Spring has sprung! In accordance with the astronomical calendar, within the northern hemisphere March twentieth marks the primary day of Spring. The Spring equinox, or vernal equinox because it’s additionally recognized, celebrates the seasonal shift in direction of lighter days and hotter temperatures. For nature lovers, the Spring equinox inherently brings with it a lot optimism for brand spanking new life and progress. For these of us nurturing crops at residence too, the beginning of Spring can really feel equally as thrilling.
After their winter relaxation or dormancy interval, a few of my houseplants are beginning to stir right here at Home Plant Home. Winter windowsill propagations ready patiently. A brand new leaf right here, some roots rising out of the drainage holes there. With that in thoughts, at present’s submit is the primary Repotting Diaries of the yr – Spring equinox version.
Welcoming the Spring equinox
As a means of welcoming the Spring equinox, I’ve a number of plant-y plans lined up for this weekend. To kick issues off, I’m carving out an hour or two between renovating to have a meander round my houseplants. Nothing fancy or difficult, only a walk-round with a cuppa. With any seasonal shift it’s useful to note if any crops want shifting to a brand new location, which is what I might be contemplating right here. There is likely to be some crops that should be moved additional again from the window as the times are brighter for longer, and the suns rays might be incrementally growing in depth. Conversely, a few of your crops which were dormant or resting in a cooler/darker place may wish to transfer nearer to the sunshine.
Following that, I’m going to deal with figuring out those that want repotting. I usually like to begin with the smaller crops, which is what you will notice on this submit. There are additionally a number of of my bigger pots that basically want an improve, however I have to psych myself up for that! I’ve some fairly huge plans for my Monstera gang which requires some logistical planning first…
Exterior I’ve discovered a pot massive sufficient for slightly cherry tree I obtained given on my birthday final month so I’ll be potting it up. It’s nonetheless a constructing web site on the market however a minimum of one pot is considerably moveable! It does really feel unusual not tending to outside crops this time of yr. Hopefully they may materialise subsequent yr. rubble shouldn’t be fairly the identical…!
Hopefully this submit will function slightly reminder to spend a while together with your crops in case you can. I encourage you to take a better take a look at your pots this weekend too if this can be a job you’ve been neglecting. Take your time and revel in it! Lastly, I’m going to go outdoors and have a stroll. There’s a explicit place close by I’ve a hankering to discover this Sunday as I do know the crocuses are in full bloom now!
Repotting Diaries…
First up, keep in mind that you don’t have to routinely re-pot your crops in the event that they don’t want it. I’ve obtained a particular submit about Spring plant care right here. For at present’s submit, these are crops which have actually wanted some consideration in current months. I like to attend till I see indicators of energetic progress earlier than commencing my repotting classes. Simply because it’s the Spring equinox, it doesn’t imply all the things simply springs to life! There are a number of crops like my Ficus that are nonetheless resting, so it’ll most likely be April till I deal with these pots.
It actually does really feel nice to be getting my arms soiled with some repotting once more… (I’ll hyperlink my potting combine I wish to make up right here for reference) So let’s get into it!
Tradescantia fluminensis tricolour propagations
It’s that point of yr once more – tidying up the Tradescantia fluminensis tricolour all the time makes me really feel like Spring is right here! After winter, these crops can notoriously look slightly bedraggled. For ease, I needed to amalgamate a few bunches of cuttings I’ve been water and soil propagating over the previous few months into one pot.
While these crops generally tend to look fairly twisted up after they first get repotted, they do calm down a bit after a number of weeks. I choose to not disturb the roots an excessive amount of through the planting up course of so go away them do their very own factor as they alter to their new pot. By way of pots, I wish to maintain them pretty small in measurement and do plenty of re-pots all through the rising season. I plant plenty of stems collectively in a single pot like I’ve on this occasion. This appears to maintain the plant trying good and full!
In case you are new right here, I’ve written a devoted submit on this course of which you’ll learn right here: Learn how to make a brand new Tradescantia plant from cuttings. You may also wish to take a look at How I cease my Tradescantia fluminensis tricolour from trying like a crispy mess!
Chlorophytum comosum / Spider plant rescue
This poor spider plant was within the nook of an area with the constructing supplies for too lengthy and regarded positively gray. When chlorophytum are excessively dry, their foliage can de-saturate which could be fairly alarming to see! However after some water remedy, every week later, this little plant perked up once more and was now able to plant. With this one, I selected to take away it from it’s previous planter because the potting combine was very dry and compacted. It hadn’t been repotted in ages both. So I rinsed off the roots and popped the plant in a jam jar of water for a number of days. Then I potted it up!
As you may see, there’s a runner with two tiny plantlets hooked up so I used to be further cautious to not knock these. Spider crops will typically produce runners because of a interval of stress. The plant can expertise stress by way of being root certain, or being starved of water, mild or vitamins. By withholding these components, the plant will produce offshoots as a survival mechanism. There’s an in depth blogpost on Success with spider crops right here.
