IDK if anybody is interested in this, but here's the latest thing. Snipped these 2 piles of cuttings & dug up more grass to put them in the sun, in the ground, to grow as fast as possible while the weather is amenable. Various Kalanchoes mostly, some Crassulas, Sedeveria.

A pineapple top that must have taken root by now, PIG about a month ago.

Variegated Callisia fragrans (basket plant.) Put a small piece here 6-7 weeks ago that has grown several side shoots already.

Ficus elastica (rubber plant,) Crassula ovata (Jade,) some Kalanchoes, in ground for temporary summer vacation around where I dug up grass to plant basil. All other "house plants" that will be dug up later are just in the ground, naked, but I lined the hole for rubber plant with window screen. I don't want it to have a bunch of big, deep roots in the fall. Not that I'm sure it would without doing that, IDK, so went with a precaution. Sorry about the messy surroundings. This is my potting bench/work area, behind the house, where I'm also smothering some grass. Ugly, but so much easier than more digging.

TYVM! I got that in trade. Should have enough to start sharing next year. Never heard of anyone buying either plain or variegated C. fragrans in a store. IDK why, it grows so fast, and everyone seems to want some (where not hardy.)

This is a spot where I put a whole root ball of a combo pot that has purple waffle plant (Hemigraphis,) Dracaena 'Rikki,' false Aralia (Dizygotheca/Plerandra,) polka dot plant (Hypoestes,) and a cane Begonia that's only a stump when I took this pic. I keep trimming off pieces of that as it grows to start new ones elsewhere.

Here's where most of the succulent cuttings are, from the massacre pics about a week ago.

These are the best-looking specimens of these 2 kinds of cane Begonia.

This Callisia fragrans is growing about a dozen runners.

Tales of snake plants (Sansevieria) in the ground for summer here:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2146706/roamin-rhizomes-in-the-ground?n=39

Overall pic of where most of this stuff is. There was nothing here this spring except the bananas & some grass:

From right to left:

Going to move the Crinum soon, this area is a lot more shady than I thought. Also taking out the Lantana as soon as I get cuttings established elsewhere. This spot is way too small & shady.

Plumeria, Kalanchoes.

Looking great Tiffany

Aglaonema commutatum blooming (Chinese evergreen.) With wax Begonias.

This pic is the same spot as in my first pic of this post.

Looks really nice!

I thought I'd try to plant something in my garden so I attempted with 2 spider plant babies and as of now they, I guess, have gotten suffocated by my sedum.

TYVM! You could trim the Sedum, or move the spider plant babies.

This doesn't look like much yet, but this whole area under the tree is full of diff kinds of Tradescantia & Callisia.

I think I'll move them. I just never paid attention to them untill yesterday where I realized I couldn't find them.

Looks really nice (again)!

You can really see all the purple from the tradescantia. Looks like alot of fun

Can't help wondering if it would be possible to rig up some kind of temporary greenhouse-like structure to offer winter protection for your in-grounders.

Given any thought to that..?

Yes, I'm sure it would be, should the materials fall free out of the sky. :+) Still trying to finish a front porch. I think all I'd need is a giant roll of plastic sheeting & duct tape. Tape plastic to side of house, secure with bricks at the bottom. Maybe the plastic roll wouldn't be as pricey as I think, will check into it. Of course, I'm picturing doing the entire side of the house. Smaller scale would = smaller price. Just need to be able to wiggle into there to water sometimes.

Though I'm pretty sure this suggestion is the end all be all of temporary plastic sheeting,..Dry cleaner bags,sliced down the side and opened up and then packaging taped together made for an interesting indoor greenhouse(ish) type thingy last winter. If a few layers were sandwiched together they might actually work outdoors. Best part,..even the biggest bags were like ten cents a piece.

Just throwing around ideas...

Yesterday I decided the creeping plants were creeping right over the other plants in this area too much.

Pulled up a big bowl of Callisia repens & Tradescantias zebrina, fluminensis & pallida. The last one I just broke the stems off & left the stumps/roots to regrow. The others came up easily in big mats, with their roots.

After:

This is really awful dirt, but I knew that going into it, just reclaimed from grass. Growth of everything here has been glacially slow (except the creepers I pulled of course.) I've started adding compost tea, and it should be better next year after being under a pile of leaves all this next winter. Now that the ground covers are gone, I'll try to find some kind of organic matter/mulch as soon as possible too.

What do you plan to do with all the potential cuttings you pulled up?

Good question! I've been pulling up the grass under this tree to make a Commelinaceae-fest. This pic is from a few days ago, before adding the stuff pictured in the bowl, and another load about the same size from another area.

