Tag: Water

Baby Spiders

I love my outdoor plants. And often I’m asked, “Is there anything you don’t grow?” For me, the struggle is real when it comes to indoor plants. I pick up in the language of outdoor plants. I think I get confused when it comes to the dialect of indoor plants. “What are you telling me?!”

It was this past year when I was gifted me a clipping and an indoor propagation unit that I decided to give indoor plants another whirl.

Back in August I was thinking of winter months, being shut in with no fresh air. So I picked out a few end of season clearance plants that are known for being air purifiers in the home.

One that I bought was a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum Comosum Vittatum).

This is a great plant for those who struggle to keep indoor plants alive. We were gifted with a spider plant back when I was an event decorator and my hours were horrible. That plant lived for about two months of forgotten watering before it finally gave up on me.

I picked a spider plant this time around because of how hearty this plant is and it deals with neglect better than other types of indoor plants. Plus, with my homeschoolers who love commandeering my indoor plants and calling them theirs, this is a great one for young kids to learn about plant care with. My kids love over watering and this one loved their over attention

In fact, after the fourth or fifth time I had to empty my overflow bowl from a standing puddle, I noticed that this spider plant had started producing baby plants. The day after the first baby showed up, a second formed. And about a week later two more popped up.

I wasn’t counting on this plant living our home so we’ll to put off four babies almost right away. But since I’m now part of a bartering group, I figured that nurturing these babies over winter will give me four plants to barter with come spring. Or seeing how the boys have taken these baby plants over, I’ll let them take them to an event to barter with. (It’s a life skill that they’re starting to become comfortable with.)

Advertisements

How To Propagate the Babies

The first thing you’ll notice growing from your mother plant, when a baby is going to be produced, is a long rigid stem. Have you seen a rigid stem of an orchid? The baby spider stem reminds me a lot of an orchid stem. On this end of the stem, you will see a miniature spider plant start to sprout its leaves.

At this point many people say that you’re supposed to bend that stem over toward a new pit, set the baby in that soil, and stake it down until its root system grows. Then you can cut the stalk.

The reason for not cutting the stem first is because it acts like an umbilical cord and gives the baby spider plant nutrients while it grows its root system.

That way makes sense and I’ve seen it done as a child. But I didn’t go that route with propagation this time. I tried to wait and let the stalks grow so that they were long enough to lean over into a new pot. None of these stems grew longer than 9 inches.

Instead I went with the Water Propagation Method.

Here you can see the root growth from the Water Propagation Method that I started 4-6 weeks ago. I cut the stem of the baby spider plant a few inches long and then place them in these water propagation tubes.

The trick with this method is keeping the water level up to the base of the leaf cluster. As you can see from the pictures, this is where you see the root growth coming from. By keeping the water level high, it ensures that the emerging roots have contact with water at all times.

From there I simply place the stand in a window so the plants get sunlight. And then I wait for the roots to grow.

Here you see the far right and far left plants are the babies that I rooted several weeks ago and I’m ready to put them in soil. The center two babies are the ones that I just cut from the mother plant and are now ready to start the rooting process. I wanted to show you these side by side so that you can see the stems (which on my plant are a pale yellow) in comparison to the new roots (which are white).

With these newly rooted baby spider plants, I put some potting soil in a clay pot. I hollowed out the center of the soil, where I want the plant to sit in the soil. (I create the hole for the roots because they are tender and I don’t want to damage these young roots. After a few months, when I’m ready to repot, I’m not as concerned with the roots because they’ve had a chance to establish themselves in the soil. For now they are going to go through a little shock because they are changing from water to soil environment. Their function is going to change in this new medium.

While holding up the leaves of this baby plant I fill in the hole (with the roots held in place below surface level) with more potting soil. Once the hole is filled, I gently pat the soil down to give the plant a little stability. Not much is needed because these roots are around 2 inches long (some a bit longer).

And here are how my new baby spider plants look in their new 4″ terra cotta pots. I gave them a bit of a watering and then set them back in the window.

