, it's over 10 years old. I also have a chocolate mint and a cinnamon basil, new additions this year. So far so good. I leave them outside on my porch and try to remember to water them every day, The basil is doing particularly well, it got huge and even flowered. Very pretty and strong smelling herb, no idea what I'll be doing with the leaves.

 

I also assist my mother with her garden, mostly weeding and watering when she's away.

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On 6/27/2018 at 12:44 AM, DangerousCuddles said:

I'm attempting to grow citrus in pots, because I need to bring it in for the winter. Apparently, winters in Seattle are too cold. Any tips? I'm growing them from seed for the first time. I have a lemon plant and a grapefruit plant that are still completely green. No woody stems. 

I had a grapefruit tree that I grew from seed that lived for about 6 years. It got to be about 3 feet tall in that time and had long sharp thorns and beautiful shiny leaves. I didn't have space for it indoors two winters ago and thought my enclosed back porch might be safe for it, but it didn't survive. Once it got past the first few months it didn't require a lot of care and was pretty tolerant of neglect (which is the only kind of plant I can grow!)

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My houseplants are loving the current tropical climate we're having! I have new growth on almost every plant I have, only one not doing well is this baby-pilea I got from my sister recently. I have never grown them before, so I guess I just watered it too much/little after potting it. I'm most excited about the new leaf emerging on my monstera cutting I got from my mom! 

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My apartment is on ground level so there is small yard. I planted pumpkin there in this year but that place don't gain much sunlight...

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My BF promised to make a date of it and take me to the plant show that's gonna happen at the end of the month. So excited! I'm really interested in this one because supposedly they're going to have some medicinal plants available and I'm saving up to splurge big time.

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I've had a monstera plant for years now that was originally grown from a branch of my mother's monstera when I was a kid. While I was living away for my studies I ended up having an issue with fungus gnats at one point after buying a new flaming katy from the local store. In the end, I got rid of the gnat problem by changing the dirt on all my potted plants and covering the surface layer of the dirt with some decorative gravel to make the topmost layer less attractive to the insects. The sad part is though, that when I was washing the roots of my monstera to get rid of any lingering dirt I accidentally snapped it in half. Given that I had had the plant for about 10 years or so, I was quite devastated at first. However, following my mother's advice of replanting the part with roots and letting the part with leaves grow new roots in a container of water ended up saving the situation. Now I actually have two monsteras given that both halves of the plant survived the ordeal. The resilience of some plant species never ceases to amaze me.

Edited by Nagapie

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I currently have three little cacti in my room and they're so cute. ^_^ The two smaller ones that sit on my shelf I got just recently, and the third one that's on my nightstand I've had since last year as I got it as a birthday present from my friend. I used to have one more cactus too, but unfortunately bugs destroyed it.

 

Succulents are cool too, but I think I overwatered the one I used to have a while ago since it became brownish in color after a while.

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I recently adopted two cacti (I live in Texas) and they’re so cute I could die. One’s a grafted cactus - possibly a dragonfruit stalk with a mutant pink pup grafted to the top - and one is a pretty barrel cactus with pink flowers. I’m so smitten with them. Along with my wee aloe plant I now have 3 planty friends.

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I got a cactus. It now sits abandoned on my windowsill, since apparently I don't even need to water it very often. Yay?

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My seed orders have finally arrived! Hawthorn, Witch Hazel, Elderberry, Cramp bark, Lupine, Marigolds, and a few other flowers. I'll update with some photos of everything prepared for planting in a little bit 😁

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Last weekend, I helped my dad put up a new fence around the garden and then we planted two different kinds of peppers, three kinds of tomatoes, and some cucumbers... 

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Oh man, gardening is one of my fave hobbies! Current indoor plants (I'm about to move, so had to slim down on number of potted friends): Thailand giant elephant ear, aloe, and purple sweet potato. My mom has a big outdoor garden/orchard with peaches, pears, cherries, apples, greengages, blueberries/raspberries/blackberries/strawberries, corn, oats (an experiment, never grown it before), various squash + pumpkins, tomatoes, potatoes, ginger, tumeric and other herbs... I don't even know what else!  My flower gardens have a few flowering cherry trees, a Japanese maple, juniper, azaleas, creeping Jenny, Russian sage, lavender, black lace elderberry, etc.   I'm just now getting into messing with evergreen landscaping, so prob going to be researching more on that before I get my own place!  I'm hoping to get a good job soon so i can actually afford a garden on my own land (instead of commandeering my parents' yards lol)

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I've had a meyer lemon for about two years. Its first winter almost killed it because the heat in my apartment wasn't working and it was just too cold. That winter also killed my serissa. But my lemon tree managed to hang on. This past year, I didn't have much time to baby it as much as it should have, so it's still alive, but still hasn't fully recovered. But, this summer I repotted it, pruned the dead branches, and gave it a heavy dose of fertilizer, and now it's flowering and putting out lots of new leaves and I think this summer it might actually set fruit. It fruited the first summer I had it, but last summer it was still struggling from its brush with death so there was no fruit.

