My Gerbera Daisy Plant

[blueeyes]

Oh, I am always taking pictures of my garden! Though lately I have been taking more pictures of my caterpillars, lol. They are busy little buggers that are always on the verge of getting into trouble. A wasp managed to get into the enclosure the other day and I almost flipped out. There's been a large spider lurking about as well, but most of the swallowtails have pupated and almost all of the larger monarchs have as well.

I was just out looking at the daisy and moving the leaves to see if any were starting to develop. (Sigh) Finger crossed, right?

Lol, my fingers are crossed too and so far nothing is developing but the leaves are really nice...lol....

My photography seems to be drawn to bees, dragonflies and bugs lately. All of them are fascinating creatures and for the most part, they don't seem threatened at all by my presence . They just keep right on doing what they do

 

[ChanellG]

I have been seeing all kinds of bugs in my yard I've never seen before - in person, that is. I took a picture of a caterpillar this morning I found while I was clearing vines and overgrowth near the fence line. I say "found" but I felt a stinging sensation clearing a vine that has never produced that feeling before and I happened to look at the vine sitting on top of the trash can and noticed the spiny green caterpillar.

Turns out it was an Io (eye-oh) moth caterpillar and I was quite lucky it barely brushed my hand.

Saw one of these recently as well

Dangerous looking thing, isn't it? For info on both of these see: http://www.poisoncentertampa.org/venomous-critters/caterpillars.aspx

 

[ChanellG]

All that talk about bugs and photos and I forgot that I had intended to post a photo of my gerbera daisy as it looks now. The leaves are pretty and it seems healthy to me. I noticed some new growth coming in when I moved the leaves

, but no sign of a potential new flower yet.

 

[blueeyes]

All that talk about bugs and photos and I forgot that I had intended to post a photo of my gerbera daisy as it looks now. The leaves are pretty and it seems healthy to me. I noticed some new growth coming in when I moved the leavesView attachment 751 , but no sign of a potential new flower yet.

Your Gerbera Daisy looks nice and healthy, Chanell. I will get out a bit later and take a picture of mine. It looks about the same as yours and I'm still hopeful I will get a bloom or two

 

[ChanellG]

Your Gerbera Daisy looks nice and healthy, Chanell. I will get out a bit later and take a picture of mine. It looks about the same as yours and I'm still hopeful I will get a bloom or two

I am starting to wonder if I need to transplant it. I just realized it seems to be in the same container I brought it home from the store in. Those plants are almost always root bound. Right now though, the biggest challenge seems to be protecting it from cutworms and other critters.

 

[blueeyes]

I am starting to wonder if I need to transplant it. I just realized it seems to be in the same container I brought it home from the store in. Those plants are almost always root bound. Right now though, the biggest challenge seems to be protecting it from cutworms and other critters.

Actually my plant is in the same container I brought it home from the store in too. I don't have any critters or cutworms but it just doesn't look like its thriving. I think I will transplant it next week and I'll let you know how it goes

 

[ChanellG]

Actually my plant is in the same container I brought it home from the store in too. I don't have any critters or cutworms but it just doesn't look like its thriving. I think I will transplant it next week and I'll let you know how it goes

I have a growing list of tasks for next week, but I have some herbs that need to be transplanted ASAP as well. This garden stuff is never ending, lol. On top of all the mounting tasks, I discovered more baby caterpillars this morning!

 

[maddie]

Gerbera Daisies need a lot of sunshine. They rot quickly if you bring them indoors. I tried doing this with grow lights too..but with no success.
Blend eggshells, banana peels, coffee grounds and wood ash if you can get it together. Dilute the sludge with water and water you flowering plants. This is fantastic instant manure and pick me up for plants.

African violets look sickly for a few reasons. If there isn't enough sunlight and if there are bugs. Check for bugs. Put the plants in the a warm sunny place where there is no direct sunlight for a few days before you move it to a sunny place. Try placing your pot in a bowl of hot water.. make sure to put a few pebbles into the bowl so that your pot does not get directly heated up. Place a bucket over the bolw or use a plastic bag to keep the steam inside. The humidity helps African violets recover faster.