Marble queen pothos / Epipremnum aureum propagations
I shared the picture under of my beloved plant shelf from my previous house on Instagram the opposite day. And it obtained me fascinated by how a lot I’m trying ahead to designing my new area with crops. After a number of years of residing in limbo and attempting to maintain the crops alive, I’m so able to settle right into a (hopefully!) extra everlasting area. Anyway, this beast of a Marble Queen Pothos took centre stage on my Ikea Hyllis shelf! It survived within the cottage and was getting so massive I took some cuttings after we moved to propagate.
These crops began life as particular person leaves and as soon as these had rooted, I planted them up into a number of pots. Quick ahead a number of months, they’ve now grown a number of new leaves of their very own. I’m actually favouring planting smaller pots of cuttings up into one bigger pot in the intervening time so I believe it’s time to pot them up collectively now…
It nonetheless appears to be like slightly wonky however I didn’t wish to disturb issues an excessive amount of as there are new leaves on the best way:
I all the time wish to have a number of pots of marble queen round – it’s one in every of my favorite trailing houseplants and it’ll hopefully get rising as we get into Spring. The variegation of this one is de facto fairly too. True, it would take some time to path however for now it’s a cute desk high plant!
Planting up my Echinocacus grusonii / Golden barrel cacti from seed
It’s taken a lengthy time to get to this stage! You might need seen on this submit that I thrifted this pretty bonsai planter on my birthday again in February. I knew straightaway that 1) it might look actually good on the south going through kitchen windowsill and a pair of) it might be the proper improve to plant the cacti. They’ve lived in my previous lunchbox for over 2 years as a result of it’s a very good makeshift propagator! However it’s not fairly and these cacti have outgrown their area and have been prepared for potting up. I grew these from seed on this container so it seems like fairly a second to do that!
It’s onerous to indicate within the photographs, however the primary space these cacti had been combating was their roots simply didn’t have sufficient depth to anchor down within the tray. As compared, the bonsai pot is greater than double the depth of the tray. So while there isn’t a lot of a change by way of area across the particular person crops, all of them have loads of area for his or her roots to settle into their new pot. In time, I’ll most likely take two of those crops to make up some particular person pots. However for now, these might be high quality right here. Their progress is so gradual I most likely received’t have to do something till subsequent yr!
I made a video of the method too for my Pinterest:
A few Pilea peperomioides
It wouldn’t be a Repotting Diaries with no Pilea plantlet or two now wouldn’t it! These two have been in with the primary mom plant and I simply felt prefer it was time to offer them a planter of their very own. I left three of the opposite plantlets in with the primary plant for good measure, and I’m going to offer these two an area in some good little planters.
I don’t know if it’s simply me, however as my plant assortment matures, I’m discovering I’ve fewer crops to go in among the extra diminutive planters. So I’m going to make extra of an effort this yr to dig out (no pun meant) a few of my favorite little pots and plant some little propagation experiments in them. Vegetation this measurement make for wonderful shelf crops too… simply guarantee you’re giving them sufficient mild and don’t neglect to water them!
Strelitzia/ Hen of Paradise repotting
Right here’s my BoP from my Strelitzia care information I printed the opposite week. It was trying slightly one thing just like the leaning tower of Pisa over winter and I wanted to do one thing about it! The roots had grown so huge across the backside of pot, they have been encircling it and pushing the plant up and inflicting it to tilt. It was a messy job, however my plant already appears to be like quite a bit happier standing up tall. Let’s see how lengthy earlier than a brand new leaf begins to seem.
Snake plant/ dracaena/sansevieria trifasciata laurentii propagations
In case you’re a daily reader of Home Plant Home, you may recall some snake plant propagation experiments I used to be finishing up final yr. These are a number of dracaena/sansevieria trifasciata laurentii leaves I needed to plant up collectively. You’ll be able to discover how the most recent leaf to develop shouldn’t be variegated as a result of it was propagated by a leaf reducing and never division. The variegated leaves are the ‘authentic’ leaves that I propagated. Due to this fact, the brand new plant might be a mix of stable inexperienced (new) leaves and the yellow-edged variegated leaves. In time although, the older variegated leaves can generally die off, like you may see within the small plant under left:
Take a look at my Snake Plant Propagation Strategies or Snake Plant Care Information in case you’d wish to see extra on this. I’ll additionally share a video I made on the time:
Conclusion
Thanks for studying and Completely happy Spring Equinox in case you rejoice it. I hope which you could spend a while in nature or together with your crops this weekend. I’ll pop a hyperlink to my Repotting Diaries sequence right here if you wish to get within the temper for some plant care and hopefully at present’s submit has provided some repotting inspiration to welcome within the rising season too. There are additionally plenty of posts on this over on my Instagram and Pinterest if you wish to see extra.
There are additionally another associated posts you may get pleasure from, a number of of which I’ll hyperlink right here for additional studying:
Right here you’ll discover some pins to save lots of or share with somebody who may get pleasure from this Repotting Diaries: Spring equinox version:
