Forum Activity for @strumelia

Schlubby has the sweetest facial expression, who could resist her?
It's good that you can give her the love and reassurance she needs after losing her furry companion. 

That's real cute, Mary!
Do you still have either of your previous two bassets?

That dinner looks great too.  :)

They look very sweet Venni!
I've had a rabbit or two during my lifetime of pet keeping, too. 

Yeah Ken I remember that but only for the first several months of the pandemic, when very little was known about how the virus was typically spread. At first it was thought to be spread mostly by touching, hence the bag ban.

I think we may see the end to automatic hand shake greetings. When you think about it, it's the best way to spread germs and get colds and flu anyway. I'm all for changing it permanently to fist or elbow bumps, or just waving or nodding hello when being introduced.   :) 

I got into the habit of getting my mask on in my car before going into a store early on. What took me much longer to get used to was when I started using reusable shopping tote bags for the supermarket.  lolol!
I kept leaving those totes in the car ...until i got so fed up with having to walk back to my car, it finally became automatic to tuck them under my arm upon leaving my car. Old habits are hard to break!  Feels really good nowadays to not have all those awful plastic grocery bags to recycle. If everyone did that it would save a lot of sea creatures. I get plenty enough plastic bags from saving bread bags and using those every time i need a plastic bag.  :)

That's just plain bizarre , Jan. I hope you (and your husband) stay well despite that strange brain lapse you had. 

Ken, be brave and fight your way through the gusts like the true warrior you are.

I have about six different house plants that I call the Elders ...I've had them for about 14 years. They are problematic to repot, either because they are large and fragile, and/or because they are cactus covered with sharp spines.

Three of the Elders I managed to repot about five years ago, and they'll be fine for a while yet before needing another repotting. But the other three had not been repotted in all those 14 years, and I really needed to stop putting it off.

Last week I bought the pots and various soil mixing ingredients I'd need to do the three plants and yesterday I spent much of the day repotting those last three big plants, with some muscle help from my husband.

The easier two Elder plants are matching "Red Chestnut" bromeliads in the living room window. They are each about 3 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall not counting their pots. They have no spines (thank goodness) but are easily damaged when moved around, and hard to hold and manipulate with all their fronds splaying out in all directions.
I managed to repot both of them thanks to the fact that they are not very heavy and also because I pruned a LOT of lower older fronds off before beginning the repot.
I found their roots were actually real small and the old soil was pretty useless. Being epiphytes, they don't actually need 'soil' per se anyway, and I set them up in some nice bark-y orchid mix in their beautiful new pots. I had them out on the lawn for this procedure, and sprayed them down with a gentle hose which removed old dust and probably hydrated them during the trauma. They do look sparser now what with my having pruned many lower leaves, but I think they'll do well once they settle into their new digs.  :)  They get watered by pouring water into their main cup 'leaf vase', not by watering the soil. But it's important the orchid mix is kept damp during the next few weeks while the plants are adjusting to the repotting stress, so their little roots don't dry up and die.

The last Elder repot job was the absolute nightmare project that I've put off for 14 years. This was the candelabra cactus (really a succulent) in our bedroom on a table by the window...that was now four feet tall and three feet wide with stiff branches all over the place and horribly painful nasty big thorns everywhere. We have some very heavy leather fireplace gloves like gauntlets, and the spines go right through those too if you don't also use a big towel. !  The other big problem was the sheer weight of the thing- in the pot the entire plant seemed to weigh about 50 pounds- I could barely heft it three inches off the table, much less carry it around.

I had a choice for this one- I could make it easier on us by drastically pruning the whole plant by a third or a half, but because the branches are all thick this would look like a real butcher job and it would kind of be a shame to ruin its spectacular look. OR, I could get my husband's help and try it without pruning. If the big branches started breaking when we manipulated it, I might have to just prune everything down anyway. 
More in the next post on how we managed to repot the huge cactus...

I hope you recover soon and feel better Venni. That sounds awful.

I got my 2nd shot 10 days ago, so in 4 more days I should be well protected.. such a good feeling. I can't wait to visit my vaccinated friends in person!

I did experience a very unpleasant day of side effects after the 2nd shot- felt quite sick and confined to bed for a day and a half. But it was a small price to pay, and I feel great now. 

Richard, thank you so much for supporting FOTMD with your kind and thoughtful donations. 

@Marg , thank you so much for your very kind site donation to support FOTMD! 

Someone's a bit ...sensitive perhaps? 

Etsy seems to be a good place to order little rooted plants and cuttings from smaller garden sites and individual sellers. I'm still waiting another week til my 2nd covid vaccine protection kicks in... at which time I need to go to a big garden center and get some soil and pots for my repotting plans here at home.