Other than the time it took to allow the roots to grow, the setting up of this propagation took less than five minutes. And potting the rooted baby spider plants took another 5 minutes. This is something that doesn’t require much of your time, if you have limited time to care for indoor plants. And with spider plants, I water mine once a week. It’s been about 4 months since I first brought the mother plant home, so on my to do list is to give them a good fertilizing on their next watering.

Advertisements

Word of Warning for Propagation Equipment

This water propagation set up was gifted to me from a friend who hated it. It was my “transportation” unit for taking home a clipping of another plant for my drive home. After working with this stand for a year now, I fully understand why she didn’t like it. And yes, I am still that type of person that still uses it even when I hate it myself.

I look at it as a personal challenge to make it work!

If you’re looking to water propagate plant cuttings, let me walk you through this set up so you can have a little walking knowledge for choosing the set up that you end up purchasing or getting from a buy nothing group, or any other opportunity.

The reason why this stand is such a fail is because of the holes that the tubes slide into. In the above left picture you can see that the center of gravity of the holes are way off. They needed to be set back into the center of this board.

You can probably guess that when these tubes are filled to the top with water, they become front heavy and tip forward spilling water and cuttings everywhere.

In fact, in just this short period of time that I took to take all the photos for this post, the filled tubes fell forward not once… but twice!

To make matters even more entertaining, my husband decided to watch the process and freaked out with each of the dumpings. Water spread not just all over the table but also the floor. And that leads to the picture where I put the pot in front of the filled tubes. As much as I enjoy a good challenge, I really didn’t want to clean up a third water mess.

Advertisements

And that leads me to the solution of how I make this failed unit work for me.

When I have a new set of clippings to add to the tubes, I set the rack down in the window with the tube side facing the glass. When the rack leans forward, under the weight of the water, it leans into the window and holds itself up.

There are two other options that I have to fix this unit once these baby spiders are ready to be potted.

  1. I’m going to check to see if I have a drill bit that’s the right size so I can make the hold deeper into the wood so the tubes sit more center in the unit.
  2. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to take some thin crafting dowels and put legs in the front corners.
  3. And in case I need a third option… I’ll drill a hole in the back corners that’s big enough for a long screw that I can add enough nuts to create the correct counter balance to keep the unit upright even under all the water weight.

No matter what the situation, a solution can be found!

Advertisements

Final Task before Putting All the Plants Away

This mother plant has been so amazing to me that I just needed to take a couple of extra minutes and tend to her so that she can keep being a happy plant for me. I trimmed away some of her discolored and battered leaves and cut the remainder of the baby stems down to their base.

Why the trimming?

The stems were no longer supporting baby plants, so they no longer needed the energy being directed to them. The leaves were damaged and there’s no need for plant energy to go to them to see to the trauma. The overall health of the plant is very good and with plenty of healthy leaves, trimming away what I did would not affect the photosynthesis of the plant. But the trimming returns that amount of energy back to the mother plant to go elsewhere: whether new leaf growth, existing overall grown, it’s cellular immune health, or even gearing up for a push of new baby plant growth.

This mother plant is now ready for the next phase of whatever cycle she is on to now. And with the next watering combined with fertilizer, she’ll have all the nutrients she needs to move forward.

Here are some propagation units that I’m eyeballing for my next adventure in rooting plants.

I have not had a chance to see or use these units, but I wanted to share with you what other ones I’m looking that you can have an idea of what is out there.

This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commissions on products purchased through these links, but at no extra cost to you. These items listed here are from Amazon but may be purchased at local markets.

3 Test Tube Glass Planter Terrarium Flower Vase with Wooden Holder

Plant Propogation Tubes, 2 Tiered Wall Hanging Plant Terrarium

Propogation Stations with Metal Stand (5 Jars)

Plant Propogation Station (3 Bulb Vase)

Leave a comment

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Advertisements
Advertisements
Advertisements
Advertisements

Bless This Garden

This year I’m working in concert with others in a garden. (I am so excited for this!) If you’re as busy as I am, you can imagine how quickly things slip through the cracks.

After hitting my local dollar store, I found some pieces that are going to make an inexpensive tool that doubles as home decor, all the while keeping tabs on what’s been done.

With these I decided to make a magnetic board where anyone tending the garden can quickly mark what they did.