Also forgot to say above, all of this material grew from the few puny pieces that were in pots over winter. It's too tedious to try to "plant" each piece, so I just scrape the dirt a bit, lay the piece, brush a little dirt over some part of the stem. (It's impossible to dig much under a big tree like this anyway.)

If one only has 3-4 months of warmth, it's still worth putting these plants in (well, technically ON) the ground temporarily. They will be infinitely bigger than an identical potted specimen over the same time. Pulls up extremely easily, with its' roots.

The pic doesn't show the plants clearly, but there's Tradescantias zebrina, pallida, cerinthoides, and fluminensis, and Callisias fragrans, repens, cordifolia. There are also a few spiderwort-type Trads that I didn't pull out.

It should look amazing in a month or so, a patchwork of purple and lime. Will add an update pic soon. All but the C. fragrans are hardy here. T. cerinthoides is yet untried, and will be an experiment, haven't left any of that in the ground for winter before.

Sansevieria (snake plants) are making tons of pups:

Plants gone wild! Swedish ivy/creeping Charlie (Plectranthus verticillatus,)Callisia repens, Tradescantia zebrina (WJ,) Begonia 'Castaway.'

I put these cuttings of lavender scallops (Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi) and purple heart (Tradescantia pallida) here about 2 months ago. Surrounded by Portulaca amilis (Paraguayan purslane) that I found in the lawn & moved a bunch of them to be ground cover here.

Plumeria looks happy & is making huge leaves, but no signs of flower buds yet.

Makes me wonder just how big a pot the plumie will need when it's time to come back inside...root prune?

I've wondered about that also. It's limited to a 5-gallon bucket, I know that much already! If anyone else has grounded a piece'o'Plumeria before, & then dug it up, I'd love to hear your story! I put window screen in the hole I dug for rubber plant, but plumie is commando under the surface. This sucker's full of latex sap, will have to wear long sleeves & gloves to excavate. If it doesn't bloom by then, I don't mind tellin' ya, I'll be cussin' while I'm doing it, but unable to stop myself from making the effort.

Yep...I see root pruning in my crystal ball. ;)

If it doesn't bloom for you this year,try not to let it get you down,k?

Sending good vibes anyway! :)

That looks awesome!

Update of spot showed 5/14/15, some things added, a few moved elsewhere:

Trying to figure out what got switched around.

Looks pretty well filled in at the moment though.

Did you move the aglaonema,or is that it on the far right?

Sorry to be confusing! The last pic I put is not the spot where the Ag is - it's in a tiny little bed against carport with red bricks around it. I should have given these spots names or numbers. It won't let me edit the older entries. (Sharp frown!)

So the plant about halfway down that's right on the righthand edge...what are we lookin' at there?

Kinda thought it was an ag,but hey...my vision isn't too clear at the moment. These dollarstore specs need to be replaced with an actual prescription.

I can see the upside to older posts no longer being accessible to edit. A troublemaker could go back and twist whole conversations into different shapes if so inclined otherwise.

Don't dis those glasses just yet. That IS an Ag, but I thought u were asking about the one you sent, probably a wrong assumption on my part. That's a cutting of A. modestum I put there, IDK, maybe 6 weeks ago. There's a labeled version of this pic at the link, but I didn't label that plant because it's not in focus. Would love to be able to label the striped Bromeliads in the front (kind of tangled up with Billbergia nutans.)

http://allthingsplants.com/plants/multi/view/3484/

Forgot to say also, I keep pulling up the Tradescantia zebrina (WJ) to move elsewhere because it keeps crawling over the other plants.

If I'd known I wouldn't be able to edit later, I would have done this differently, sorry!

Those broms ARE rather fascinating Purp...although they are not a strong suit of mine so I can't be much help in identifying them regrettably. Kinda thought that the modestum was an ag...yay me! lol

..and naw,..I knew it wasn't the one I sent. The piece I have left from which that cutting was severed has it's top half going all funky and yellow. Pretty irritating to look at,but below that part there is a side shoot that has had one leaf for months and months that is only now thinking of pushing out a second leaf. It's out front with the majority of the collection so it can get decent lighting,but MAN what a slow grower. Yours is probably running circles around mine by now. I'll have to get some pics here in a little while so you can see what I mean.

I know what you mean about WJ's behavior once in ground. It rambles all over the place so fast that usually it takes another trad to keep up with it's pace...otherwise the whole bed will be nothing but WJ(not that that's a BAD thing.) ;)

Oh and about the apology for the edit issue...you KNOW I'm not bent about it,right?

