Random Year-End Lithops Photos, and a Key Lime Pie Plant

Not much to do after Boxing Day except clean house, and prepare oneself for work and another year that is sure to be filled with...adventures, right? Hope it's more peaceful than 2013! Here are some Lithops photos that didn't make the blog this year, but should have, if I'd known what to say about them.

Young Lithops and a Conophytum

Interestingly, one of my most popular posts is about this guy, the Key Lime Pie Plant, aka Adromischus cristatus.

Adromischus cristatus, the Key Lime Pie Plant.

And to encourage more Lithops Art, here's a final image from 2013:

Paint them, sculpt them, photograph them! Love them!
The sunrise has been extra beautiful on my sand dune lately, and I thought I would share one at the end of the year....

Have a wonderful New Year's celebration and see you all in 2014!

Lithops Activity and Weekend Walkabout with Vultures

My long-dormant Lithops karasmontana has finally begun to fully regenerate. Resorption of the old leaves on the second leaf pair has finally begun!

We've had such a hot winter, that the indoor Lithops haven't been getting much direct sun (they scorch in their pots) and this has confused them. The outdoor Lithops are doing better, as they get colder temps at night and can handle the full, hot sun, as they are in the ground, and don't scorch quickly the way potted Lithops can. Ah well.

I had a fine weekend walkabout (well- midweek vacation walkabout) with vultures and herons. Vultures are symbolic of spiritual cleansing and rebirth for quite a few religions and cultures. They are gentle and seem to enjoy meeting hikers. Occasionally, they like to chew on car tires, though, which is a bit rude. Fortunately, they didn't care much for my car. Here is a photo of Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures. Though they are different species, they like to hang out together.

And here's a lovely Great Blue Heron, looking for an aquatic lunch.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Holidays!

Have a wonderful winter holiday, everyone! Here's my 2013 Christmas photo featuring a key member of my garden; Babytoes.

And for newer readers who missed last year's photo, it's the Three Lithops:

Happy Holidays and Happy Gardening!

Tillandsia Care Part III: Care of the Pups

Tillandsias reproduce via flowers/seeds, and via offsets, or pups. If you grow Tillies indoors, the latter is the method of reproduction you'll encounter most often. Tillandsias only bloom once in their lives, and then they offset.

Some Tillandsias, like the T. abdita above, and T. ionantha fuego, will redden up and become very Christmasy just before they bloom. Then the flower appears....

Some time after flowering, from weeks to months, a pup will appear. Some are very well-hidden, and others are obvious. As you may know from previous posts,  pups can form at the base or from the center of the mother plant. Some emerge from the side. There's a tremendous level of variation.

Tillandsia caliginosa with side pup, MR

Tillandsia magnusiana with base pup, MR

Tillandsia butzii with base pup, MR

Most pups will stay stubbornly attached to the mother plant, and this is just fine. They should remain attached until they are 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the mother plant. Then, if you want to remove them, do so by twisting the pup very gently at the base with a slight downward pull. You can cut them at the base with a very sharp, small knife, but this can damage a pup if you're not very careful.

Some pups fall off the mother plant when they are very tiny. T. karwinskiana does this, as does T. albertiana and several other species. These pups tend to be tiny. They are easily lost.

Tiny pups in the palm of my hand. Just a few mm big!

In nature, I think these tiny pups get blown to, or fall on, a larger Tillie or plant and grow quietly to size over a long period of time. For your indoor garden, if you spot pups like this, perch them on a larger Tillie, and mist/water with the host plant. They will continue to grow.

Free pups housed with some Tillandsia caput medusae.

There are pup mysteries, though. For example, my T. xerographica bloomed months ago, and I still can't find an offset. Anywhere!

When I solve this mystery, I'll be sure to let you all know.

Chef Riccardo's Taste of the Garden: Veggie Lasagna

More and more people around the world are going vegetarian or vegan, at least for part of the week. It's good for our bodies and good for the planet! So I asked Chef Riccardo if he'd create a recipe once a month that highlights the good things we're growing in our gardens, and he said yes.

His first dish is an entree for the winter holidays, and it's one of my favorites, Veggie Lasagna. He created the recipe, and I did my best to cook it up in my subtropical kitchen-on-the-dune. I'm glad to say it turned out well, and I was able to photograph the process before the hungry hordes gobbled it up.

Chef Riccardo's Veggie Lasagna:
3 red peppers, sliced
1 eggplant, cubed (Mediterranean or Japanese style both work well.)
100 gm (about 1 cup) sliced white or baby portobello mushrooms
2 medium onions, chopped
3 green or yellow zucchini, halved and sliced (I used both colors.)
1 bunch of asparagus
200 gm peas (7 oz.)
500 ml (one pint) bechamel sauce, homemade or ready-made
1 ball of mozzarella, sliced thin or grated
lots of grated Parmesan cheese
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
butter
500 gm (one pound) lasagna noodles (homemade or commercial)

Fresh pasta isn't too hard to make at home.