I know the galvanized finish tends to overtake everything. So with the galvanized frame and banner, everything gets lost real quick. Not to mention that the frame was a really bad fake wood. To dress all this up a bit and minimize the galvanized look, I painted the frame and banner black.

I forgot to take a picture of the banner painted in flat black chalk paint (the same paint as the frame). It looked too minimalistic for my taste, so I took the transfer tape (which I used to apply the vinyl text) and put it straight onto the paint. Some places lifted the paint quite easily. But to get the distressed look, I scratched the tape

The magnets needed a little something extra. There are so many things that could be done. I have children and they’re helping with this garden and they’ll also be marking what we do when we work, so I went into kid zone and painted the magnets with acrylic paint and did all the colors.

If you want to keep minimalistic, pick your favorite color.

Love things that sparkle, glue on gem stones or use glitter.

What about texture? Glue on fuzzy pom poms, baby pine cones, large seeds or nuts… literally whatever catches your imagination. Maybe you have a farm and want to use small farm yard figures and animals. (I wish I had these in my craft room!!!)

Something that is great about using the galvanized banner is that the extra magnets can be kept on the banner so you can add stickers, personalization, more tasks, or a note section in the blank space on the bottom.

And then while typing I decided to go a different direction.

I pulled these out! Last year I made carrots out of my corn cobs. And I brought out the wooden beads from my drawer (which I also got from my local dollar store).

With the beads I removed them all from the string they came on and noted how they tied off the end bead to keep them all on the string. This “knot” that they used was how I spaced the beads further apart on the string.

Once I made those changes, the colorful “polka dots” needed to change. The gold and green glitter styrofoam balls simplified the overwhelming colors.

Even with the new modifications hanging, I’m not satisfied with the final color scheme. And sometimes that happens when you’re creating. You start building from the image you see in your head and make a change here or there and an earlier idea you loved just doesn’t work anymore.

The black isn’t working anymore. I loved the idea to begin with because it was a nice basic color that goes with where I was going to hang this. But it’s just not working anymore.

Advertisements

First thing first, I need to lighten up the banner. So I’ll be distressing it heavily so that the majority of the galvanized metal will show through. With the addition of the carrots, which obviously take the spotlight, I can bring out a lot more of that metal and the metal is not going to overtake and make everything else hide.

But before I do that, I need to decide what I’m going to do with the frame and that’s going to take a few days of looking at it to see where I want to go. At the moment, I’m leaning toward the idea of painting on white striped and creating a plaid hand painted design on it. If I go that route, I might keep the banner predominately black still and incorporate that same design element into parts of the banner.

Stay tuned to see what I finally decide!

Advertisements

And I’m going to leave you here in this moment just because sometimes the right thing is to take a step away from a project and let it tumble around in your brain. You don’t always have to have the answer right away. And you don’t always have to have things done in an hour.

Perhaps it’s convenient to have an idea presented to you in a finished state.

But I’m going to leave you here with your own thoughts. Because I know someone has that inner voice screaming, “You need to ____!”

Go ahead and leave that comment below.

Or better yet, use that idea to make your own magnetic board for your daily tasks, your children’s chore board, a classroom helper sign, your regular “Honey Do” list, or that board that I didn’t mention but you just got the idea for.

And when you’re finished, send me a picture so that I can see what you came up with.

Happy Crafting!

Want to have the cut file for Bless This Garden, click here.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Leave a comment

Advertisements

Would You Like a Cuppa?

It’s funny how beverages of choice are so regional. For example in the United States, there has historically been a continental divide between coffee drinkers and tea drinkers. Tea has been pretty regional for the East Coast and Coffee the West.

The history of this divide started around the foundation of this country. We all know about the Boston Tea Party and how they threw tea over the sides of the ships, all over a 3 cent rise in taxes. (I find this historical fact both interesting and funny in the context on how there has been upwards of 14% inflation on so many products across the grocery shelves.)

Coffee started making its footprint in the United States with the colonization (and yes, even subjugation) of the Caribbean Islands and South America. But it found its biggest consumers with the people who moved west, not just the Mid-West but also the West Coast and upwards into Alaska.

