Finally i see some germination in my pot and i come home to see it disheveled on the floor, apparently my roommate was turning off the plant light on the way out the door and knocked over the pot which was filled with pumice, lava and turface stone so it got all heaved around inside the container
I saved what i could but they were just starting to germinate so they are really tiny amidst the rocks... oooh why is she so clumsy all the time, those were my Lithops optica "maculate" seeds a friend gave me -I've been trying to have one of these lithops in my collection for soooo long, and now i doubt any will survive the rocked soil after the pot dropped, anyone think the seeds could still grow even if they are deeper in the rocks? Or is it totally useless now?
And obviously i can't catch a break, i just decided to sow the rest of the L. Optica" maculate" seeds my friend gave me, not that many left, and as soon as i put the pot in the night room my roommate comes out about 10 seconds after placing the pot down before my hand even turns the knob to get to my room i hear a drop And rocks tumbling in a container... SHE FRIGGEN TRIPPED OVER THE FLOOR JOUST (cause she's a darn shuffller kno matter how many times i tell her to pick up her darn feet) AND SHE PULLED THE TABLE DOWN WITH THE CONTAINER ON IT....AGAIN!!!! - its Christmas can't i catch a break i think I'm kinda over due for one with ALL the bad stuff that's happening/happened to me and the program kids these past month's. . Grrrrrrrrrr i literally can't take it!
So even with all that happened the one's I've managed to save after hours of sifting thru the Rocky soil to find barely germinated seeds and sprouts the ones i did manage to find and save are looking okay, i tossed a few seeds into the remnants of the destruction that was once my sowing container for L. Optica "maculate" seeds so now a few mixed seeds are trying to sprout as well, but it seems the seeds keep shifting lower and lower into the Rocky medium and i find myself having to take tweezers and find the sprouting seeds under the Rocky layers and bring them some what higher in the Rocky container....grrrrrrr... atleast they are sprouting, lets hope i actually get some lithops this year for me and the children in the program for once without something happening to ruin everything!
Other potential disasters: seedling burning sun intensity, mice eating your seedlings, birds pulling them out of the soil, cats knocking pots over, labels (and information) fading away, unexpected frosts and pots you forget to water. Life of a plant enthusiast...
I kno isn't it a pain in the butt sometimes!!??!!? But in the end it always seems worth it when we add the new plant's to our collection's. .
But for months and months and sometimes years before that, we gatta go absolutely CRAZY and loose our minds for a while.lol!
I don't kno how most of you do it, especially when i see some of the seed sowing lists you guy's put up! - i sometimes i don't kno how the hell i do it!! I think everyone who owns plant's that they only buy should atleast try and grow one if the plant's they have, so they can see why we growers are the way we are lol cause I'vebeen on a few sites before i came to this one and people were constantly asking ME why i grow them from seed instead of just buying them from a store/nursery - i swear my head would spin with how many times i had to answer that question, lol.
Well wish me luck! Off to find donations for the program, after the last tragedy from that monster next door, i gatta find something for these kids to do since they have no plants and no seedlings after what happened, i just hope people are in a holiday spirit about everything and that they are willing to part with some used unwanted or unneeded stuff they have lying around.
You can buy what nurserymen choose to grow and they are usually what are commercially viable to produce. Also since CITES importing ready made plants from other countries is usually difficult or often impossible therefore even your countries nurserymen can only grow them from seed, meaning they will only grow species that are commercially viable as they are in business to make a living. If you want plants that are new, rare or out of fashion often the only available international source available to you is growing them from seed.
The days of you or nurserymen being able to go out in the field, either in your own country or abroad and legally bring ready made plants back home have fast disappeared due to CITES and stricter laws on collecting plants from the wild in most countries, even just collecting seed from the wild can be illegal in some countries.
Quote: "Well wish me luck! Off to find donations for the program, after the last tragedy from that monster next door, i gatta find something for these kids to do since they have no plants and no seedlings after what happened, i just hope people are in a holiday spirit about everything and that they are willing to part with some used unwanted or unneeded stuff they have lying around."
KittyKAT, can you explain how your program works in a little more detail for us. You mention your children's program every single day but I still can't figure out how it works. Do these 38 children come to your apartment or do you meet at a local school or youth center? Are they learning various horticultural methods and gardening in general?
All that I am seeing is that you are trying to grow lithops and other difficult, slow growing plants with them. You have had nothing but trouble obtaining and growing these particular plants yet your whole program seems to revolve around them.
I have worked with young children and plants over the years and it's very rewarding to both them and myself. Kids just seem to naturally enjoy plants of all types.There are so many easy and common seeds and plants that can be propagated by them. Just think of all of the cuttings from houseplants that can be started in water or soil that root quickly and are easy to obtain. Or how about some flower or vegetable seeds that are easy and fast growing. Kids love to take plants home to their families the plants they started
As far as containers go you can use recycled food containers or buy a bag of 100 plastic cups for a dollar and poke holes in the bottom if you need drainage. There's probably a nice lady on your block who gardens and has a shed full of old pots and containers that she would be happy to donate to your kids group.
A final thought for you is to note that if you have a well thought out program then it should be easy for you to find local sponsors and even have others join you. I belong to several local gardening clubs and organizations and I can't imagine that they would turn down a request to help out with the kids in some way.
I don't mean this in a negative or unfriendly manner to you so please don't misunderstand. I love that people like you want to reach out to help and teach our youth. And we can always use a new generation of Cactus and Succulent lovers right?
Best to you and Happy New Years to all
Harry
I've explained the program in other threads but there's soo much to say once i start i usually never shut up about it.
The group was first started by having spare pots donated by people of the community, plastic, terracotta..etc.etc.. Just pots
Gathering them up to plant whatever the children had intrest in growing, we did flowers, fruits, veggies in container gardens and plots in local parks or islands in streets even people's and company's yards when asked or offered. We learn about different types of plants and go thru different plant groups throughout the year and have scheduled things to grow at certain times of the year usually veggys and fruits in summer so when the kids are outta school they have a way to get food for meals that they help grow themselves. When the weather is nice we host the meetings and activities in local park's and recreation centers that will have us, when it rains or snows during the winter or other times when mother nature isn't on our side they meet me (with a parent or signed parental consent) at eithe my house or my mother's housedepending on which group of kids I'm working with at different times, the group usually meets all year around after school hours anywhere from 2 to 4 Times a wweek depending on the group and for a few hours.. it also doubles as a daycare for some parents who can't afford a baby sitter or a after school program to watch there children until they get done with work, cause a lot of these kids were just left to roam the streets and get in trouble while there parents weren't able to be home because of work or other reasons. We sow seeds and propergate. We also have had plant's in bad shape donated to us from stores or people who would other wise just toss them in the trash and we assign children to have a few plant's inn there own pot to take home and care for to show then responsibility and how to care for another living thing. They also take a notebook home to record any observations and changes that they see in those plant's that they have, some draw pictures others write about them, then i collect the books when we meet and we go over the changes in there plants and there observations...erc..etc. we read books from the library about plant's of all types but mostly the kids are interested in the unusual looking plants. We had anything from daisys to mimosa pudica, cacti, carnivorous plants, succulents, mesembs...etc...etc...etc anything they wanted to grow or learn about i would take that chance to teach them about those plant's, which usually entices them to learn about other types of plants/trees...ect..ect.. . Some kids would leave there plants in my Sun porch green house to house them with the seedlings and seeds we sowed and my collection of plant's so they wouldn't have to carry then in the winter to my house or my mother's, but others keep theirs at there homes and observe them and tell us there observations and how there plants are doing and ask questions and for help on certain things. We learn different methods of sowing different types of plants and when we sow seeds we use different methods to learn which had a better germination rate using what materials and which plant's grew the biggest or fastest or other changes recorded between the two subjects. Then we give the seedlings to the children to put in there pots if the pants gave the same needs, u wouldn't put a mesemb in with . Plant that needs to be watered all the time and vice versa. We make a seed list, plant list of what we would like for donations or what we would have interest in growing this year and we ask the community for help and i ask online when it's something we wouldn't otherwise get locally, like lithops and other mesembs. Usually with slower growing plant's we