Hope so. :)

No, but I am, planned to add more info to the original post when adding updates, so they referred to something above besides just the dates.

I do have a whole bed, just for members of the Commelinaceae family, which is where I'm putting the chunks I pull up. It IS a good thing, and that spot was full of grass this spring. Took a while to get it pulled out so I could use the newer spot. I knew I'd be pulling up WJ when I put it on the ground near other plants, all part of the plan to get it going quickly. :+) But, that's why it seems to not be spreading in some of these update pics.

Good vibes to that Ag!

LOL the ag appreciates your vibes and so do I. :)

As I said,I intend to get a pic of it soon(perhaps sometime tomorrow)so I can post it to show off the one glorious leaf it's proudly displaying...and the oh so slow growth tip that's taking forever to emerge,in addition to the ugly yellow nub.

Ugh.

Forgive my curiosity,but I'm wondering what yours is doing these days.

Could you post a pic too?

How much of the yard have you been converting to beds?

Do you plan to one day have just paths that wander through heavily planted areas?

...I can SO picture that! :)

Doing well I think, compared to how it was going for winter. Will be in a diff spot this time!

I got going like gangbusters on shady spots this spring, and dug up grass for a small bed out front in the sun, but those activities are on hold again until it cools off. Have the A/C cranking in this room & still sweating like crazy, it's managing to lower the temp to 86 today. What? Sorry, I passed out for a sec...

Yes, that's all I want, paths where people need to walk & some stepping stones so I can reach the weeds to pull 'em. No grass except in the fenced, dog area. I still miss this (the last garden I had in OH.) It was grass when I moved in. I don't even want grass for the paths, which would still have to be mowed.

I still have those EE's though! They're at Mom's from when we moved last year. She said she's ready for me to move them over here. Planning to do in April.

The one leaf wonder! lol

The second pic doesn't do a great job of showing off the new growth at all,but DOES show a white powdery kinda thing going on. I believe a repotting is in order.

Much as I'd like to have put it in-ground,something tells me that the rabbits would have done a number on it. I wanted to believe that as an aroid,complete with microcrystaline needles in it's tissues for defense,it would be safe...but that's what I thought about the anthurium too and I saw with my own eyes what the naughty bunny was doing. Caught him in the very act! lol

Much as I wish my ag was doing better I am pleased as punch to see how well yours is chugging along. Glad I sent it. Also glad to see the african mask is doing so well too. They always seem to dwindle on me over time,so even if it was a tearful goodbye,I knew it was going to a better place. Thank you for saving it. :)

When I had a safe piece of ground to put plants in at the last place I was living across town,they grew so well there. I'm not sure what the future holds around here for me so I'm not too sure what measures to take in terms of securing a bed for plants next year(too late in the season to think about it now). I may not even be here.

Those EEs at your mom's are just bangin'. They will look great in your yard next year.

...and I love the way the old garden looked. It's a goal that I have faith you will reach once again and sooner than you think. You're a busy little bee Purp.

I'm assuming that that's your foot in the foreground there,huh? :)

TY! Yes, that's my foot. SO glad I have pics of that garden. It's my fav so far, but working on getting where I am now to that status. At this point, I'm glad I didn't start anything else yet. It's been tricky pulling up all of the grass & other stuff that's been sprouting in beds already. The 1st year is always the worst for that, I was expecting it.

I agree, it's late to start putting something in the ground temporarily as far north as you are. And with the bunny issue, I'd be hesitant at all.

I would predict new stems if you're able to repot that Ag. That's what they do every time I repot them. Trimming the stump ever so slightly into the live material right above where the current branch comes from the main stem could also send that message to plant.

Over the weekend, I decided the container holding these plants needed to be repotted. But instead of putting right back in the pot, put the plants in ground. They'll have 8-12 weeks for vacation, before a frost comes. Senecio crassissimus and Euphorbia tirucalli (pencil plant.)

From another angle.

That'll be it for the year. Will put update pics of everything I've done just before pulling them back up to go into pots to come inside for winter...

The more I see you put stuff in-ground,the more it makes me want some kind of winter protection,temporary greenhouse type of a thing for them so they could stay out there. They're just so darned happy and you just KNOW they are gonna pout like crazy when they get dragged kicking and screaming back indoors.

As to the ag,I noticed new growth in an odd place. I haven't gotten around to the re-pot yet so when I noticed this new leaf spike coming on I was like "huh??" Seems it wants to give up on what was looking like something that it had been putting energy into...at least for now anyway.

I'm gonna have to get a pic here in a bit to show you what I mean.

...and yeah...I'll re-pot the poor thing too(eventually! lol).

Back from taking those pics.