In fact, before Starbucks became established and took over every major street corner, I grew up where you could tell whether your family was West Coasters or from back East. If your family had spent a few generations on the West Coast, you had a coffee pot in your kitchen. I grew up with many people whose grandparents drank tea, but their parents, coffee. Those were my New England transplant friends. And then in High School I made friends with a transfer student, who came from Virginia. She hated coffee and only drank tea.

What is funny is what the transition from tea drinking family to coffee drinking family looks like.

A set of grandparents came up from the Texas area. One was Texan, coffee drinker, and the other was from the Deep South. The only tea that was in this grandparents’ house was sun tea. And there was only ONE way to make it–so obviously a tea drinker. Every summer there was sun tea that was made, that beautiful dark golden brew. There is really nothing like it. Mind you, this isn’t the sweet tea that you will find in the Deep South, where verbal wars can be started on the proper summer time tea. Just good strong, dark, rich sun tea.

Now my parents were both coffee drinkers. And yet almost each summer growing up, my mom would brew at least one sun tea.

This dedicated coffee drinker, I’m a very picky tea drinker and it was only this summer, when the sun finally came out that I caught myself thinking “I need to make some sun tea”. You can imagine the “What the– where did that come from?” moment I had because I don’t make sun tea. And yet this summer was it.

So that prompted me to ask on my social media for recommendations and recipes from my tea loving friends who have the tea that even a coffee lover would love. Obviously the majority of my friends and acquaintances are coffee drinkers because I only had a few responses. But the responses that I received shocked me because I never knew about these teas and they never crossed my mind.

The following yellow product buttons are affiliate links. I earn a commission off of these products at no additional cost to you.

Mint Sun Tea

One recommendation sent to me was:

  • 1-2 Regular Tea Bags
  • 3-5 Bags of Mint Tea OR Fresh Mint Leaves

Add the above tea bags into a glass gallon jug of water (which you use to brew your sun tea). Brew for 2-3 hours, in the sun, or longer if you want your tea stronger or you’re sun is hiding behind clouds.

When finished brewing refrigerate.

This friend also said that she adds honey into the tea before refrigerating.

I was excited about this recipe because my absolute favorite tea is Stash’s Moroccan Mint Green Tea. If I’m craving tea, this is the one I hunt for because it has the world’s best flavor. I’ve tried to get into the Green Tea fad, but I find the vast majority of green tea either tastes like grass or soap. (I’ve recently learned that the majority of people who don’t like cilantro is because of it tasting like soap. There is actually a chemical compound in these green that to certain taste buds taste like soap. So this is real and there’s a reason!)

Moroccan Mint Green Tea

If you’re like me, and not a green tea person, seriously try this one. It’s not just me. I have a friend who use to be a Japanese tea distributor, says that she’s extremely picky, and assures me that this tea is one of the greatest to make a sun tea with!

This friend is currently cooked with brewing Chai with Hojicha, Green Tea with Self Healing and fresh mint from her garden.

Strawberry Tea

This one surprised me when a friend suggested this. I don’t know why I never thought of fruit sun teas. Fruit just makes sense because of summer. Strawberries are appealing because I’m growing them and I love strawberries. And the recipe passed on is super simple.

  • 6-8 Strawberry Tea Bags
  • Strawberry Puree

In your glass gallon jug of water (which you use to brew your sun tea) add the Strawberry Tea Bags. Brew for 2-3 hours, in the sun, or longer if you want your tea stronger or you’re sun is hiding behind clouds.

Once your tea is done brewing, remove your tea bags and chill your tea. If you can’t wait, pour your tea over a glass filled with ice. Mix in strawberry puree for a stronger strawberry flavor. If you like sweet tea, add sugar to your liking.

Strawberry Sensation

Sweet & Spicy

This one was recommended by two different friends, one from Tennessee and one from Texas.

Sweet & Spicy

This tea I found intriguing because the ingredient list reminds me of staple recipes from Asia. In fact, reading the ingredients made me start craving Thai!

I’ve been assured that these tea bags alone are all you need for some of the best sun tea you’ve ever had. And since I grew up on sun tea made from plain Lipton tea, I can see how this is going to be amazing!

Along this line of tea, I was also introduced to the idea of Cinnamon Tea. This blew my mind!