would like to have plants or seedlings donated but usually we don't have the luck of finding things like that to be donated, very rarely do we get plants in fair condition, if not on the verge of death.. but we take all we are offered because we don't get offered stuff often - but it teaches the kids that with hard work and patience they can save the plant's and make them beautiful and healthy again, and with healthy plants they can be proped from or can produce pups or offsets to give to the other children who need plants for there pots. We have done titanopsis last summer and we came to lithops and that's WHY we've been so involved with lithops at this time its part of the learning process and its what they want to grow and learn about at this time, as they grow we have other side projects of other stuff we've grown and other seeds we sowed- and i have my own stuff im growing for my own collections- theirs soooo much more i could write about what these children do in the program and what they learn and things we'd like to do and have and activities they've done and that we will do (like going to the salem woods on a fetid trip to see the plant's growing in the wild with there parents drawing what they see and the environment the plant's live in etc..etc..) sometimes we talk about how to repot plants other times we learn about pests and diseases sometimes we look at books of plant's and read about the ones they like or think look cool, sometimes we collect donations of pots and soil and other much needed supplies for there planting and growing needs.
At the moment after ALL the bad things that have happened all the tragedies that the program and its plant's have went thru we are attempting to rebuild and start over many plant's tgat survived the burns and the frost didn't survive the squishing and the pot smashing that recently happened... so now we much start again from scratch and hope we can pick up the pieces and fee move on from where we are NOW. There are only sprouts at the moment, and some proped leaves - smashed pots are empty many plant's we've been growing for months are dead some that weve grown years ago are struggling to survive as they others perished in the destruction of my Sun porch. Its winter. Grown plants are hard to come by at the moment especially for donation, kids that wanted certain plants can't have them and those who did don't have them anymore after what happened. Sooo they are hanging on every change and growth period in these pots of lithops and cacti until spring and summer come and we have options for donations and can sow other seeds and learn about another plant that they find interest in, which is prob gonna be Aloinopsis and other succulents and some carnivorous plants and the cacti seeds i have and possibly water lilies if we get a free fish tank I'm looking for. I'm very passionate about this program and these kids and plants of many sorts but cacti and succulent are my thing and that's what the kids wanna learn and grow then i will do whatever i can to allow them the chance tolearn about these types of plant's. There's so much more i could say but my phones acting up and I'm afraid I'm gonna loose everything i wrote if i don't post it already.
As far as gardeners we don't have many in the section in town we are in, its unfortunate but even if tiger duo grow stuff it's usually not cacti/succulents or other types they want to grow or learn about. Kids are kids lol!
We used to use plastic cups and id burn holes in the bottom but we quickly found out that they started to crack or weren't big enough to hold bigger plant's or a couple of plants. So we collect Tupperware aswell as long as the gave clear container lids and I've tried to get local sponsors from nurseries but we don't have any in my area except a flower shop that was less then willing to be helpful to us, and home depot that would sometimes give us there waterlogged dying plant's But even they sometimes don't have the means to donate to us which i don't honestly believe personally but i still ask when i do stop by. Since the program is supplied by donations of used, extra, unwanted, not needed, over flow and stuff they won't use, or recycled stuff from non- member's you'd expect people to be more willing to help out but sadly donations are hard to come by even when we pass out flyers on stuff we are looking for in the neighbourhoods or go door to door and explain what we do and what we are trying to do etc..etc.. we still get hesitation. We are in a very selfish society these days and i can't understand why - but i tell the kids to Have faith in humanity and when we do receive something they are so grateful because most of these kids have nothing and it brings tears too my eyes how happy they get
Trying to bring a community together is hard especially when the kids in the program are the otherwise overlooked part of the community. The poor, in the bad part of town, drug addict parents, gang members, trouble maker mentality, misfits..etc...etc.. people don't understand why i work with THESE children when i think WHY wouldn't they want to? I refuse to let these kids bfe swept under the rug and be called/branded lost causes or hopeless from the get go or a first glance. They are bright and happy children some have had to grow up to fast and this program allows them to just bee kids and have fun and learn and want to learn and appreciate the little things and have a purpose and feel good about themselves and do something they enjoy as well as keep them outta trouble and off the streets and away from the violence and the trouble that's around them where they live and play. Its a positive in a place full of negatives
And daveW i find it good to grow yr own plants by seed but it does have its challenges lol!