Meanwhile, I succumbed to temptation and ordered three new baby plants from etsy sellers. 
I got a "string of turtles" plant (a 3" pot with several rooted stem cuttings planted in it). Also ordered two hoyas- I've never had hoyas before but I hear that folks get obsessed with them. They look cool and put out trailing vines. The two baby hoyas i bought were Hoya 'retusa' and Hoya 'pubicalyx royal Hawaiian purple'. The plants should all get here within the next ten days or so, and the forecast looks kind. I don't expect them to look like much since they are little cutting babies or just baby plants.
All three of these new plants are going into hanging pots in front of our kitchen window, and my office window. I have not had any hanging indoor house plants since we bought this house 18 yrs ago, so that should be interesting.

I worried about my cats at first Lois, and that's actually why until recently I kept mostly cactus and spiny succulents, which the cats really avoid. However, a lot of those plants included in "poisonous" lists would have to be eaten in large quantity to cause any serious effect. And some of them just cause stomach ache or vomiting.
My cats will investigate a new houseplant but they just bite down on a leaf once or twice to test it, leaving pinholes. They don't seem at all interested in actually eating any leaves, and after one or two teeth tests they leave the plants alone. They've got better stuff to eat, plus they much prefer their catnip treats!

I think dogs are dumber and will eat quantities of poison stuff.  (sorry, couldn't resist! lololol!) 

Hmmm... how about something using "scrapin that propolis off bee metropolis"?

I can't help you much with the song writing Tom, but I feel your pain concerning pouring money into your hives!

I've kept bees for over 12 years now, and just recently I downsized from FIVE 10-frame double-deep hives, to TWO 8-frame double deep hives. As i got older those ten frame boxes were getting too darn heavy!  I also find that losses have slowly increased each winter for me. I never had to buy bees years ago. Now the past two winters I've lost both hives and had to order packages. Cleaning dead hives up before installing a new colony is a nasty chore but must be done if I don't want all the frames and boxes permanently 'glued' together.
This Spring's packages will arrive in about a month and I'll have some hive cleanup and scraping to do before then. Truthfully, though I love having lots of honey and love having bees buzzing around my garden, each year I do feel closer to getting out of it altogether.

Excellent point, Lois! People sometimes don't think of these things.

Taking care of other living things like plants is good medicine for the soul, plus it's just plain 'good karma'.   :)

When I was a kid I couldn't get enough taking care of little pets, plants, insects, etc.  I think it helped make me into a kinder human. It's also a wonderful way to learn cool stuff about nature and science! 
I'm glad this year of quarantine has re-inspired my interests in indoor plants. Several of my indoor cacti/succulents I've had for 13 or 14 years, and a couple of them really deserve a repotting now. I have 16 plants in the house right now, and plan to revamp a couple of window areas to accommodate a few more, especially in my little upstairs office.

I've had many houseplants during my life, but this is my first monstera deliciosa. I'm so impressed, I've decided it should be crowned the Queen of Houseplants. It's majestic. 

The white-variegated monsteras like the one shown in Lois' article can actually sell for hundreds of dollars these days for a good plant with lots of white patches or half-white leaves, and just a clipping of a good one can cost $50 or $100 or more.
Luckily, I really like my all green one, I find the all green to be more visually serene and jungle like. Today it unfurled its very first leaf that has four splits on each side . (the leaves they produce will have more splits as the plant gets older... the baby monsteras often have no splits showing at all yet) Up til this new leaf, my plant's 'splittiest' big leaf had four on one side and three on the other. I still have to name this monstera. I think it's good to name the plants that are either big or have lots of character.

Just got my 2nd covid vaccine the day before yesterday. I can't wait for two weeks from now when i will feel 'safe' enough to go to the big garden store. (in a mask of course)
I really want to repot several of my larger older house plants, and I need certain soil mixes and some bigger new pots for them.
For a whole year I have not gone shopping anywhere except for essentials like food or getting my car inspected, etc.  Soon I will feel safe going to a store for something fun!  

During this year of quarantine I have learned to appreciate the smaller things in my life that bring joy. One of those things has been a new appreciation of the living plants growing in my home. 

If a teenager's room looks more like a rainforest cafe than a landfill, I'd say you are really really lucky.

A truth: If any sunlight is coming in through a window and landing on any horizontal surface- the floor, a chair, a table... there will be a cat on it, rolling around or 'meatloafing'.

I'm very grateful to those of you who have made a contribution.  Believe me, it really helps. 