I’ve never heard of Cinnamon Tea before. And I learned that 2 cinnamon sticks in about 4 cups of boiling water will give you a nice tea.

This is definitely on my list to make once fall comes. I love cinnamon, but I’m on a kick with my mint right now. However, my Chocolate Mint might need the cinnamon to bring it to the next level. It’s still missing something for me, and this might be it!

Natural Sweetener Alternatives

There are various reasons why people choose an alternate to sugar for sweetening foods and beverages. I’m personally leery about many sweeteners because the last thing I want to do is add more chemicals into my diet. So when it was brought to my attention that Stevia is a plant based sweetener, this product had my attention.

I’m hooked on the idea now that I have located stevia plants to add to my garden. So I will soon be growing this and learning how to make sweetener.

My mom has cooked with stevia and says it does well with baking. She also used it with alternate flour sources.

I’ve used the packets of stevia and sprinkled in my large water cup and 4 leaves of mint. So with nothing to hide, I was able to taste the stevia. I didn’t notice any off flavors that I’ve noticed with other sugar alternatives. The flavor is slightly different than sugar, but not enough of a difference for me to say it’s “different”. The huge bonus I can say about it is that I like how stevia melts into the water. If you’ve added sugar in cold water you know how much of a gritty feeling there is until the sugar has been well stirred and sat for a while. That’s not the same experience I had with stevia. I only had to give a good stir and I was good to go. No textural difference.

When my mom gifted me stevia, I seriously wondered what I was going to do with it. Other than just keep it in my cupboard for when my mom visits. Now I know what I’m going to do with this natural sugar.

I recommend giving this sugar alternate a chance.

Here is the packets:

Stevia packets

And the bag:

stevia bag

Looking for an alternative to tea?

I know that there are still some people who just do not lean towards tea drinking at all. Or maybe you’re looking for a tea that is kid friendly. There is one more option I have for you.

Infused Water

While waiting for some good leads for sun tea, I instantly ran across a post from on of my favorite bloggers. She just got me hooked on putting fresh mint leaves in my chilled water!

I have a 36 oz. water “cup” that I use to make sure I get my daily water in. The only thing I add to my water is 4-6 leaves from my mint plant of choice. Before you put the leaves in your cup, stack and roll them up, crush the leaves in your fingers, and then add them to your water. By crushing the leaves, you break open the cell walls of the leaves and release the oils within.

The best part about using fresh leaves from your garden (or produce stand if you haven’t yet planted fresh herbs at your home) is that you are not only drinking something tasty, you’re giving natural medicine that give your body the building blocks to bring you back into or keep you in health.

What I recently learned is that by putting mint leaves in your water, it can help combat ailments such as GERD (Gastro-esophageal Reflux Disease). I personally am not afflicted with GERD, but summer heat does a number on my body. Not only is my appetite affected, but I’m more prone to upset stomach. In fact, my stomach was upset when I first put mint in my water cup. By the time I finished drinking that cup, my stomach was back to normal. And since I’ve been using the mint daily, it hasn’t returned.

Anyone who works with herbs will tell you that the mint family does have properties that benefit your gastrointestinal system. I love learning about these things, because I try to keep off of as much over other the counter or prescribed medication as I can.

Here are some ideas of what mints you can use:

  • Mint
  • Chocolate Mint
  • Pineapple Mint
  • Orange Mint
  • Lemon Balm
  • Spearmint
  • Peppermint

And there are other types of mint that you can find at your local nursery for produce stand that sells starts. Better yet, maybe your neighbor has a mint they are growing. For example, I have Chocolate Mint and Spearmint. I had Orange Mint, but this crazy spring may have killed it. (I thought it died on me, but I recently saw a new sprig come up from the soil. I’m waiting for it to grow a bit bigger before seeing if it’s Orange or Chocolate.) One neighbor has Lemon Balm. Another neighbor has Pineapple Mint. And I only found out what my neighbors were growing by telling them about what I’m growing and what new projects I’m working on with my herbs.

Here are the flavors of the mints that I’ve tasted.

