Indoor Gahden Update

So you thought you were safe from my gahden updates because it’s winter. Cue evil laugh. I warned you all it was a slippery slope. I moved in some of the plants indoors, and now you are going to get the blow-by-blow all winter long. Isn’t that great? Hello? Anyone? Hello?

Anyhoo, the good news is the indoors update will be a lot shorter, because lucky for you, I live in an apartment and only have one window space available for my plants. Although I must warn you, I learned that my basement storage space is actually capable of supporting plant life, but more on that later.

The oregano transplant is pretty rugged, while yet also being a princess. If I don’t water it twice a week, it starts to droop. But then after watering it extra one week to avoid the dry droop, I saw it drooping anyway, and I thought, well it’s done for. I wasn’t really surprised, I had already lost one of the 2 clippings I had rooted — one day they were great, the very next day, one was half dead and beyond saving. I don’t know if it was a midnight plant fight to the death or what. The remining one has been happily growing, which seems a bit sketchy to me. For the transplant I noticed there was still water in the saucer a few days after watering. So I poured it off and viola! It perked up. I don’t know, but that just seems like some random weird princess shit to me.

Or maybe it’s not a good clipping year. I had two clippings from a begonia plant I bought 2 summers ago. One is happily rooting at my sister’s house, and the other one I rooted and planted. It was going ok, until I noticed the stem is starting to dry up. Maybe that aggressive oregano clipping bullied it. I really need to keep an eye on these buggers. Meanwhile the begonia I transplanted whole is doing great. I want to trim it a little, but am nervous since the plants are being a bit boisterous about their life status, and I’m not sure who will next declare themselves a princess.

The primary plant who is not a princess is the flowering maple, from my grandmother’s progenitor plant from when I was a kid. So, that means a looooooooong time ago. Its real name is redvein abutilon, but flowering maple is much easier to say. It’s also what my grandmother called them, and grandmothers are always right. I had 2 that were loving being on the deck this summer. But they got really big and I didn’t have room to transplant them whole. I took clippings, but those can be dicey too. See the noted clipping failures in the text above. My brother has had his offspring flowering maples for a long time, and he encouraged me to hack it down to a size that would fit my winter indoor space. I do love him, but he is 3 years older than me and when we were kids, well, let’s just say, he enjoyed intentionally steering me wrong on occasion. But OK, we’re old ass adults now so I took a deep breath and pruned the hell out of the flowering maple and put it in a pot and hoped for the best. You can see how it responded. Definitely not a princess. Thanks Bro!

The jilo plants, aka Brazilian eggplant, I overwintered 2 successfully last winter. Bouyed by my success, I prepared 5 plants to overwinter. I kept 3 and gave 2 to a friend to plant sit. I lost 2 of mine out of the gate. The third one I ended up putting in my basement storage unit, which has 2 windows for weak light and there is a dryer nearby giving a fair amount of humidity. That plant is a bit pale, but happily chugging along. Who knew? And also, it is dangerous for me to have discovered more “room” for winter plants. I told you this was a slippery slope.

And speaking of slippery slope. My friend Jennie got me a hydronic growing system for Christmas. It was really interesting putting together, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m not sure where this will end. What is the plant version of a cat lady? We’ll find out in the next episode of the Gahden Update.