Keeping Succulents Alive

Quite some time has passed since my last succulent update! Winter came in full force with such unbearable cold that my poor plants have been removed from the window sills almost completely. Their new home is atop an IKEA EXPEDIT (RIP) and they periodically visit my one sun-soaked sill whenever the sun is actually shining.

All of the beautiful tight rosettes forming from my leaf cuttings are long gone... They've continued to grow leggier and leggier reaching for the sun, which is a little sad yet totally adorable.

Some plants have been relocated, like these three which used to share a room (a cup). Their growth rate has slowed but it's still a lot more than I expected in this weather! I'm sure they appreciate the extra room to breathe.

One huge surprise did pop up, though. Two to be exact! The lithops I was so worried about becoming overly wrinkly birthed two new plants! I'd given up all hope that it'd survive and left it alone on my bookshelf for about a month completely untouched. Then, miraculously, this happened!

My Mezoo 'Trailing Red' needs to be pruned soon. It's almost taken over the entire pot at this point. I think I'll just wait till spring to do anything about it even though I feel bad for the little guys it's crowding.

I've cut back on watering across the board. My large pots get watered once a week and everyone else gets spritzed 2-3 times a week. The lithops and living stone get no water. Hopefully they all pull through and make it to spring—myself included. This endless winter has been awful. Over 75" of snow has fallen since December!

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Succulent Propagation: Autumn Update

Another devastating thing has happened in my little window garden! This time it's just devastatingly beautiful. One of my cuttings from Walmart is growing faster and larger than any of the other succulents. The jump from one week to the next has been absolutely amazing to witness.

The two larger leaf cuttings were clipped the same day! Can you believe that?

My porcelain dish transplants are doing really well, too. The majority of the original leaves are shriveling up and a couple have actually detached themselves. Even the dish of (mostly) rootless leaf cuttings is showing steady progress.

But the most surprising of the bunch has been from the tiny leaves knocked off last month in what I'm now calling The Great Princess Disaster of 2013. Imagine my total surprise when I walked over to my window sill one morning and noticed they'd begun sprouting pink roots and even smaller leaves of their own! I don't think they're going to last very long but I'm impressed. I'll put them in soil soon, though it's been great to see them grow with not so much as a drop of water.

That leaves me with only one casualty to report, which I'm pretty happy about all things considered. After I dug it out of the soil, I noticed it actually had healthy roots so I quickly put it back after taking a photo. We'll see what happens.

Sadly, my wrinkly lithops has gone even more wrinkly, while my Split Rock seems to be in the exact same state as last month. I watered them both once to see if that would help but I'm still waiting to determine if it did anything at all.

As always, I post photos of these babies on Instagram if you want to follow along in between my monthly updates (July, August, September). It's finally becoming less stressful! I say that now but winter is right around the corner...

Disaster Strikes and History Repeats Itself

Well, well, well, look what we have here. A plant update/disaster story courtesy of Princess, my clueless 15-year-old cocker spaniel.

Here she decided Andrew's backpack would make a great dog bed

She's deaf, going blind, and slides a bit when she walks because she doesn't have 100% muscle control anymore but she's generally really healthy considering her age. She's always on the hunt for food, or whatever she thinks is food, and is rarely ever looking forward or up. In her world it's eyes on the floor = eyes on prize (possibly food, though it's mostly dog hair).

I'm not entirely sure if Princess mistook my hands being filled with plants as my hands being filled with treats, or if she was just scanning the floor for never-even-there crumbs. Either way, she knocked into me and when I couldn't recover fast enough, I tripped. This happens countless times every single day. Andrew and I are constantly tripping over her, but this time I tripped while moving my leaf cuttings from one window sill to another and, thus, disaster struck.

It took me quite a while to clean up the mess and go through each cutting while playing plant surgeon. After two long hours of babying the leaves and the tiny plants growing from them, I ended up with a few new arrangements. Admittedly, they look super cute with their little toothpick supports even if it's sad they need them.

Because I mist the plants I don't think drainage will be an issue this time around, I just hope they're not in shock/on the brink of death. So many tiny leaves broke off and now I'm guessing all of their energy will be put into recovery versus growth. I'll be happy as long as they don't all die.

The leaf cuttings and plants which were totally unaffected by Princess' wrath are still going strong. Some have been late bloomers but now have wild hot pink roots growing in every direction after looking like this only a month ago.

One of my lithops is worrying me a bit; same goes for my Split Rock. Both have gone wrinkly all of a sudden despite both only being watered once. I'm not totally sure, but I think the misting of nearby plants may be the culprit. I hope they make it...

And here I thought this single leaf I knocked off a couple weeks ago was a tragedy! I post progress shots on Instagram if you'd like to see these little guys growing in between posts, and I've blogged about them in July and August. It's all so cute and stressful! Can you believe they survived this just last Friday?

THEY LIVE!

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, I'm sure you've gotten your fill of my propagating updates. I've been trying to keep my posts to a minimum so I don't inundate you, but I'm over here taking pictures every single day.

My succulents have totally become my children and they're growing up so fast, you guys! But more importantly, they're still alive. Some even appear to be...flourishing? Some. The only cause for concern has been the August cool down that seemingly came out of nowhere. As much as I want to crack our windows open for the nice cool air, I don't want to harm the little guys while they're still so delicate. Makes me wish I'd known earlier in the year (/my life) about propagating succulents.

The very first leaf cutting to sprout has grown so much in just a month's time. It's so cool to see the transformation from the tiny bud in my last plant post.

A few of the leaf cuttings are growing leggy new plants which makes me sad. They're so thirsty for sun but my west and southwest facing window sills are all I got. Maybe I'll get super serious and buy a lamp.

I've added to my mini window garden bit by bit without getting too ahead of myself, of course. If I'm going to kill some plants, I'd prefer to keep the casualty numbers as low as possible. All of these babies are from big box stores so chances are they'd end up overwatered/murdered anyway. Well, with the exception of THESE LITHOPS!

Lithops from Sprout Home Chicago

As much as I'd like to repot them, I'm hesitant so here they will remain until I find the courage. Maybe I shouldn't be so nervous since my Split Rock is doing surprisingly well after being repotted. Check out how much it has grown since that fateful night at Home Depot! I feel a new split coming soon. Can you see it forming already? Ah!

It's definitely got some brown spots which haven't gotten worse since last month, but I don't know if I should be worried. Any Pleiospilos nelii aficionados out there?? Clue me in! Everyone else go get yourself some succulents!

The August Break 2013 & Breakfast

While scrolling through my Instagram feed this morning, someone I follow posted one of those daily photo prompts you can always find floating around online. This one in particular, from Susannah Conway, caught my attention.

The prompt appealed to me instantly because of the perfect combination of a twee color scheme and word "break," so I visited Susannah's blog and her spiel had me hooked in under a minute. Though I'll be participating this year, I won't actually be taking a break from blogging since my normal schedule consists of merely one post per week. Instead, this will be more of a fun supplement that will hopefully inspire some creativity in me.

01. B R E A K F A S T: Tiny propagating succulents getting their daily spritz.
I'll be posting photos daily on Instagram so feel free to follow me if you don't, and I'll post here whenever I don't have something scheduled. Let me know if you decide to participate, I'd love to check out your photos!

Jaimielee 'Plant Killer' Velasquez

A few years ago I became obsessed with the idea of gardening. The thing is, every apartment I've lived in in Chicago has not been particularly plant-friendly. Whether it was due to shade for days, little-to-no outdoor space, or ninja-like Princess on the prowl for delicious-yet-toxic plant nomz, each plant I've owned has died a tragic death one way or another. The pinnacle being the tomato plant that I dropped off my window ledge one summer. I can't blame anyone but myself for that mishap, well, maybe the wind? Then of course there were my twee teacup-dwelling cacti...


Drainage? Ha! Who needs drainage!? These poor babies held on as long as they could back in 2009. I'm sure you're thinking why on Earth would I embark on this journey again and I'll tell you why. Because!

Last Saturday night (lol) Andrew and I stopped at Home Depot for PVC pipe and some other random house things. It was 11:00 pm and I wandered into the darkness of the outdoor nursery while Andrew stuck to the list. Then I saw it... The absolute most adorable "Feed me, Seymour" looking creature I had ever seen in my whole life. I immediately snatched it up and held the tiny pot to my bosom like a newborn baby. Before I knew it, another succulent jumped out at me. I'd never seen anything like that one either! Of course, I didn't bother reading either label before I grabbed a bag of cactus soil and I went looking for Andrew.

He spotted me cradling these two tiny pots, and my soil, and I could see the look in his eyes. "This again?" I asked him if it was worth it, "Only $10 for heartbreak!" He said "Do it." And I did.


So here we are, not even a week later and I've already added three more to the mix from Adams and Son. The same nursery where I got my flapjack moss, which was swimming in the mites that claimed my lettuce, basil, and hostas a few years ago. Admittedly, I was wary of ever going back but I made sure to closely inspect the new plants before checking out this time.


When I got home I wasted no time before the googling frenzy began. I found a great blog called Succulents and Sunshine with gorgeous photos and detailed advice for beginners. This set off a fever in me and before I knew what I was doing, I almost bought 125 cuttings for $56. Luckily, I stopped myself and instead chose to strip two plants almost completely of their leaves in hopes of propagating. I even lucked out with a few bonus leaves that had fallen off of nearby plants.


I think it's safe to say I'm obsessed with succulents again. I just hope these little guys survive my not-so-green thumb!