Chocolate mint just tastes like mint to me. The reason why it got its name is because when you crush the leaves, it stains your fingers brown like milk chocolate. I mentioned before that I’m very particular about my tea. I found my pickiness kicking in on putting this mint in my water. A tiny sprinkling of Stevia was just enough to pull this infused water around to allow me to drink this. Even though I found I could drink this, none of my kiddos liked this flavor. Instead, two of my boys leave my water alone if it has mint, because of this one. So mamas, if you want your water left alone, this one may do it for you!

Pineapple mint really does smell like pineapple. I can’t wait to get this in my water, because it smells like a Piña Colada. My neighbor just gave me a few sprigs this evening so I’m excited to try them tomorrow!

Lemon Balm, I swear it tastes like lemon! I usually don’t keep lemons in my house because they turn on me before I use them. However, I’ve used lemon balm in my chicken broth and it tastes just like I squeezed in some fresh lemon. You better believe that I have a new friend in my kitchen. I’m so using this herb instead of lemon or lemon zest.

Spearmint brings back so many fond childhood memories of incessantly chewing Wrigley’s spearmint gum. And yes, I’ve almost picked my spearmint plant bald for my water. And this is the infused water that my youngest will still steal my water. So this mint gets my recommendation if you’re looking for an herb infused water that is kid friendly.

I so hope you’ll join me in dressing up your water this summer!

What’s your favorite water infusion or Sun Tea?

I’m still looking for new ideas on sun teas in particular. But I want to hear what everyone is drinking right now to stay hydrated. Please comment below!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Leave a comment

I Love You Means Propagating

Lately I’ve been very interested in the Boho style of event designing. A lot of event designers and coordinators tend to gravitate toward the fantasy of rich and fancy feeling decor. There is nothing wrong with that. I gravitate toward that. There’s just something about pretty sparkly things grabbing our attention.

Even when I worked for a decorating company, there was this huge gravitation toward bringing the Boho brides nearer to the glittery and sparkly end of design. I know why there is that nudging toward that direction. But I’m not going to speak ill of other businesses. I just want to take this moment to see and recognize those brides, and other event organizers and celebrants, who want to stay more toward the end of the spectrum of the simplistic and natural look.

This post is for you!

What I want to focus on today are a couple of floral options that are different than what might be proposed to you when you talk with a florist; succulents and preserved wild or garden flowers.

Succulents

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

I don’t know if you’ve taken the moment to look at all different colors available in succulents. They are definitely a wide spectrum that diverges from the cactuses and green succulents that your mind naturally gravitates toward.

The best part about succulents, especially if you’re DIY as much as you can for your wedding, is that you can get these in advance and arrange your centerpieces weeks in advance. This is true, even in the middle of winter!

The one thing that you want to pay attention to is the little amount of care that you need to give them. But these are not going to wither or die on you when you look at them funny. They just need to be kept in soil designed for succulents and give them a little water every now and then.

Tip 1: Succulents loved being watered from below. So when watering them, place their dish (with drain holes) in a dish of water and give them a few hours to drink as much as they want. They have enough water when you see that the soil on top has been touched by water, not dry to touch.

Tip 2: If you see the petals start to have a wrinkled appearance, they are underwater. Make sure you soak them in a dish of water. It may take a little time. But once the succulents have gotten enough hydration they will look plump again and not wrinkled.

The only other thing that you have to pay attention to is how much light they get. Here in the Pacific Northwest, succulents are not about to get too much sunlight. They can be burnt by full sun, depending on your region. But in the couple weeks that you have them before your event, this is not likely going to be an issue.

Advertisements

One issue that you might have is when you’re succulent undergoes what looks like a growth spurt.

This example is definitely an exaggeration of what you will see because I’ve had this succulent for well over a year. It started to bolt like this a couple of months after I received it. What happened here is that the window sill (eastward facing) did not receive enough light. So the plant grew to reach more sunlight.

Your succulents will stay small when they have enough light. So if you see this, or you notice that there is some growth that is starting, then you want to find your succelent(s) a sunnier location.

If you catch the growth quick enough, you can trim off the growth, and return your succulent back to the smaller size.

Take a length of dental floss, wrap it around where you want to trim and pull it tight. You can use scissors, but it will apply pressure from two points to cut. If you use thread or floss, you can apply even pressure around the plant. Also if have a cluster flower of a succulent, you can fit the floss in between the petals and top the succulent without damaging the rest of the plant.

