Wonderful rain...

 We've been in one of those "seven day cycles" my grandfather used to talk about.  It doesn't happen every year, but often enough that old farmers used to point it out.  And maybe it does happen most years, but it's not as noticeable until it happens on the weekends... rain every weekend for several weeks gets us talking.  And that's how it's happening this year.  We had more rain overnight, close to 2".  Even some flooding in places like southeast Douglas and northwest Sarpy counties and over in Council Bluffs.  Low lying areas only, of course.  It pretty much ended right after I got up around 7 a.m., but was cloudy and cool all day.  A gorgeous day with my windows wide open!  And now (it's a little after 4:00) the sun is trying to peak out and there's an awesome breeze, so I went out and took some pics...

I have a planter on the back patio that I planted with a couple Sedums and a nice-sized Sempervivum ("Hen & Chicks), and the Semp is blooming!

In the first photo, you can see the size of the plant and how loaded it is with flowers and buds.  But that closeup of the flower... I love the little bit of deep red behind the yellow anthers (I guess that's what those are... It's always hard for me to remember the botanical names of the individual flower parts.)  I believe that when a Semp flowers, the main plant typically dies off leaving "pups" to fill in.  A little sad, but I'm hoping it will survive the winter.  If not, next year I will mix in more perlite to loosen the soil.

In the same pot are those two Sedums - this one is S. lineare variegated:

And yes, that's one of those annoying "Mother of Thousands" Kalanchoes in the pot.  It was in with another plant and if I was smart, I would have picked it out and thrown it away, but I just threw it in this pot thinking maybe it would bloom in the fall, and then I'll toss it out!  Or maybe I'll just put it in with my donations I give the the Holy Cross plant booth every fall...

And this is Sedum sexangulare.  Both are growing fast.  From my research, it appears that lineare is not winter hardy here, so I'll pull it out in the fall.

I've also got some very aggressive purslane growing in the pot.  I like the look of purslane and I'm letting it grow though I have to keep it in check by weeding some of it out about once a week.  I keep thinking I will put some in a salad one of these days and see what I think of the taste...

More tomorrow.  Right now, I'm off to have an early dinner with Liane...

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Today is Monday (21st) - the Summer Solstice.  Meaning tomorrow the days start getting shorter, the sun starts moving south again.  It's weird that we say it that way since the sun stays constant and it's the earth's movement that changes the angle of the sun.  I suppose it's because to our bodies, it's the earth that feels like the constant...  Just one of those things that my mind wanders about often.

It's barely 7 a.m.  I would normally be doing "beginning of the day" things, but I got up (I'm using those words loosely!) with such terrible back pain that I could barely move!  Standing straight was oh-so-painful.  The pain is coming from the left side of my lower back - the opposite side from my every day pain.  So I can barely walk, and my cane is in the car.  I have another one downstairs, but it would be as much a challenge to get down there as to the car, so I decided to sit here at the computer and first ice for 20 minutes, then I'll wait 20 minutes, and then I'll use heat and see if I can get it settled down.  WTF did I do yesterday to bring on this hell??  I have a somewhat physical day ahead of me as I have to move shelves in the GH so they can replace the broken glass tomorrow morning.  I also need to go to the chiropractor and stop at the bank.  This could be an interesting day!

Getting back to plants... A couple weeks ago, a wind blew my Cissus rotundifolia off the porch shelf.  I've had it for years but started a cutting and gave away the main plant last year, so it was in a 5" nice clay pot that broke.  (Damn!)  It's a viny plant with somewhat succulent round leaves with tendrils for climbing.  I can't seem to find a photo of my own, so here's a photo from the web...

To my surprise, when I went to repot it I found that it has those gnarly roots that can be exposed.  I know there is a botanical name - it's not a caudex, but they're swollen and almost barky, so when I repotted it, I left them slightly exposed...

It could turn into an interesting specimen as it matures.  Keeping it from growing into everything around it is the challenge!

