Nelly Moser Did It Again

This plant must be able to read my mind. Every time I’m thinking about getting rid of this sad looking plant it sends out a couple of flowers that look like this and I can’t do it. Old Nelly Moser has come within inches of her life every year for the last 15 years. She’s lucky the flowers are so pretty.

Have a beautiful day,

Houseplants, Scale, & Alcohol

How I Get Rid of Scale on My Houseplants

A few days ago I noticed my houseplants had scales. This isn’t the first time, and I know it won’t be the last time I fight against these little insects.

Scales are pesky little creatures that can  literally suck the life out of your houseplants. They are usually hiding beneath their hard outer shell. This shell is what makes them difficult to get rid of. They only crawl at a certain stage in their life cycle. Come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever seen one crawl, nor have I ever seen a picture of one crawling. I’ve only read about them crawling after they hatch.

Here is a picture of the scale on my plant

The round little bumps are the scale.

These insects will kill your beautiful houseplants if you don’t take care of the problem. It’s also gross to think about insects all over your plants in the house. Cleaning your houseplants is a must if you want long living, beautiful, healthy plants.

More pictures of scale on different plants in my house

Symptoms of Scale Infestation

Scales are sneaky and they usually go unnoticed until your plant is looking sad, yellowed, and droopy.

The first thing people usually notice is a sticky sap like substance called honeydew on the surrounding area of the plant. You may also notice the stickiness on the leaves below the leaf with the scale. This stuff can ruin drapery, couch fabric, carpet, and wood. It’s not easy to remove the honeydew if you leave it sitting too long before cleaning it up.

I use the mixture I kill the scale with to clean the floor around my plants too. I have acid stained cement floors in my living, and dining room, so I don’t have to worry about  carpet being damaged. I also use the solution on my wood floors around my stairs to clean the sap off.

The best thing is to catch the scale before the honeydew gets onto any of your floors or furniture and ruins them.

Home Remedy For Getting Rid of Scale

PLEASE READ BEFORE USING

I have used this solution on my plants many times without any damage to my plants. However, I strongly suggest testing on a couple of leaves before using this on your entire plant. If you don’t test, don’t blame me if your plant dies. You have been officially warned LOL.

I also like to use rubber gloves so my skin does not absorb the alcohol or dry out my hands. If your plants are too big to take outside make sure to protect your floors and furniture. This stuff will drip off the plant.

Homemade Insecticidal Soap Recipe

1 quart water
1 tsp detergent (I used a generic brand, you can also use plain Dawn)
3 Tbsp Isopropyl Alcohol 70%

Mix all the ingredients in a spray bottle and you are ready to go.

I use a moistened  microfiber cloth to wipe the plants.

Spray one section of the plant at a time saturating the entire leaf with the solution. Then carefully wipe each leaf to remove the scale and sticky residue. I go leaf by leaf. This can be a bit time consuming, but I found this works best for  my plants. Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies.

Here is a picture of a couple of the plants I had to work on. The tall one I used to take outside, but now it’s too big so I work on it in the house.

It’s a good idea to check your plants weekly or at least monthly to see if new scales show up. In my case they seem to come back in full force every few months. I try to catch them before there are too many. I just had to do major surgery on one of my large plants because I waited too long. Now it sits outside with one remaining leaf. It may end up in the trash, time will tell.

I hope this post helped you

I’m not a plant expert, just someone who has loved houseplants since I was a kid.

Do you have problems with scale? I would love to hear how you get rid of them.

I love comments, so please feel free to leave one.

Cheers,

Succulent Garden In A Dish

I used to hate succulents because I thought they were boring and blah, well not anymore. I realized I was missing out by not utilizing these little gems in my garden and in my home.

Once I realized how easy succulents were to take care of they became my new garden favorite. Oh, I still love flowers and herbs, but succulents are sweet, simple, and versatile.

I used some of the trimmings from my outdoor garden to make this cute little planting for my coffee table. The planting that I’m going to show you here was made using trimmings from a week prior to planting them in the dish.

Let’s Get Started

After trimming the succulents in my yard I toss the best pieces onto a bakers rack under my patio cover. I just let them sit there until I’m ready to use them or throw them into the trash.

I’ve found it’s good to let the trimmings sit and “harden off” so they don’t get mushy after I plant them.  Sometimes the little trimmings even  start to grow roots. Take a look at the picture below.

After I gathered the trimmings I wanted to use I went in search of a vessel to plant them in. I was lucky and found an old green dish that my mother-in-law gave me as a gift that she purchased from an antique store. Woo Hoo! I scored by looking into the depths of my cabinets. The dish is approximately 2.5 inches deep and 6 inches in diameter.

Next…

I need to find some planting material. Am I going to use dirt or gravel. Hmm, I remember I have some left over aquarium gravel from some other project I made a few years ago. So back into the junk cupboards I go. Yes! I found it. Black aquarium rock. I decided to use the small, black, shiny rocks instead of dirt because I thought it would be cleaner.

How to Plant Your Little Garden

This is so easy I did not take pictures of me actually planting the succulents. Let’s go through my steps one-by-one.

• Have your dish clean and ready
• Put aquarium gravel into dish, leaving approximately 1/2 inch from the top.
• Put your pieces of succulents into the gravel.
• Hold succulents in place using decorative rocks and glass gems
• Sprinkle with water

I think these are the easiest little gardens to make. I’m not an expert, and I can’t tell you the names of any of these plants. I just know them as succulents. If you are reading this, and know the names, and want to share, please leave a comment.

The picture above kind of shows you how I  stuck the stem of the succulent trimmings into the gravel. First, I carefully remove the bottom leaves of the plant, leaving  just the stem to shove in the gravel. Wait! I mean gently insert stems into the gravel.

Here is my finished mini succulent garden before I added the glass gems. I love all the different colors of green.

Give your little garden a sprinkle of water and you are finished. I water mine once a week. I take it to the sink and spray it gently to moisten the leaves and rock. I don’t flood it because I don’t want the stems sitting in stagnant water.

Two Weeks Later

I decided to put the green ceramic dish inside another low round glass vase. I then added some more glass gems to give it a little sparkle. The plants have already gotten taller. I will have to start trimming these pretty soon. To me this planting looks fresh, clean, and fun. Much nicer than plastic plants IMHO. Plastic and silk plants have their uses, just not on my coffee table.

I hope my post sparks your interest in these often forgotten or unloved succulent plants. I’m sure glad I stopped hating these little guys.

If you don’t have any succulents in your yard you can purchase small plants online or at your local nursery. Oh, I forgot to mention I live in Southern California and succulents love our weather. The plants are very easy to find in my neighborhood nurseries.

Suggestions, comments I would love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Tamara