The clipping you can then put in a new container with soil and it will propagate for you.

I put the topped succulent in this cup with water with another topped clipping that I’m waiting on soil for. It’s okay to put into water, but you want to get clippings into soil as soon as possible.

If you are saving money by propagating your own succulents from bought succulents, make sure that you give yourself enough time to let new buds grow. It doesn’t happen overnight. If you don’t have enough time, your succulents will look bald and not so happy.

Here is another What-Not-To-Do

This succulent was originally small like the first picture of succulents I showed you in this section. This one also grew to reach for more light. I should have trimmed this when it first started to grow. Had I done that, it would have remained small and cute. Instead, it changed its shape and spread. But what you can learn from this is what it will look like at the spot where you clip back the top your succulent. There is a small bud that you see on the top right. That grew in about two weeks after trimming. On the bottom left you see another bud grow in where I snapped off some of the larger leaves to practice propagation techniques that I’ve seen on FB reels.

If you are interested in looking to propagate succulents for your event, make sure you give yourself enough time to do so. You will want a couple of months to do this DIY. Talk with some local greenhouses with growers who have experience with succulents. Also there are FB groups dedicated to succulents. Join a group or two and learn from those who are succulent whisperers. There is a wealth of good viable information there.

I readily admit that I am not an expert. And there is a world of information available. Just do not take your advice from clips and reels on FB, Tick Tock, or anywhere else. I tried propagating leaves in a plastic bag, through a slit in paper to suspend over water, and directly in water. None of these have worked for me and I am most certainly a novice at propagating succulents. If you’re a novice, I suspect that these reel methods are not going to lead you to success either. (With the leaves, I tried about a dozen and not a single one grew. This is reason why I have little reason to believe these techniques work. Not working the numbers paid off. If I get a success rate of 1 out of 10 attempts, I call it a viable option.)

One other walking away point I want to draw your attention to, is take notice of the terra cotta pot decorations on my pots. These were painted on with acrylic paint and have stayed on the pots over a year later. So it will not flake off anything else. And this is an excellent way of incorporating your event colors. You can create endless possibilities with your design. Whether you go with feather like swirls, dots to simulate lace, stripes, or even using a stencil from any store’s craft department. You can certainly dress up your terra cotta to fit the look you are going for.

Advertisements

Wild and Garden Flowers

Photo by solod_sha on Pexels.com

I’ve lost count of how many events that I decorated for where I would take home flowers after an event because there was no second life for the floral arrangements after a wedding.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED those events because I had pretty flowers to take home and enjoy for a week or two. That is definitely an occupation perk that I’ve enjoyed.

However, at the same time, it has always saddened me a little because I have always wanted people to have more bang for their buck when they are spending good money on a wedding or other event.

So here is where we join two very important passions of mine!

I breathe creativity and decorating. But I also love working in my garden and learning all the old skills of creating home supplements, natural cleaners, and especially new ways of putting food on my table.

The very day that I learned about making a Chive Blossom Vinaigretteis the very same day that I made it.

This is Day One of my Vinaigrette:

My Four year old and I did this together for the very first time and as soon as I saw how this jar looked I immediately thought, “How Beautiful!”

And this was the first, on many ideas that I had:

You can go with sentiments or go all the way with the couple’s monogram, name and wedding date, or even line art that goes with your over all Boho decor.

What I absolutely LOVE about this inspiration is that it’s simple but has so much LIFE after the wedding or event.

For example, this Chive Blossom Vinaigrette will become a salad dressing, meat marinade, or other meal flavor provider in as little as 3 weeks. The total cost for this is just your jar, the chive blossoms, and food vinegar. When you’re looking for cost saving centerpieces, you seriously can’t beat this for bang for your buck!

To do this idea, you will definitely have this be your day of preparation, so have a few hands on deck. You will want to clip your edible flowers, rinse them, and place them in the jars before adding the vinegar.

