Life Lately: Succulent Babies, Coastal Life, and Mossy Mount Davidson

Brief update on my succulent babies: lots of propagation! The rains have actually jump-started their growth and I'm so excited to make more itty bitty terrariums for my friends!

I've been walking along Ocean Beach and I love when the beach is empty and the skies are overcast. Gloomy weather is the perfect time to walk along the beach and listen to music. I haven't had as many opportunities to go to the beach ever since I started my new job, but every time I do go I leave feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I know I say this all the time, but I'm such a water/earth baby--I find peace of mind when I'm surrounded by the ocean, trees, mountains--you name it. It's a place of refuge for me. 

Weekends seem to be the only times I am free to explore, so on Sunday my friends and I hiked to Mount Davidson, where the fog and mist makes its home within the trees...

I spent some time scanning the floors and rocks and spotted a ton of different mosses and lichens...

Even more exciting, I spotted lots of gorgeous fungi coming out after the rains!

Lots of strap coral fungi on some fallen trees...

Spotting tiny little mushrooms always make my day, I still got the eye for spotting the tiniest little mushrooms! 

This was my favorite find of the day--some jelly fungi that reminded me of yellow skittles or jelly beans.

Spotting all the fungi made me especially happy and excited, because I haven't spotted any cool mushrooms lately. If you're into mushroom hunting, Mount Davidson has the perfect micro-climate for them--it's usually really wet and misty, and if you venture off the trails *just a little bit* you might be surprised at what you find!

As I mentioned in my previous post, most of my photos are on instagram (@terrariumtherapy), but keep checking back here--I have pictures from Portland, OR coming soon :)

My Etsy Shop is Now Open!

 Remember back in July when I talked about opening an Etsy shop? Well, that idea turned into a reality this month! Thanks to Rodolfo, who helped me photograph all of my goods, I finally listed most of my items online! As I mentioned before, I've been making succulent/tillandsia terrariums for a little over 3 years now, mostly selling locally through word of mouth. I'm hoping that through this shop, I can unload some of my inventory and make a little money to invest in more plant and art projects. Check out some of the items I listed below :)

 Teeny Tiny Terrarium Earrings

 

Air Plant Terrarium Necklace

 Tiny Terrarium Necklaces

Ocean Terrarium Necklaces

These are just some of the items listed, I'll be adding more next week so be sure to check out Terrarium Therapy on Etsy! As I mentioned before, next week I'm going to list a contest/giveaway so you have the opportunity to win one of these necklaces!

Air Plant Care: How to Keep Your Tillandsia(s) Happy

I've gotten a lot of questions about how to care for air plants, so I decided to share some of the tips I've gotten from air plant enthusiasts over the past couple of years.

**full disclosure** Plants are my hobby--I do not have any academic/formal training in plant care or horticulture but I have worked at plant boutiques that specialized in air plants, succulents, and terrariums. I've learned how to take care of my plants through trial and error, and talking with experts/fellow plant enthusiasts, like my good friend Mike. 

To start off, air plants (tillandsias) are epiphytes, meaning they do not require soil in order to grow. They collect moisture and nutrients from the air through structures on their leaves (trichomes). They use their roots to anchor onto trees in their natural habitats. This is why I love air plants so much--I can set them just about anywhere and not have to worry about getting dirt all over my house (although it kind of happens regardless). Based on my own experience and talking with other epiphyte/plant enthusiasts, here's what keeps air plants happy:

• Light
  Air plants fare well in bright, indirect light. They do not do well under artificial light--after a week or two they will start fading to a dull green and their leaves will curl or shrivel up.
  
  You can place in an area with direct sunlight (if they are outdoors), but be warned--if the plants are wet they may burn or dry up (the dew drops act like mini magnifying glasses)

• Water
  Watering air plants can be tricky. What I generally do is submerge all of my plants in a 1-2 gallon bucket and soak them for 10 minutes.
  
