Indoor citrus: Take 2

Yesterday afternoon, in an attempt to alleviate the winter doldrums, we made a trip to Homestead Gardens to wander around their facility and wallow in some green.  Wifey had been on a mission to try to find some more household plants (succulents, etc) but she didn't find anything that she was all that excited about.  We did, however, come across some citrus for sale.

Last year, Wifey and the kids got me more citrus plants to add to the surviving lemon from a few years ago.  Unfortunately, they died.  For quite a while I thought we'd done something wrong (over-watering, not enough sunlight, nutrient starvation, etc).  Based on my new theory that our water softener is killing our plants, we figured it's time to give indoor plants another try.  This time, we will use less of the household water.

Hopefully, we have more success this time around.

Transplanting Bay Laurel Cuttings

While visiting my in-laws this past weekend, I noticed that my wife's aunt and uncle have a nice potted Bay Laurel tree in their dining room standing approximately 4' tall and 2' wide in a 5 gallon pot.  Although I understand it had recently been on death's doorstep from someone over-watering it, it appeared to be bouncing back nicely.

I complimented them on the tree and they asked if I wanted some cuttings.  Given we had a baby Bay Laurel that died this past year, I eagerly accepted.

Yesterday afternoon, I retrieved the two cuttings from the wet paper towels they had been wrapped in.  I wet both stems then dipped them in rooting compound per the instruction.  After tapping off the excess, I put them both in a pot of potting soil and watered the soil a bit.  Because I think our water softener is killing the plants, I obtained the water from one of the dehumidifiers in the basement.

Hopefully, the transplants take.  I would have felt a lot more comfortable if I'd had 3-4 cuttings, but at least 2 is better than none.

I did some reading this morning and saw that Bay Laurels can live outside to hardiness Zone 7 or 8 depending on where the information comes from.  If I have success in getting these cuttings to take root, I'd like to try getting other cuttings to grow and try growing the tree outdoors.  I'm not going to try that with either of these, though.

Nature comes to us

Off and on for the last week we've wondered how a bird keeps getting into the garage.  This afternoon, I saw something on a shelf that piqued my curiosity.

It looked like a pile of sticks piled together.  Figuring that it was some oddball game the kids were playing, I got closer and was greeted with a surprise when a bird bolted from that pile of sticks.

Wifey has convinced me to leave everything as it is.  I just hope we don't manage to attract snakes into the garage in search of the eggs.

Introducing citrus to the mix

Last year, Wifey got me lemon and lime plants set together in a single pot for something to do while the family was apart.  I really had no idea what I was doing and the lime died.  At least the lemon is still alive. 

As an early birthday present, she's trying again.  This time, she got me a larger but very much dwarf (maybe it'd be called "ultra dwarf"?) orange tree and another lemon.  

 

I also just did some research on how to pollinate the flowers indoor yourself.  Looks like it's a matter of getting the pollen off the "antlers" (that can't be the technical name, can it?) and put it onto the central node.  Based on the youtube video I saw from a plant nursery, they recommended doing it daily.  The orange plant has a few open flowers and the lemon has quite a few.  One day down....!