Charlie Brown Avocado Tree

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season.  I have been as involved as I can find the time for.  I have grand ideas of someday being able to do all kinds of fun holiday activities, but for now I am happy to bake as much as possible and pull out my small Christmas decor collection sometime after Thanksgiving.

I have never dragged a cut tree through the front door. Nor have I set up a live tree in the corner.  I live in a small house so it would be rather difficult to work out where to put a Christmas tree with the plants, furniture, book cases.  This year I decided that the Avocado tree would be a dandy tree to decorate!

It is inside already, and it has really branched out.  I decided to stick with silver balls.  They are simple, discrete, and not too heavy for some of the younger branches.  It is kind of comical and kind of sweet in an almost elegant way.

I would like to have a Norfolk Pine in the future to use as a Christmas tree.  They make such nice looking house plants, and would create a nice simple focal point when decorated for the holidays.  They like low lighting, which would be perfect since I seem to have very little direct, or even bright light in my house.

The little red tinsel tree from college still made it's way into the scene.

It has kept the Nutcracker Matryoshka and Santa company for quite a few years now.  Plus, IU had a really great win against UK about the time I put these items out, so maybe there was a little school spirit egging me on :~)

Here is my little holiday corner.  There are even pine cones in a basket by the tree.

I will enjoy it for another week or so before packing it all back up, transforming the Charlie Brown tree back into a regular house plant.

What are some of your alternative, or non-traditional holiday traditions?

Chill in the Air

Ahhhautumn.  I love this season.  (I think I mentioned that already)  It is now October and the trees are blushing realizing they will be naked in another month.

The other thing that the height of autumn is known for in central Indiana is a drop in temperature.  Much of September was chillier than normal as a result of the hurricanes that moved through the south.  I brought the potted plants in on October 1st when I saw that the low that night was 37 degrees.  The nightly lows have been in the 40's and 50's the last week or two.  The plants did not seem to appreciate the nightly chill.

While some plants seem to like the move indoors:

Getting color back, the Thanksgiving cactus is even setting a flower bud!

Though not everybody seems to appreciate it!

I have read that most Gerbera Daisies rarely last the winter.  We will see how this one does.  Can you see the cat damage?  This is one of the most dangerous aspects for the plants indoors.  You can see the omnivorous feline in the lower left corner eyeing her new buffet.

The thing that is difficult to see from this picture is that this entire corner of the room is taken over by plants.  There are 4 tables with pots on them.  The avocado tree had to go in the living room.

It is larger than last winter.  It was hard to get the whole thing in the frame.  The ivy in the pot got huge over the summer, too.  It was cascading out of the pot in every direction.  I tossed the cascades up into the pot to make it easier to move, and less inviting to the kitty.  I think I better trim it back.  This particular ivy roots very easily.  Want a cutting?!

While the plants generally appreciate the warmer indoor temperatures, one of them seems a little confused.  The Hibiscus bloomed in the night!  I watched it set a bud, and I thought it would bloom the next morning, but I guess it could not wait!

During the time this plant was outside flowering, the buds would burst open first thing in the morning and then close up as the sun went down.  This flower is much smaller and going on 2 days with out closing!  I do not leave lights on at night, maybe it is the stable indoor temperature.

Yesterday was a beautiful Sunday.  A friend and I decided to take advantage of the amazing afternoon and walk on the B-line trail . . . as did every third person in town!  The bridge is finally done.  It's pretty high up there!

The sun was hot and the breeze was skipping about, an amazing October afternoon.

It may be the end of warm summer afternoons, but there are still a few things blooming, soaking of the last of the hot sun.

Sprout to Tree

I am sure that at some point in grade school you sprouted an avocado pit.  I decided to revisit the experiment when I was in college.  I wanted my apartment to be full of big plants but I spent my money on art supplies and books in those days so I had to be resourceful since large plants often had large price tags.

I stuck toothpicks in an avocado pit to suspend it just slightly in the water and (im)patiently waited.  It sprouted roots and a little shoot.  I put it in a pot as soon as possible, and waited (im)patiently for it to turn into a tree.  After a few years it was a bit more than knee high . . . and was still holding on to the pit like a safely blanket.  One thing I did not really account for at the time was light.  There was just not enough.

After this picture was taken it seems like it really did take off.  It just grew up and up!  It seemed like it had no intention of putting out branches, so I showed it how by chopping the top off, twice.  It just wants to be big and tall!  These days it is putting out some little branches around the top and I just noticed today that there are a few more on the main trunk.

This lovely avocado tree is now just over 6 feet tall and still growing!  I put it in a larger pot this spring, but I am actually wondering if it is large enough!

It has a nice place on the back porch where it gets plenty of morning sun, direct and indirect.  It has been happily growing out there all summer.  It will take up quite a bit of space when it comes indoors this fall!