|
Journal |
Journal of a new Alaskan gardener... August 6, 2004 You know, I'm mostly into house plants. Oh, I will help my husband out here and there in the garden, and love working in my herbs and such outside, but I most enjoy tittering around with Coleus, Ivy's, Peace Lilies and such. |
|
|
Well, early spring at a garage sale, I picked up an old gardening book, called "The Joy of Gardening," by Richard Raymond. I like this guy. He doesn't hesitate to think "outside the box," as they say. He doesn't plant his plants in rows, he scatters them. I, too don't like plants in rows. Not natural, don't you agree. My husband likes his in nice, tidy rows. Anyway, Dick Raymond also shares a lot of unique and different ideas about attitudes toward plants. He says that plants are just like people and should be treated as such. For example, they don't like extreme temperatures. He talked about the well-documented need to "harden off" plants when planning on moving them outside. Not to just take them from the cozy warmth of your home out into the chilling and unkind world of cold temps and harsh winds, but to give them daily exposure for short periods, gradually lengthening the time outside. Much like you would do to yourself in early summer to prevent sunburn.. |
That made sense to me. But then he went on to say that he even uses lukewarm water to water his inside plants. He said he had found that they responded positively to the warm water and that by adding a little liquid fertilizer each time you watered them, they even did better.
Well, me being the curious one, decided to try it. This whole summer I have watered my inside plants with lukewarm water, and just a few drops (usually about 5 to a 2 quarts of water) of liquid fertilizer.
All my plants have done wonderfully, but the one thing that has amazed me is my coleus! I've have grown coleus for over 25 years. They're one of my favorite plants-sooo forgiving of being forgotten to be watered. They'll be drooping so forlornly, I'll rush over and pour in a cup of water and within fifteen minutes or so, they're back beautiful as ever!
Anyway, in that 25 years, never have I ever had any to have such huge leaves! Here it is in front of the fireplace. You can see it's as tall as the fireplace. One leaf I measured to be 10 inches long by 6 inches wide. If this is normal I've never seen it!
Was it the warm water? Was it the regular small feedings of fertilize? Or both? Beats me, but something sure made a difference. Someone said it's the beautiful sun we've had, but I grew them in Saudi and they never got this big. Anyway-thought I'd share my picture and see what you think.
Hey, did you know that Coleus is considered an old world herb? And a mint! Me either!
Coleus definition from Websters: Any of various Old World herbs of the genus Coleus in the mint family, widely cultivated for their multicolored decorative leaves. Also called flame nettle.
Keep gardening.... Sharon
The website designed and owned by Sharon Romine @ Creative Connections is Sitka, Alaska. Copyright March 2004. No use of any images or text allowed for profit, without expressed permission. Any questions can be e-mailed to Sharon Romine, or call: 907-747-4712. Also visit me at: www.creativeconnections.biz.