  Nancy, one of the owners at Shelldance Nursery recommends submerging air plants once a week for no more than 10 minutes. Keeping the plants submerged for too long will only cause cell damage. Air plants don't stop absorbing water, and what winds up happening is your plant will start to feel soggy, and eventually fall apart. It's tragic. Try to avoid this and set a timer! Ever since I decreased watering time, I haven't had a single tillandsia swell up and fall apart on me.

• Air
  Air plants thrive in areas with a fresh flow of air, so sealed containers are not ideal spots for air plants. Make sure to place them in a space with fresh circulating air. If you do keep your air plant in a sealed container, you should leave it out one day a week for circulation and air flow.
  
  Air after watering:I gently shake off any excess water, and set them in a basket or colander upside down or sideways so all of the water drains out. Once they are dry, I place them back in their respective "homes".
• Plant Food (Optional, although highly recommended) Orchid food is a good way to promote healthy growth. I use Shelldance Nursery's Professional Orchid Food and sometimes use Epiphyte's Delight

Keep in mind, your care routine might differ depending on how you house your air plants.

• OUTSIDE
  Some tillandsias actually fare better outdoors, and in my case, most of my plants do because I don't have good lighting indoors. I place mine in an area where they get early morning sunlight and partial shade during the hottest times of the day (although it's not too much of a problem since San Francisco is almost never sunny). If your area doesn't experience any extremely dry or wet weather, let nature take its course. You should still water once a week if it doesn't rain very often, I use water mixed with orchid food (pinch of orchid food per gallon of water) and pour right over my outdoor plants.
•  INDOORS
  Air plants thrive in areas with a fresh flow of air, so if possible, keep them in a room with lots of natural, filtered light and fresh air.
• BATHROOMS
  I find that bathrooms with a lot of natural light and constant flow of air are ideal places for air plants. Depending on how humid your bathroom gets, you may not even have to water them at all. If you don't take hot, misty showers, I recommend a weekly watering with orchid food.
• INSIDE A VESSEL, TERRARIUM, OR BOTTLE

This care sheet was borrowed from my Terrarium Necklace Tutorial

Troubleshooting

• If the tips are turning brown/drying, or shriveling:You might need to water more frequently, like once every 5 days.
• If your plant looks limp, droopy, or a sickly green color:
  The plant most likely needs more natural/filtered light
•  If your plant feels soggy, its outer leaves are falling off to the touch and/or browning from the bottom: HALT. You might be giving your plant too much water! You can sometimes save your plant by placing it in an empty shallow dish and let dry for a few days. It may or may not survive--mine never did at this point unfortunately. But it's alright-- if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!
• If little plants are sprouting up near the roots and in between leaves:IT'S PRODUCING BABIES! I generally leave these "pups" alone until they're about 1/4 or 1/3 the size of the original plant and by that time they can be plucked off. 

This is one of my first air plants. You can tell I wasn't taking good care of it because the tips are brown and dry...but LOOK! My plant has gone through some rough times, but it still produced pups!

I hope this helps, please keep in mind that this is my watering routine, and there are other ways of watering your air plants. I've spoken with different experts and received different care tips, and so far this regimen has been successful, almost all of my air plants look plump and healthy. If you have specific questions, you can always contact your local ephiphyte/orchid expert or browse gardening forums. 

Good luck and if you have any other successful air plant care tips, please share them below!

These are a few of my favorite things...Mushroom Donut

Today is a good day because I finally my mushroom donut painting! I started this several months ago and left it on my shelf half-finished. I guess today was the day for finishing off art projects. 

Mission accomplished!

Cookies & Cacti

I am a sucker for sugar cookies--especially if I get to decorate them with oodles of sprinkles and frosting! Today's batch features succulents--ones that I wish I had in my own backyard. They're almost too pretty to eat them...

Update--July 13: I ate 'em. And they were delicious.

Plant Lady Life and Projects

I'm a little late in posting these, but here are the remaining succulent plantings that I made a few weeks ago: 

As I mentioned in my earlier post, June has been a wonderful month for projects, and here are some of the projects I've been working on...

