You know what they say, there's a thin line between love and hate, as well as madness and genius. Maybe it's the same with life... What do you think, is the line between life and death thin?
Maybe we can measure that line in time, so I could say the line was a bit thicker than a month... That line that made some of my plants go from life to death. And backwards.
Before I left my plant jungle to their destiny, there was a plant that was made up of the branches you see in the cover photo... and it was alive. One of my friends spent in our home some time and took care of my succulents. The first week when she arrived, they were not in very good shape. She said that there were dry leaves all around, she recollected one big plastic bag of dry leaves, mainly from the Aeonium. And indeed, it looks quite naked now without the long leaves it had before my travel time.
The Echeveria (the rests from it) probably looked dry too, so my friend seems that gave it a lot of water... and more of it. I arrived last Saturday evening, took a short look at my plants, and saw the Lucky Bells were attacked by mealybugs (so I had to throw it away, as there was no remedy for it. It really looked bad, so not to spread the thing to the other plants...). However, I didn't see that first evening the condition of Echeveria. The next day I saw that the soil in the pot is too wet. It was overwatered.
I literally took out branch by branch from the mud, as the roots were completely rotten. All that is left from a pretty big plant I had before is shown in that first photo. I took out the mud from the clay pot (will not plant anymore in clay pots!) and let it dry for two days.
I also found some leaves with roots. How cool! I guess they started to grow roots from those leaves as they fall into the pot of the other plants.
These leaves don't have roots, but I like the shape of that double one and the variegated ones. The white stripes are cute. Now, I planted them too.
It was this morning I got several small glass jars, mixed the old soil with the new one, and planted the cuttings.
Will they survive?
Will they make it from death to life?
I do hope they will :)
The big Ale Vera was also attacked by some bugs. I sprayed the leaves of it with a mixture of water and dishwasher soap. Later, shower with clean water. I cut the bad leaves and took out from the soil four small plants that have grown from the roots of the big plant. They had roots already, so I decided to plant them in two smaller containers. The small ones also got the plague, you can notice the brown damaged parts of the leaves, but they also received the same liquid treatment (water and soap). There are hopes for these young plants. At the moment they are not so nice, but we will see how they will develop.
So, apart from throwing away one plant, and treating another one that was also affected by the mealybugs (it got alcohol treatment), also saving the good branches from the rotten plant, the other succulents are doing relatively well. This one is growing really long branches, but I am not sure if it is good. It is searching for ground, but all I can offer it are pots on the balcony...
The Jade Tree is doing great, it has grown during these few years a lot. Not actually sure how many years it has, but a few ones already. Probably one of my first plants, as the Aloe Vera and the Ruby Blush. They are all becoming giants :)
This morning I also planted these cutting into this wider pot, as it was in a smaller one. When the Mother Plant decided to jump from the stand, I got several pots of small cuttings. I gave away one pot to my friend, but I still have three other pots.
Here is the Mother Ruby and one of the pots with cuttings. Seems that they were full of flowers when I was away, now the flowers are dried. Anyway, it is still gorgeous, the fuzzy one 😊
So, we had a bit of everything... one thrown-away plant, and several rescued ones but with hopes that they will come back to life, after this short death phase!