On the kitchen windowsills are some of my littlest Hoyas.  Hoya manipurensis is a species I attempted to grow several times.  Last year, I ordered yet another one from Etsy.  I ordered three Hoyas and a Dischidia from the seller and all were very tiny and only one was well rooted.  The other three had hardly any roots at all and manipurensis was one of those.  I was so sure they wouldn't make it that I contacted the seller and expressed my disappointment in the health and viability of the plants and crossed that seller off my list.  Of the four, manipurensis was the only one that survived.  I put it in my rooting tub where it recovered.  I potted it and put it over my kitchen sink so that I would see it daily and make sure it stayed well watered.  Well, it has flourished and very early this spring, I took a deep breath and whacked the top.  It's one of those Hoyas that grows straight up with no branching, so my hope was that it would branch.  I stuck the cutting in with the mother plant and made sure that I sprayed some water on the new cutting every couple of days to make sure it didn't dry out, giving it the best chance of rooting.  I honestly didn't expect it to root because it rarely works to root a new cutting back into the same pot, but probably because I was so diligent about keeping it moist, it worked and not only that but the mother plant then sprouted new growth at FOUR nodes!  I think I could actually get flowers before year's end!  I've wanted to grow this one forever because of it's unique leaf shape (some call it the "butterfly Hoya" because the leaved resemble butterfly wings), because of the unique flowers that look more like Dischidia flowers than Hoya flowers, and of course because Mom was a butterly collector.  I find it coincidental that I'm suddenly having success in growing it now that Mom is back in source!  Maybe she has a hand in that...

The leaves are a very dark green, almost black, and slightly pubescent, almost leathery.  

And the other little gem I'm growing that I took a pic of is a cutting off my very large H. sp. aff. burtoniae, one I've grown for a bazillion years.  It was the first small-leaved Hoya I ever bought. I love it because again, it has leathery somewhat pubescent leaves that develop black edges with some sun.  This little sweety is growing in a tiny 2" owl pot in hydroton (leca) and is budding for the second or third time (since the photo was taken a couple weeks ago)...

The mother plant grows in the bathroom and hangs about 2 feet and is heavy, blooms regularly.  That's it on the left...

Back out to the succulents growing out on the porch and patio, some photos to show how well they are responding to all this awesome rain we've been getting.  First is Adromischus cooperi, which is referred to as "Plover Eggs" in an old book:

This one has gotten large and heavy, considering it is still in a 4 or 5" pot!  It needs to go into a heavier pot because it wants to fall over easily.

Euphorbia francoisii is a very popular one since a few growers have started selling variations that are incredibly colorful and/or mottled/veined.  

Between the interesting caudex and the variable leaves, they make a beautiful bonsai plant.

I grow a lot of South African bulbs and the one that is blooming right now is Ledebouria concolor.  It's a large bulb whose leaves tend to get a little "crispy" on the edges if over or under watered, but it seems to be doing well with the rain.  The plant then the flowers:

The flowers are on a long stalk and they open from top to bottom.  Not by any means colorful, but cute nonetheless.

Aloes that are growing in dish gardens... this first one is Aloe 'Black Gem', which has several pups poking out from under...

In this next photo, the little Aloe at the bottom left is A. descoingii, one of the mini-Aloes.  The larger one above, according to google ID, is another Gasteraloe 'Flow', same as the one I just got from Karin (detailed in the last post).  If they are the same, the difference must have something to do with light because hers is growing more upright and mine is much more open.  I had no idea I already had one as they are quite different.  But I'm pretty sure hers grows under grow lights, which explains the difference.

I went to my chiropractor, and he said this is not a muscle pull but a subluxation.  I'm hoping the adjustment will help, but so far... I'm still suffering.  Not sure if I'll be able to work this week.  I did the the shelves moved out of the way, so I'm ready for the glass replacement tomorrow.

So on to more photos.  In one of the other dish gardens, I have a Crassula spiralis, which has stayed nicely compact and is starting to bloom...

And in another dish garden (I have 3 of them), this light bluish plant is Sedeveria 'Fanfare'.  Sedeveria is a cross between Sedum and Echeveria...

The other succulent is a Haworthia, most likely a form of H. cymbiformis.  Both are looking quite happy, which is interesting since Haworthias really don't need a ton of light to look good and it's usually suggested they are not paired with high-light plants.  But they do just great when grown in sun as long as they start out that way and you don't just thrust them into sun from a shady spot.

This Aeonium 'Kiwi' has many heads in with some other plants...

I need to get up and move around so I'm stopping for today.