 

[ChanellG]

Great tips, Maddie! I'll have to get some more coffee grinds so I can try this out. I just used the last of what I had around the cabbage plants. I always have access to banana peels though, and occasionally I can score some egg shells. The shells I had around the strawberry plants are still sticking up out of the soil so maybe I can salvage a bit for the daisy (the rain and then the sun wiped out the berries).

 

[Gina145]

African violets look sickly for a few reasons. If there isn't enough sunlight and if there are bugs. Check for bugs. Put the plants in the a warm sunny place where there is no direct sunlight for a few days before you move it to a sunny place. Try placing your pot in a bowl of hot water.. make sure to put a few pebbles into the bowl so that your pot does not get directly heated up. Place a bucket over the bolw or use a plastic bag to keep the steam inside. The humidity helps African violets recover faster.

Thanks maddie.

I've got all three of my African Violet plants near to each other in a room which gets a little bit of afternoon sun during winter (which it is now) and only one is flowering. Actually the one plant has two stems and only one side is flowering, which has never happened before. I think I had the sickly one in a darker area for a time, so that could be part of the problem. While the leaves of the other two are nice and firm, the leaves on the little one are rather soft and droopy.

I confess that I've also a bit erratic with watering my indoor plants, so that could have caused the problem. At times they may have been drier than they should but then I overcompensate with the water. I hope this one hasn't developed root rot.

For the record I'm much better at taking care of my bonsai trees which get watered regularly with a hose. But having so many to take care of is terribly time consuming and when I come inside I get lazy.

 

[ChanellG]

I confess that I've also a bit erratic with watering my indoor plants, so that could have caused the problem. At times they may have been drier than they should but then I overcompensate with the water. I hope this one hasn't developed root rot.

I often forget about my indoor plants as well from time to time. It's like all of a sudden you don't think about it, even though you pass by them daily. I guess I need to create a schedule, though the indoor ones don't dry out as fast as the ones outdoors in the heat. I finally have my outdoor ones at a good moisture level so that I only have to water once a day in the morning.

You should try the wick watering system for your African violets; that's what my cousin uses. If I had known more about doing thatt back when I had one and about not wetting the leaves, I might still have a plant (or multiple ones) now.

 

[Gina145]

I often forget about my indoor plants as well from time to time. It's like all of a sudden you don't think about it, even though you pass by them daily. I guess I need to create a schedule, though the indoor ones don't dry out as fast as the ones outdoors in the heat.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who does this kind of thing.

My African Violets have actually survived about ten years of my abuse. I gave myself a real scare a few weeks ago with a different plant though. I have a Ficus Pumila which wasn't doing well at all and in frustration one day, after overwatering and having the water run all over the plant stand and onto the floor, I decided to move it outside for the summer. It really loved it outside and put on masses of new growth, but when the weather started cooling down I decided to bring it indoors for the winter. Of course the first thing I did was forget to water it for a few days and all that beautiful new growth went dry and crispy. It was just lucky that I caught it in time before I killed it.

A schedule sounds like a good idea. I need to prevent something like this from happening again.

 

[ChanellG]

I think I will transplant it next week and I'll let you know how it goes

Guess what I found on my plant? I took a photo this morning with my phone so you could see:

There is another little bud down in there as well. When I move the leaves back and look at the base of the plant it looks as though there might be two plants sharing the container.

 

[Rzashida]

I think I might try the banana peel solution. I have used banana peels for roses and thrown them in my compost bin, so I know they are very useful. I love "free-cycling" with nature. Rice/Pasta water is also good for roses because of the starch.

 

[ChanellG]

I will have to try to remember to save my pasta water in the future. I poured a bit of the water from steaming broccoli into a few pots yesterday. I've been using rinsing water as well, but usually by the time I am washing vegetables to cook I have already watered my plants for the day.