Got everything ready? Follow along with me and let's make this!
Saute' the onions with the oil and add the mushrooms, then a few minutes later, the zucchini, red peppers, and eggplant. Cook, stirring occasionally.

Most of the veggies.

The veggies, chopped and ready for the pan (except for that lazy asparagus!).

When the veggies are cooked through and the onions lightly browned, remove from heat and salt to taste. Put in a bowl and set aside. Blanch the peas and asparagus in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes, then drain and chop the asparagus. Saute' these veggies as well, in butter, salt to taste, and set aside.

Blanched peas and asparagus, looking extremely green.

Sauteed and ready for layering. So colorful!

If you are using commercial lasagna noodles, parboil for about half the full time specified on the box, and set one layer at the bottom of a buttered lasagna dish or baking dish. If using fresh pasta, roll out as thin as possible, and do the same (don't parboil the fresh pasta, just use it directly).  Add a layer of the veggies, then mozzarella and parmesan. Cover this layer with bechamel sauce. You can make this at home or buy it ready to use. I learned to make a roux when I was seven years old, so I like to cook my own....

Bechamel sauce coming right up!

Then simply repeat the layers, pasta, veg, cheese, and sauce, until you run out of stuff. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and get ready to bake.  30-45 minutes at 200C, or 380F, should do the trick. Wait until the top is lightly browned.

Serve with fresh radishes and parsley for a lovely green-and-red holiday look. Enjoy!

And a big thank-you to Chef Riccardo for the best lasagna I've ever tried.

Freaky Friday the 13th: A Miscellany

I'm working on  parts III and IV of Tillandsia care, and I've got a great new monthly post coming on Sunday; it will be a tasty surprise! But for Freaky Friday the 13th, I've got a random collection of images I haven't been able to fit into the blog yet, so... it's Irrelevant Picture Time!

My last batch of ceramics features a new technique I made up. I carve a linoblock (this one is a 5x7 of my sunflower garden from this summer), imprint it onto wet stoneware clay, fire, and glaze. I think it worked rather well, and I'll keep trying new designs like this. I love carving linoblocks, but don't have much use for plain prints on paper. This gives the blocks new life.

I've got a number of my paintings on exhibit at our county library for a few months. This means there's more space in my studio to paint! Bwahaha....

I may have posted this lovely cottontail before, but I don't care, I love bunnies. For all you fellow rabbit fans, here's a portrait of a local English Angora, looking exceptionally fluffy....

Snuggle angora rabbits, don't wear them!

As you may notice, these sweet creatures have little to do with gardening, except for maybe the fact that bunny poop makes a wonderful soil builder. Not that Tillandsias would care about that. Let's see if I can find one more completely irrelevant image for the weekend....

Our sea-turtle nesting season went reasonably well this year, despite a lot of shore erosion that left little space for the nests. Here's the empty shell from one of the last hatchlings to leave for the sea...good luck, little guy!

Well, that's enough miscellany for now. I'm off to photograph some Lithops and Tillies....

Tillandsia Care Part II: Light and Air

Tillandsias need water, light, air, and some light feeding. They don't need dirt or darkness. Those principals are all you really need to grow beautiful Tillies, but I'm going into the specifics because I think more and more people are fascinated and ready to grow airplants indoors. They've been a popular outdoor plant in the tropics and subtropics since forever, but I get questions every day about how to grow them inside the house. Since they don't need dirt, and grow slowly, they make ideal houseplants. No dirt, no bugs, no mold, no muss, no fuss.

Outdoor Tillandsias, Doing Their Own Thing

T. magnusiana, Indoors

Tilladsias require varying degrees of light, as different species grow in different environments, from mountain heights to jungle valleys. But I find that all of mine have done well in bright, filtered light. They face east, and I've also tried northern windows (unfiltered). Both directions have worked well, though east is the best. West and south, the light would have to be more muted. However, if you live closer to the Poles than I do, a south or west-facing window might well be ideal. Hot afternoon sun is not so good for Tillies, and because they cannot sit in cooling, damp earth, they can "cook" more quickly in hot sun than other denizens of your indoor garden.

Tillies also need a lot of air circulation, just like Lithops and other mesembs. They are very pest-resistant but some species, like T. caput medusae and T. paucifolia, can rot at the base if they don't have fresh air.

Tillandsia caput medusae can easily rot at the base.

I have found that CD housing works beautifully for Tillies. I just make sure that, if the CD rack is metal, it's been sealed, as zinc and copper are toxic to Tillies. They are in a large, airy room with ceiling fans, next to an eastern window that can be screened if it gets too hot or bright.

A Tillandsia High-Rise Apartment Building.

So plenty of air, plenty of light, and you're all set! The next Tillie Care post will be about specific housings/mounts for Tillandsias, what works and what doesn't. See you then!