So it’s been about a year…

Hi. You may have noticed it’s been about a year since I last posted. Another year has come and gone at work, and in the garden, and with all the house plants. And things are, generally speaking, going well with all of those.

Now, I will say right off the bat I do not expect to be making a return to blogging in any way in the near future. A combination of things made this feel more like a job than something I was doing for fun (set up proper lighting, shoot in RAW, format pictures, upload to flickr with proper tags in the right sets, write a post, make sure categories and tags are consistent along with formatting… etc.), combined with everything else going on and it was just too much, and the blog was easiest to let go of.

I’m also now a student again, I had really considered going into horticulture, or landscaping, or something of that nature but instead I am looking to get out of the field entirely at the moment, and just let it be a hobby again.

As far as plants go my focus in tropicals has moved to 4 areas:

1) Plants that can be wintered in the garage without care over the winter.
Joining my banana will be a Chamaerops humilis, the Fuchsia ‘President G Bartlett’ that I accidentally overwintered in the garage last winter, a fruiting fig, and an experimental Agave I picked up on clearance for $2.50 (after I separate off an offset to winter inside).

2) Plants that can be stored dormant.
I’ve added another species of Amorphophallus (paeoniifolius?) as well as a Dahlia, Canna, Calla, and maybe a Begonia (if the small tuber makes it).

3) Succulents that need no or little care over the winter.
I water my Agaves 3 times a year. November, January, and April. They then get rained on outside all summer but that hardly makes for a high maintenance plant. Aloes and Haworthia and other plants that can take some abuse and lower light through the winter under lights get a pass too.

4) Plants which can be moved into Semi-Hydroponics.
My orchid collection is nearly completely converted to hydroponic culture. There are some which I’m just waiting to see new root growth before they make the switch but all are on their way. All of my Hoya are now in hydroponics as well. I’ve also had very good success with most Gesneriads in semi-hydro culture, though that isn’t unexpected as any plant that can be rooted in water will grow with ease in hydroponics.

Of course I love odd plants and there will always be exceptions to those 4 categories but this helps keep my collection manageable and lets me keep my plants without having to constantly care for them.

As for this blog, and any future blog-type project… Well, again. Nothing is planned. You can follow me on Twitter where I post plant pictures, and keep this blog in your RSS feed as I’ll either post here &/or redirect the feed to whatever new project I start if and when I do.

Thanks for reading.