Oh wow, Dusty- I bought two large plants a month ago- one a dark burgundy rubber plant, and the other a big monstera deliciosa (common name is split-leaf philodendron). The monstera seems to be the "it" plant this year, replacing the fiddle-leaf fig in top popularity.

The good news is that being a philodendron, the monsteras are pretty adaptable to varied conditions. The biggest danger is in not having a well drained pot, which will cause root rot. If it drains well, the plant will tolerate low-to-high light, and varying amounts of watering.
I have not fed mine at all yet, and it has produced several large new leaves in just the first month. I can see this plant is going to grow FAST. They tend to try to vine and you can either stake the branches up as they get long, or chop off sections to root in water and give to friends to plant.  :)   These are large tropical plants that are very gratifying to watch as they unfurl giant new leaves!

Here is mine in my office, right next to me as i type:

Hello dear FOTMD members.
FOTMD has been an active mountain dulcimer social network for 11 years now. So far, I've always been able to pay our server/site expenses with the donations from thoughtful members. We've managed to cover costs and usually have about $30 surplus by the end of the year. It's not making much profit, but then my goal has always been for it to simply pay for itself.

After going over this past 'covid year' expenses, I'm finding that donations have dropped enough so that they are no longer covering site costs. Since I already invest considerable time keeping the site running, I would prefer not to also pay for its cash upkeep out of my own pocket.

Yes, this is a call for donations!  I'd like to see a few new   folks make a donation now and then if they can, rather than the same handful of members who always seem to step up. We also have a couple of members who very generously maintain a monthly automatic paypal donation subscription of $5 or $10/month. There are also a couple of members who send FOTMD $100 every once in a while. These donations are all extremely generous and appreciated!   Yet it is not quite enough to cover costs.

This site is for all members to enjoy. I would not expect anyone under financial hardship to make a donation, so my request goes out to those of you who are comfortably able to donate something. Remember, a $35 donation or above will earn you a "Patron" label under your name on your profile page for about two years. But ANY amount of donation is so much appreciated!- whether that's $10 or $200. Please consider a donation -especially if you have never donated before.  Help keep FOTMD running and vital.

To donate, just click on the Paypal Donation button on our main page. (you don't need to have a paypal account to use the button, just a credit card).

Thank you all so much! 

Strumelia  

Have you weighed it John? I'd be interested in knowing how heavy. I assume a box like that really needs to be placed on a table to play, right?

I do love the look of that one in poplar, John!  It looks very 'old traditional' for sure, especially with the tin overlays.

omg   

That's funny Randy.  ;D   Yeah sometimes a subject will come up with plants or animals where i coincidentally just happen to know some exact obscure factoid that's being discussed... it can be very impressive, and so fun when that happens. 

True, Ken! Indoor plants are a tonic for the soul in the middle of cold bleak grey winters of non-tropical areas. I remember when i lived in Puerto Rico i did not bother much with indoor plants- it was far easier to just have them out on the 'balcon' or in the yard. 
When i was a child in NYC, like most bohemians my mother would plant leftover avocado seeds and we'd marvel at our resulting two foot tall avocado 'tree'. I couldn't believe the gigantic avocado trees in PR! 

Lois, I know a little something about houseplants, but I'm certainly no expert. I know nothing about crotons. Misting is good for some plants and not good for others, so you'd have to look that up. I've found it soooo useful to punch up searches on Youtube like "care of philodendron", "care of rubber plant". You'll find great tips on caring for specific plants that way... plus some of the vids are fun to watch!
I do know that it's generally advised to not repot a plant for a month or two when you get it- to allow it to settle first from the shock of moving to a new location.  

Ah, well the usual advice given for that double-pot situation is that you water it thoroughly like once a week or so, let it drain for a few minutes and then dump the excess water out of the outer pot... so that the potted plant is never in standing water. Think of the outer pot (with no hole) as simply a way to protect your table rather than being a water reservoir. Waterlogged soil is deadly to houseplants. I learned only recently that roots need air as well as water, otherwise they start to rot.  Just like us I guess!

Yeah it's funny but all plants do have a life span. And it's amazing how you can make new baby plants from offshoots, splits, and cuttings.

@venni , that's impressive, good for you!
Many of us here never actually become highly skilled players, but hopefully we all do find joy in playing a humble instrument at home, even if we only play for our own selves. Music is such a tonic.  :)

Lois good luck with your new croton plant! They are really colorful, especially if they get sun. Make sure its pot can drain any excess water so there's no chance of root rot. I think they like slightly moist soil but never waterlogged.

Here's a very little (2" diameter) Bishop's Cap cactus I've had for about four years now. It was crowded in a pot with several other succulents in a too-cool room with north light. Somehow it survived, but i just disassembled that pot and gave the little cap a new pot of its own and put it in nice warmer spot with more light. I hope it wont be too shocked by the change.
So cute the way it spirals at the very top like a dim sum dumpling...