The reason why I say do this on the day of is because of the process needed to properly turn this into a proper dressing or marinade. It is shelf stable during the whole process, but it needs to be kept in a dark cool place for the 3 weeks of processing. You could also use the jars at the end of the three weeks, when the vinegar takes on a fuchsia/purple appearance. But you want to try to limit the heat and light exposure no matter if you do it at the beginning or end of processing.

Tip 1: This needs to be shaken once a day for the entirety of the three weeks. So you will have a cleaner look at the beginning of the process. At the end of the process, you will have some floating pieces from the flowers. That just naturally happens with daily agitation.

Tip 2: At the end of the 3 weeks, you will need to filter this vinaigrette through a cheese cloth to remove all debris (and rebottle) before you use this as a dressing/marinade.

Maybe puple is not the color that goes well with your Boho design. Here is a list of some other edible flowers that can be used in making your own version of a different vinaigrette. Or you can just put the blossoms of these flowers or others into a jar filled with water.

  • Nasturtiums
  • Pansies
  • Violets
  • Hostas
  • Borage
  • Calendula
  • French Marigolds
  • Chrysanthemums
  • Carnations
  • Hollyhocks
  • Sunflowers
  • Cornflowers
  • Gladioli
  • Honeysuckle
  • Dianthus
  • Antirrhinum
  • Tulips
  • Roses
  • Lavender
  • Pea Flowers
  • Broad Bean Flowers
  • Onion/Chive Flowers
  • Brassica Flower Heads
  • Pak Choi Flowers
  • Squash Flowers
  • Dandelions
  • Daisies
  • Chamomile Flowers
  • Red & White Clover Flowers
  • Chickweed Flowers

WARNING: Make sure that you only use flowers that have NOT had pesticides or herbicides used on them. Whatever has been applied to flowers will enter your body if you eat them or any extract that you make from them.

Advertisements

Flowers as herbs and seasoning have different flavors that they impart. Some have a peppery note to them. The chives that I grow are a garlic chive, so it imparts a garlic flavor without having to fuss with cloves of garlic. I’ve also started working with Lemon Balm (a member of the mint family) which imparts a lemon flavor. So I could have added tiny Lemon Balm leaves in with the chive blossoms. Which now that I think about it, I’m definitely going to add that to my vinaigrette as soon as I post this!

Another thing to keep in mind is that for thousands of years edible flowers and plant leaves have been used for natural medicine. For example, Lemon Balm is great for combating the viruses behind the common cold. So you can give your body the things it needs to keep healthy while adding flavor to your food.

If making a vinaigrette is not something you will use after the wedding (or other event), consider looking into making your own chemical free cleaner. For example, you can still use this mason jar idea and make a kitchen cleaner with lemon or orange slices and peels.

If you’re not looking for a natural cleaner, than even using berries and mint, basil or other leaves in water, is a great of washing your produce before you eat it while borrowing it for a few hours for your event.

There is one more option for Fall and Winter Events when most of the edible flowers are not in season. You can make Pine Syrup or Spruce Tip Syrup. I found this type of syrup interesting because I have spruce widely available around where I live and real Maple Syrup is a luxury on my family’s budget. This can be a pretty centerpiece as well because you use the new growth tips on a spruce tree or pine cones for the Pine Syrup. I’m sure that you can imagine the possibilities for all your holiday parties with this one!

Decorating the Mason Jars

The simplicity of these jars is beautiful all on their own. But maybe you want to dress them up a touch. What can you do to add a little panache?

  • Paint the jar ring (White, Gold, or other event color)
  • Apply glitter to the jar ring (after finished spray with a clear coat of paint to keep from leaving a glitter trail)
  • Use squares of pattern, texture, or fancy cloth on top (held in place by screwing the ring down onto the jar over the fabric)
  • Decorate the jar itself
  • Use the jar as a base for a taper candle (with candle holder) to raise the level of the candle above other centerpiece elements
  • Put your table number on top of the jar

I hope you’re just as excited about these ideas as I am. These are definitely something fresh for existing wedding and party themes. Be free to experiment with using some of your food preparation and preserving techniques the next time you are decorating for your next event!

Files Used In This Project

As a special treat I have a surprise for you! Visit my store and check out Love. Be sure to hang around and see what else is new. Every Monday at least one new SVG is added!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Leave a comment

Advertisements