I could never dig a plant outta the ground id feel so evil, but I've heard of people doing it to sell them online or for there own collections, unbelievable .
HarryUpNorth wrote:Quote: "Well wish me luck! Off to find donations for the program, after the last tragedy from that monster next door, i gatta find something for these kids to do since they have no plants and no seedlings after what happened, i just hope people are in a holiday spirit about everything and that they are willing to part with some used unwanted or unneeded stuff they have lying around."
KittyKAT, can you explain how your program works in a little more detail for us. You mention your children's program every single day but I still can't figure out how it works. Do these 38 children come to your apartment or do you meet at a local school or youth center? Are they learning various horticultural methods and gardening in general?
All that I am seeing is that you are trying to grow lithops and other difficult, slow growing plants with them. You have had nothing but trouble obtaining and growing these particular plants yet your whole program seems to revolve around them.
I have worked with young children and plants over the years and it's very rewarding to both them and myself. Kids just seem to naturally enjoy plants of all types.There are so many easy and common seeds and plants that can be propagated by them. Just think of all of the cuttings from houseplants that can be started in water or soil that root quickly and are easy to obtain. Or how about some flower or vegetable seeds that are easy and fast growing. Kids love to take plants home to their families the plants they started
As far as containers go you can use recycled food containers or buy a bag of 100 plastic cups for a dollar and poke holes in the bottom if you need drainage. There's probably a nice lady on your block who gardens and has a shed full of old pots and containers that she would be happy to donate to your kids group.
A final thought for you is to note that if you have a well thought out program then it should be easy for you to find local sponsors and even have others join you. I belong to several local gardening clubs and organizations and I can't imagine that they would turn down a request to help out with the kids in some way. I don't mean this in a negative or unfriendly manner to you so please don't misunderstand. I love that people like you want to reach out to help and teach our youth. And we can always use a new generation of Cactus and Succulent lovers right?
Best to you and Happy New Years to all
Harry
Best wishes
K.W.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
I don't get what the highlights are and why the clapping at the end k.w?
I mean, i think i pretty much covered that it's a program that teaches kids how to grow plant's, understand different plant species and where they come from and different plants that are in the same family and interesting things about them.. while allowing them the chance to grow and take care of these plant's while learning about them and teaching themselves valuable skills that don't only relate to growing plant's But in life in general, life lessons while having fun and learning something that they are interested in and want to know more about. Mixing soils, repotting plants, pollinating flowers, harvesting seeds, sowing seeds, watching them flower - watching the circle of life in front of them. Watching the plant's grow as they grow, mature as they mature.
Learning about diseases in certain plants or common pests and how to fix the problem and save the plant's, learning about the process of grafting and re-rooting - learn about the inside workings of the plant's they are interested in. Watching documentaries on Steven hammer talk about his lithops and conophytums etc...etc.. reading info on here and sharing everyone's knowledge with these kids who are eager to know more - show them the pictures of YOUR plants and collections and what they can do with time and patience and with knowledge and interest. Is that so wrong?
And other then the pot dropping and me having to fish thru the rocks to find the sprouting Lithops seeds that I'm growing personally for myself, the lithops the kids are growing are doing fine, as long as i can keep the containers away from my clumsy roommate and the heater.
