Hunting Season

Day 165: It's hunting season, and my weapons of choice are in my rig, ready to be put to use as soon as I spot the prey. A small shovel, a trowel, a pair of pruning shears and various sizes of plastic bags are tucked in the trunk of the car, and my eye is trained to spot trophy material even when I'm travelling at the speed limit. To that end, I laid siege to a flowering quince bush in a vacant lot this morning, and came home with ten cuttings, none of which had visible roots. I stuck five of them in flower pots which will be sunk in the garden for a year in the hopes of rooting them, and five were simply placed in a jar of water which will sit on a windowsill. Most plants which sucker as readily as flowering quince can be propagated either way. I'm still hoping to be able to get a slip with roots, but today wasn't the day.

Young Pups

Day 85: "Mother of Thousands!" If you've ever grown one, you'll know all too well how the name was derived. Bryophyllum daigremontiana (aka Kalanchoe daigremontiana) propagates vegetatively, i.e., it forms "pups" along its leaf margins which, as they mature and grow roots, drop from the parent plant to take hold in any available soil. Unmonitored, all your African violets and the philodendron you exiled to the utility porch when it outgrew its allotted space in the living room will soon have little Mothers flocking at their bases like the birds gathered at St. Francis' legendary feet. Although this is a fun plant to grow, take precautions to keep it and its offspring away from the questing mouths of pets and children. All parts are poisonous.

Late last summer, I was on a work party with a group from REI and "Mother" came under discussion. One of the members of the group offered to send me some pups from her parent plant. Some time later, they arrived in a mangled, sodden envelope which looked like it had been run down by the postal steam-roller. She had shipped the pups wrapped in a wet paper towel, only loosely confined in a piece of plastic wrap! Many of them were smashed beyond any hope of redemption, but I gathered approximately two dozen from the carnage and put them in a pot. Every one survived.

A week ago, I transplanted two to another pot, and almost immediately, one began making pups in response to having more room. I will eventually limit the number of Mothers in my household to two, and they will be kept far, far away from any other pots they might be disposed to colonize.