Using my fingers,I managed to pinch off the nub -

In this next pic,you can see where what I thought was going to be the new growth is now going yellow on me at the same time something new and green is beginning to make an appearance -

Just for kicks,and I know you have a thread that would be more appropriate for this little guy,..when I was moving sansevieria leaves out of the way to get the pic above,he dropped out of them -

I think I may have interrupted his nap.

What a great companion & protector of plants! I'm sure he's been eating lots of slugs & pill bugs & the like. If you don't repot that plant soon, I'm ... going to keep mentioning it. Dang u live far away, definitely not going to pop by. I like to snap off those nubs too! Begonias do that. LOL!!

Seventeen hours and five minutes would be a bit of a drive just to re-pot my ag for me,wouldn't it? ;)

Maybe if I keep posting pics of the STILL untouched plant,you will break down and show up on my doorstep. lol

Come to think of it...that would be the coolest surprise ever! :)

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures! If I won the lottery, I'd embark on a trip to visit so many plants, uh, I mean people! The looks on faces would be priceless! I came, I saw, I repotted? LOL!! Sounds like great weather where u r now too! Sure wish I could. But joking aside, go with whatever your gut instinct says, regardless of what anybody else says. If you're doubtful, those negative vibes could be too much, vibes are powerful.

It's not too shabby...about 76 now with a low of 60 tonight from what I just looked at online...seems about right. :)

OK, I didn't think I'd be getting any more plants, but couldn't pass these up the other day. Have gotten them before, but it didn't go well. They never outgrew the store-soil root ball after being repotted. (Trying to remove the store-soil has about a 90% death rate, so I quit doing that.) I'm hoping that (about) 2 months in the ground, before being potted for winter, will help get them past that transition that so many succulent plants never seem to successfully make. If not, I'm never buying another tiny succulent again, will stick to trading for those.

Kalanchoe millotii:

K. longiflora:

Good luck little sux! :)

There's a pic of this plant above, from 5/19/15. This pic is from today, recovering well from its' unhappiness about being inside last winter. Brown spiderwort (Siderasis.)

Some pics from this morning. Will put numbers in case anybody has any questions.

1

2
3
4
5
6789, lavender scallops (Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi,) K. blossfeldiana, and a tiny K. marnieriana.

Update on the 2 Kalanchoes:

Still no frost in 10-day forecast...

After "playing" with making baby plants all summer, it was time to pot
them up. Leaves keep falling on them, I don't want to forget/lose
anything. Got these little baskets for .50 at a dollar store, (they even have holes in the bottom!) There's also a mesh of fairly big holes
on the sides, so I lined the sides with landscape fabric. I can pull
it out once roots establish & stick cuttings through the side holes later if I get too bored this winter.

Other side

Begonia & Aglaonema cuttings propagated in ground over summer, put in pots a couple days ago. And a few more cuttings I stuck in there right before taking the pic. The thought of any stems going to mush in a frost is so sad!

Huernia zebrina is making a flower bud, to the right near the soil.

Aloe bellatula is blooming.

Noticed this bud stalk forming on a snake plant (Sansevieria.)

I've sent boxes of these babies to others, but there's still so many! Kalanchoe x houghtonii.

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana looks like it's starting to get ready to bloom.

Same with Kalanchoe x houghtonii.

Purple waffle plant is blooming, left edge. With Dracaena 'Rikki, false Aralia, Perilla 'Magilla,' polka dot plant (Hypoestes.)

Plumeria has buds!

Coleus-a-palooza.

Jade plants, around which a solid coating of TONS of Kalanchoe babies has grown.

Excavated plants put into a pot yesterday.

Kleinia petrea pieces have done well, about tripling in size.

Kalanchoe, Swedish ivy (Plectranthus verticillatus) and Syngonium (arrowhead vine.)

Tons of new stems forming on Begonia 'Sophie Cecile.'

Love this, so much! And forgive me for being so forward, but should you have spare cuttings to rehome, let me know!

TYVM! I do, happy to share if you pay the postage. I have extra:

• Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
• K. x houghtonii
• Tradescantia zebrina
• heart-leaf Philodendron vine
• Callisia fragrans (basket plant)
• Euphorbia tirucalli 'Firesticks'

Send me a private msg Monday if interested (and others, if also interested. Responses served in order received, until I run out of stuff, but Kim's request would be first, if received.) If you look at the 10-day forecast for 36467 ZIP code, you'll see why. I should know by then if anything's gone to mush in the next 2 nights. Then back to comfortable temps at night, for however long that lasts. I think I've brought at least some of everything in, in pots, but the excess for sharing is still outside.