 

I also have some blueberry plants. I impulsively bought six of them. And I thought all three of the ones I bought two years ago died, but it turns out one lived, but my parents just took it out of its pot and planted it in the ground without telling me, so now I have seven. I'm not sure what kind that one is. I bought a duke, patriot, and bluecrop plant all at the same time, and I'm not sure which one ended up surviving. I had them labeled, but my parents threw out the label when they moved it. Of the new ones, three are pink lemonades, and three are Bushel and Berry dwarf varieties--two peach sorbets and one jelly bean. The mystery variety and the jelly bean both have berries on them. I think I'll have to wait until next year to see any fruit on the others, but I'm especially excited for my pink blueberries.

 

I'm also tempted to replace the serissa that the winter without heat killed. It was growing really well until that point, and it was a really beautiful plant when it was in bloom

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Brought an a small succulent (Blue Elf) plant last year. Named it Rowan, just for myself so I can remember to water them. To tell you the truth, I never really had an succulent plant of my own, so it was strange NOT to water it regularly. Now going to my second year with Rowan, can't say much about Rowan. They did sprout little yellow flowers that most Blue Elf plants do, and now I have two more succulent growing beside of Rowan. I think Rowan need a bigger pot, and more dirt. 

 

I would love to explore and learn about gardening for myself, but I don't have an yard to even start to plant my own plants. I used to had this corn plant that I planted with my grandpa's tree at the time, It's dead (the tree and the corn) but I remember being shocked that I grew it since the seed was from my hamster's food dish. 

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I actually just got into plants a few months ago. I've always had a "black thumb" and killed any plant I came into contact with, but after bothering to learn the basics of... plant-keeping? I've actually done really well. And it really is much simpler than I made it out to be. Just give them lots of light, keep them warm, and don't over-water. Humidity and fertilizer every once in a while helps too!

 

I don't have a yard or anything, so unfortunately I can't do outdoor gardening, but I have quite the collection of indoor plants. I even have a mini greenhouse in my bedroom that holds most of my plants. With a few fairly cheap indoor growing lights from Amazon, everyone is doing wonderful in there!

My favorite are Pothos! Love love love pothos, mostly because they are so easy! Those buggers grow like weeds with some good light. I have two Goldens and a beautiful Marble. ❤️

 

I also really love False Aralias! I love the different varieties, and they are fairly easy to keep. Kind of slow growers, but if you give them love, they'll give it back!

I have a few Rex Begonias, because they're so cool looking. They don't love it indoors, but they're doing okay so far.

 

Then there's some random little guys. There's the Camille, a Bamboo, a Fern, a small Money Tree, and the Brasil. There's also a Dumb Cane, a Snake Plant, an Aloe plant, and a few succulents. And then there's a few guys I'm not too sure about. Got them from a random nursery, sitting along the succulents but they had no names. But they put off really cute little flowers and they seem happy!

 

I also have a little Aerogarden that grows some herbs, greens for my turtles, and peppers. Then I have a random sweet potato growing. He sits along with all the other guys, just creeping up the length of my window. I kind of just wanted to see what would happen if I threw a sweet potato in a pot, and was happily surprised by the long vine that is growing now!

 

And then I just recently got a Spider Plant, at least I think it is, from my aunt. It was very neglected and near death sitting on her porch outside, but he's doing much better now!

 

I think that's everyone! Now that I've listed them all, that sure sounds like a lot! But they really only take up one windowsill, a small bedside table, and the two top shelves in my greenhouse.

Like I said, I'm still pretty new to plants, and I'm probably in wayyy over my head, but so far everyone is happy and I'm loving all the new greenery in my apartment!

 Hopefully one day they will take over and I will live in my own personal jungle! 😛

 

I mean, how can you not love this view, right next to my bed:

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i have upwards of 20 plants in my room.... it's becoming an issue

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We have a community garden plot and have been experimenting with what veggies grow well in Central Florida. It seems the root vegetables have done the best... Carrots, radish, shallots. Also grew lettuce and tomatoes well. No luck anything from the squash family... 

 

At home I have an orchid collection on the lanai / front porch area... 15 -20 plants, most of which are doing well. I also have some pitcher plants and a few potted house plants outside (cats would eat them inside).. and the yard has caladiums, butterfly weed and native firebush, passionflower, and porterweed. We bought the property with lots of random plants/trees on it: snake plants are a weed here. Small orchard of citrus trees, avocado, mango, lychee, persimmon, even a mulberry tree. There's a grapevine (Niagara grapes... They grow in FL but don't produce well)... Overall the yard has more stuff than we know what to do with really!

 

Florida: where everything grows.

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