 Crystal/mineral terrarium necklaces! I've been trying out new creative ideas with terrarium necklaces, so I wired some amethyst and sodalite minerals to the corks so they stay in place while worn. Also, check out my basic terrarium necklace tutorial here!

I got this cool "crystal" cactus growing kit at Green Apple Bookstore and here are the results:

I love the way this crystal cactus looks, but unfortunately it isn't so solid. The crystals break off so easily that half of it fell apart when I moved it to my desk. BLEH. Well, it was beautiful while it lasted--I think I'm going to stick to real cacti from now on.

June's Succulent Planting Party (Continued)

So last week I started what I thought was going to be a one-day project...and it didn't happen that way. I decided to continue the planting this week, armed with shovels, pebbles, succulent dishes, and a bottle of champagne. Can I just say, that this week's planting activities were way more awesome than last week?!

Most of my succulents have outgrown their original pots so I'm planning to plant them all together in a larger dish. Some of my cuttings and plants are too small, so I'm going to plant them in cute little pots.

 I love the variety of colors succulents have--some are frosty blue with lavender tips while others have beautiful shades of reds and pinks. A lot of succulents actually turn pink in the sun (that is if they don't burn, so be careful!)

 I often don't know what to do with the extremely tiny cuttings, but this time I was prepared--I went out and bought these teeny tiny 2-inch pots and clustered the little cuttings all together:

Here are the two I did so far. Aren't they cute?! I have a couple more plantings to finish from yesterday, but today's rain sort of shooed me back inside, so I'm going to have to continue this later on in the week. More plantings are coming soon, I promise!

Summer Life: Creative Energy is All Around!

I get so active in the evenings, while everyone else is winding down, I have all of this energy that I need to use before I sleep. Last night I worked on my watercolor project and some illustrations.

Let it be known: I have been watching too many shows on Netflix, particularly Adventure Time  and Doctor Who:

Lumpy Space Princess

Succulent-Propagating Dalek

There, it's out. I am a Whovian. I love Doctor Who and I love succulents so what better way that to pair the two together?

I love not having a schedule right now, I think I might have found my ideal sleep time too! Lately my mind has been going crazy with ideas and thoughts in the late evening, from 10pm and on. Normally I try to go to sleep, but it's difficult because I have so much on my mind. So now I've been sleeping in until 10 and just begin my work later on in the day. It's a little strange, because I noticed this change within the last year. Is this something that happens with age?

So I've found my most creative spurts occur in the late evening, and I like it! I've been doing some more painting, and I'm also starting some new projects. I gathered all of my old succulents (even the ones I left in my parent's backyard) and decided I'm going to have a succulent planting party today:

Most of these succulents were left in my parent's backyard with the intention of returning to them, but I ended up forgetting. But that's the amazing thing about succulents--unlike vegetables or flowers, they tend to thrive on neglect (and I'm good at giving them that) and still look pretty amazing. Most of them just need to be pruned and replanted, so that's today's task.

Tiny hens and chicks that need to be cleaned up a bit

This succulent planting party is actually taking longer than I expected, so I plan on continuing this planting project next week. Stay tuned for updates!

DIY Terrarium Necklace Tutorial

The time has come: you can make your own little terrarium necklace, and it's pretty easy! This is my first tutorial, so if you still have questions, please feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to answer them as soon as possible. For those with visual impairments, I'm currently working on creating a PDF version of this, so once that's available I'll post it to my blog as well. 

Succulent Saturday: Cactus in Bloom

It's Succulent Saturday! Today's succulent is a beautiful (and gigantic) cactus spotted in Berkeley, CA. I often come across rogue succulents/cacti in San Francisco, but they never looked this bright and beautiful!

These blooms are so pretty!

This is the first time I've seen a rogue cactus in bloom. For some reason, I thought all cactus flowers resembled blooms on ice plants so seeing these flowers was a definite surprise. Can I just take this giant cactus home with me?!