Pink Adenium Obesum Flower

While I could consider this past summer a failure in the garden, for several reasons, one reason why it will go do down in history as one of the best growing seasons is because one of my Adenium Obesums was in bloom. It only had three blooms, but this pink Adenium Obesum flower was my favorite flower in the garden.

Chicago Spring Fling In Pictures

Didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos during Spring Fling but here are a few that I liked. My pictures of the Rick Bayless garden are over on my garden blog for ChicagoNow.com: Chicago Garden and my other post on the subject of Spring Fling is: Chicago Spring Fling in Words. Links in this post open in new window. If you hover your mouse over one of the garden photos you should get a description.

Jade Plant Ball Topiary

I spotted this topiary in the summer at a garden center here in Chicago that I visited for the first time. It is a simple sphere shape stuffed with moss and planted with jade plant cuttings. Crassula ovata is an evergreen succulent plant that is a very popular houseplant grown around the world. When given plenty of light the jade green leaves develop a red tint around the edge and with good care they flower small white or pink flowers. Most of the time it is grown as a tree or several stems are grown in a pot resulting in a shrub-like plant. Seeing this plant being grown in a ball topiary form was a bit of a surprise because I've only seen it grown as a tree or shrub and thought this was pretty ingenious.

Rotting Leaves On Aloe Plant

In the post about Aloe Vera Houseplant Care a visitor by the name of Bridget posed the following question:

"I have been having trouble with my aloe lately, usually it loves me, it even bloomed for me over the summer and gave me about 15 little ones I've been having to give to people because I don't know where I can put them. Unfortunately  I accidentally let it freeze, it summers outside, and a sudden freeze came up before I could move it inside. When I did get it inside, it was frozen, and after it thawed it became very wilted, and now it is giving off a smell of rotting, and oozing a dark brown liquid from the tips of it's leaves. There are still viable leaves in the very middle of the plant, but I'm concerned with trimming off the bad leaves and shocking it too much. Should I just give it up and let it go? I would like to try to get it healthy because I've had this one aloe for over 7 years."

Restarting An Echeveria

I picked up this "Black Prince" Echeveria back in November of '06 after I spotted it in a new shipment of succulents at a local Home Depot. Unfortunately this Echeveria started to become a little leggy which is understandable because of the low light conditions indoors over the winter.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

This past fall I couldn't resist buying a couple of 1 gallon Sedums for the garden after they had been discounted. I planted the two Sedum 'Autumn Joy' plants in the garden hoping they would still have enough time to establish themselves before winter hit.

Adenium Obesum Care

Adenium Obesum, also known as Desert Rose, is native to Eastern Africa and Northern Arabia. They like full sun and are very heat tolerant. In the ground it can grow anywhere from 6-12 feet tall, it produces very attractive flowers and it is a popular plant among cacti and succulent collectors for it's unusual trunk.

Aloe Vera Houseplant Care

Aloe vera or what is commonly cared "burn plant" is one of the easiest succulents to grow. I consider it the Ficus of the succulent world because it's grown everywhere. I'm never surprised to see it sitting in windows of homes, restaurants and shops near me. From my readings of various gardening forums and results that bring people to my gardening blog I am surprised just how much trouble people have growing it. It's an easy houseplant.

"Why is my Aloe Vera dying?"

Caring for your Aloe vera houseplant can be very easy if you take into consideration where the plant comes from and what the conditions are that will make this houseplant thrive. This plant is native to the Mediterranean and that's an important clue to successfully grow this houseplant. It comes from a hot, dry and sunny area-so give it heat, sun and don't water it so much. Resist the urge to water it every time you walk past your Aloe vera-your plant will thank you.

Garden Sedum Self-Propagation In The Garden

Propagating existing plants in your garden is the easiest way of expanding your garden. Sometimes, the propagation of plants just happens on its own. When this happens in my garden it is almost as if someone is issuing me a reminder as a reminder that gardening isn't rocket dentistry.

In the fall of 2006 I purchased a perennial sedum for the garden and it was trampled. Instead of picking up the pieces and throwing them I just turned some soil over on them and forgot about the broken pieces of the plant. In April 2007 while doing some spring cleaning in the garden, I happened to unearth one of the stems as I laid on the ground watching some bugs go back and forth through the garden.