Another detail-  I notice you are both embedding AND attaching your image to a post. No need to do both- just pick one method or the other.  

@rojo, Ken is correct- when you are in the window where you select an image to embed in your post, on the left side there should be a drop down box where you can choose the size- the default is set to 800 xxxl or something... if you change it to the XL instead, the image will not be so huge. Try it again with one image here, and I'll adjust or delete it afterwards if needed.  :)  Maybe I'll change the default size to one level smaller as well.

Another way is to go ahead and post the embedded image as is, and then click the EDIT gear icon on you post to edit it, and in that window you can click the corner of the image and DRAG it smaller. Sometimes you'd need to drag it smaller several times to get it to the size that looks reasonable. Then save your edited post by clicking the "update post" button. That's what I did just now to make your last embedded image smaller, btw.

If you are doing all this from a phone's tiny screen, then it might be trickier to see or access all these options and menus... just sayin'.

Now you can simply call that plant "The non-astilbe", Lois.  lolol If you could attach a photo of it here, I 'might' be able to recognize what it is.

Your mandevilla- if it's an outdoor plant likely needs to be semi dormant during the winter. If so, then don't over water, feed, or repot it until Spring. If it starts putting out lots of new baby shoots soon, then would be the time to repot it - maybe just into the same pot but with some fresh soil and a slight root trimming.

I got my ginseng ficus bonsai in the mail a couple days ago. It was well packed and with tons of insulation, and only one tiny leaf broke off in transit, and it did not seem to suffer any frost. Amazing!

What funny little 'tree'. It's got bulbous ficus roots, with little branches from a different species of ficus grafted onto the roots (to make sure it has small leaves). Reminds me of those spooky Mandrake roots, or some fertility goddess. It's not technically considered to be a 'real' bonzai, but it's fun and easy for amateurs to keep alive. The upper branches and leaf canopy is what will grow bigger now mostly, and I'll need to give it a haircut now and then. The roots will grow way more slowly than the top leafy part.
It came planted in a very nice 8" long cream colored glazed bonzai pot. You're supposed to place the pot on top of a wet bed of pebbles to create a little extra humidity near the plant. I had a blue and white Chinese platter that seemed to do the trick temporarily. It's got a bunch of teeny tiny baby leaves sprouting out all over top, so that makes me glad. 
Here it is by my desk window...

Amazing discussion!

...and: here's that discussion!  :D

OceanD, that thing about "making the notes sound connected" is actually a big deal, and it's not all that common that people really think about it. It's sort of the equivalent of if you are playing penny whistle and making a separate blow out for every note, rather than doing sometimes two or three notes on one breath. Same with fiddling- some fiddlers make a separate back/forth stroke of the bow on each note. I find that becomes irritating to listen to after a while, like ratt-a-tat, ratt-a-tat.... 
With the dulcimer, it takes some conscious effort to sound more than one note per strum or pick motion. And it's not all about sliding. Lots of folks never get into such things because it's hard to change how you play once you've gotten used to something. The fact that you are aware of this and are taking technique workshops to improve your playing skills rather than to simply learn more tunes, is admirable!  

I think maybe @dusty-turtle can say something here about players wanting to actually have some enjoyable conversational time with each other during virtual zoom festivals... Dusty?

Pondoro, maybe you could elaborate a bit on why the virtual festival experience does not feel satisfying to you?- such input might really help those who organize such events.  :)

i fixed the pic size.

Lois, it occurs to me that a snake plant (SANSEVIERIA) sounds like it might be just the thing for your low-ish light counter.  It's fine with erratic watering schedules, like to dry out sometimes completely. Loves the sun but survives just fine in low light too. It gets tall and elegant and puts out lots of leaves and 'pups' to give away, but won't take up lots of horizontal counter space. It's not very expensive, and there are many beautiful different varieties of sansevieria to choose from. Look up some google pictures of snake plant varieties.

I have a nice unassuming snake plant that loves it on my low light desk next to my computer- I bought it cheap at the supermarket about 6 months ago, and it's been putting out several healthy new spears:

I thought Astilbe and mandevilla were strictly outdoor garden plants, and get really big in size? They may need to be dormant during the winter, but I don't know much about them. Can you maybe take cuttings and root them?
I too have used aquarium water on my plants. I'm sure they love it!  I've allowed my aquarium fish to naturally die off over time, without buying new ones. Soon I'll dismantle the (12 gallon) aquarium and take over that prime window spot for my plants.  :)