Spider plants

Did you know that spider plant babies root in water?

They do. This is a picture of a baby spider plant that is rooting in water that is also creating babies. This is their flower. 

How do you root them?  Well let me show you. 

Here is the mom. Simply pluck a hanging baby off the yellowish stems that grow. If you can find one with these

Greenish brown nubs it's best. Those dark nubs are air roots. This baby has begun to grow its white water roots. Which is the next step. Put the air roots in water for a few weeks (sometimes even days) and watch the magic happen. 

One the water or white roots form and there are at least 6 of them each 1-2 inches long it's safe to any into a pot. 

Use fresh soil and a pot that is at LEAST twice the size of the baby. (They grow lots of roots and fast) keep the soil moist till the new roots take hold then water weekly. 

They love the out doors but hate winter so bring them in long before the first frost. 

I have lots of babies if you want to try to grow one your self or go to your local nursery and start your own collection. 

How to kill a spider plant

So raise your hand if you own a spider plant. Keep it up if it has babies. Continue to keep it up if you have given away tons of babies.  Ok you can put it down now.  I love my spider plants.  And love it when they are producing babies.  It means I am doing something right.  Being a good gardener and plant care taker I would never want to kill a spider plant.....slow it's baby making down maybe but never kill........

But thats what I almost did to a few of my babies.  Spider plants are indoor plants but even up here in New York they can benefit from a little time outside in the summertime.  See mine were no longer producing any babies.  They were just well just there.  So putting them outside in the summer air helps them grow stronger and suddenly I had baby shoots all over the place.  But then being in NY a frost came.....

As you can see it just about killed my plant.  I have several containers of spider plants and some didn't make it...this one seems to be recovering but you can see it was quite full and was very pretty.

Todays lesson?:
Pay attention to the weather when you have indoor plants basking in the sun outside.  Frost WILL kill a spider plant.  Now if thats your goal yea for you!

Sorry it's been so long been having issues logging in and been busy.  Going to school to get my business degree to go with Irish Gardens, and was busy with the farmers markets.  But I have lots to post about so get ready to learn some stuff and enjoy some pictures.

Good bye 2011 a year in review

2011 was an interesting year.  A lot was  grown and a lot was harvested.  Take a walk with me through Irish Gardens and see what the year was like here.

Colorful foliage was found and pictures were taken in January

 February brought Daffodils into the house

 as well as coke water bottle greenhouses were introduced.

 March brought in sweet n neat tomato's inside the house and.........

......and signs of life outside as the Daffodils began to grow.

 Hosta's began to show off their strips in April....

....and new gardens were created as the others began to be planted for the season.........

......the Greenhouse got a new look and then was planted.

 The front porch got some fresh new color in May after the Rhodadendrun was transplanted by the front porch.....

....flowers were found on the polk-a-dot plant from back in January

 June brings flowering grape buds......

 .....another new garden bed.....

.....and the gardens showing lots of new growth and begun to burst at the seams.

 July shows up with heat and a whole lot of growth in the new beds so a new look was needed.....

.....a few back aches and sore thumbs later it looks a lot nicer...

 ....a new wild herb was found growing like crazy in the back yard.....

.....and the Strawberry Spinach plant began to ripen

 After hurricane Irene in August, large Cucumbers were found growing in the garden.....

.....Eggplant was harvested in multiple sizes.

September came in with new baby spider plants beginning their new life......

....and the chives found them selves blooming beautifully.

October brings in changing leaves and cooler weather....of course this October brought a foot of snow too.

 Novembers abnormally warm weather brings new growth to the mint in the Greenhouse

Although still no snow in December the Holiday Cactus inside is right on time.


Hope you had a nice tour through the gardens.

Thriving Thursday - On a Friday

Another week almost passed me by before I got my Thriving Thursday post out.  If it helps I started it yesterday but things came up and I had to stop.  So on this Friday morning what is Thriving in your gardens?

 I have a pumpkin.....finally a pumpkin that didn't fall off.

 My herb Marshmallow is flowering...pretty white flowers with purple middles....

 The orange froggy dude is doing great in the greenhouse.  He really likes it in there.

 While the White Rose of Sharon bush is flowering it's beauty, the bee's are playing in the pollen.

 Baby spider plants are rooting quite well in water....this guy was potted up to be sold through the other site (www.theirishgardens.com)

And finally Tomato's, Cucumber's, and herbs were thriving and ripening.

So what is Thriving in your neck of the garden blogosphere?  Write about it and add your link below.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May

It's the 15th of the Month.  Time to join Carol at May Dreams Gardens and many other Garden Bloggers in the joy of posting pictures of our gardens in bloom.  Although not part of this for very long I look fwd to it each and every month.  Hoping that each post I will get to show something different that is in bloom.  Although there are new blooms this month some are on plants featured last month.  But it doesn't matter. So to start the show we will begin with the houseplants.

 Not a new addition to the blog but the Polka Dot plants are blooming again.  This time a Purple color instead of Pink.

 A Spring Cactus.  Such pretty and different flowers.  These guys close up at night and open again each morning.

Another old timer is the Spider plant flowers.  Only difference this time is this particular flower is on my newer younger Ocean spider plant.

Here is a picture of the whole Ocean spider.  Very different variety from my other spider plant.







With the Houseplants in bloom taken care of it's time to head outside and take a look at what is going on.

 Although still a bud it's worth showing off.  The Peony's are gearing up for their show.

 Another bud worth showing off is from one of my rose bushes....2 of the 3 older ones have buds on them.

 This rose bush is new this year...Tiddly Winks.

 One of my new columbine.  Such pretty delicate flowers.

 The other new Columbine.

 Found growing in the gardens this year was this extreme miniature plant from the Narcissus family known as Jonquilla.

 Another bud begging to be shown is the Iris.  After watching the leaves grow it was a great joy and surprise to find that many are now sporting buds.

 Silly Pansy plant decided that it really liked IrishGardens and came back this year.  Although the foliage is very sparse the flowers are not.

 The other Pansy plant that came back.  There were 4 and although the other 2 show some signs of foliage only 2 have truly come back and bloomed.

 Lily of the Valley.  These were transplanted from my Mothers Garden.  They survived the transplant well and still bloomed.

 The latest in the Hope Blooms Tulips to show off it's color.

 Just cause I love the way they look more of the Tulips.

 A new container I planted Mothers Day.  Containing a Mini Rose bush....with Apricot blooms and a Brazilian Jasmine vine with pink blooms.

 Although hard to see a areal view of my Garden in the front.  I call it the Rose garden as to the left and still part of the garden is my 3 main rose bushes.  but the Columbine, Lily of the Valley, and Tulips and Daffodils are also located in this garden and picture.


Looking down at the gardens show a lot of beauty but now lets take a look up....at the Show stoppers.

 Although not quite high enough to look up at the Magnolia tree is looking good and it's single bloom is a real joy to see.

 Simple yet beautiful one of my Dogwood tree's is in full bloom now.

 Beautiful doesn't begin to describe this Lilac tree....the smell of the blooms alerts visitors to it's presence long before the sight does.

Nestled in the back by the Gas tanks is what I believe to be a Crabapple tree in full bloom.  So incredibly beautiful.  If it wasn't part of the big shaded area in the back yard that seems to house the mosquito's it would be my thinking spot.

So thats my May edition of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  I hope you like what you saw.  If not oh well I did.

Each Month Carol Hosts this beautiful meme over at May Dreams Gardens and hundreds join in.  So to see more blooming Garden's stop on over and take a hour or so to click through the virtual Gardens.