Plants! Request for help

[rax]

I... do not have a plants icon. I wonder if I should get one. [0]

Today I mowed the lawn --- all of it, which took maybe an hour and a half --- and tended to some plants in the back. Sadly, it looks like the housesitter who did an excellent job tending to the cats and gecko... forgot about the plants. The herbs are all dead, the plant from ab3nd is dead, and two of the three berry bushes are more brown than green. There's still some green left, though, and I'd like to save them if I can. The thing is: I have no idea how. Basically all I know about plants is that they are evil and how photosynthesis works. Is it best to trim away the dead stuff? Do you pluck off dead leaves, or let them fall naturally? If I do trim away dead stuff, do I cut into the green, or above the green, or? Is there a book I should buy?

I'm mostly OK with gardening being a "try again next year" project but if I can keep these bushes alive I won't have to buy new ones next year and that would be a big plus. (And there are a couple of bushes in the front that I think might have been berry bushes and I jut didn't know!) Any help is appreciated.

[0] If you are not saying "Holy crap" right now, perhaps because you're a new friend, I have a serious phobia of plants. Super maladaptive, right? When I was three or four I would not walk on grass, even with shoes on, even with a blanket on the grass. When I was around twelve there was this bizarre incident where my parents wanted me to trim a weed and I was sufficiently scared of the weed that I chose to sit in my bedroom all day without food rather than touch it. Eventually, really confused, they relented and dealt with the weed themselves. This has always made me sad because my hippie-woo-foxy side is super into undergrowth and shade and forest and those places would feel comfortable if they didn't trigger the phobia. I've gotten much better about this over the years, a big chunk from dating people like Stephen and Cassandra who are serious plant people but also just from saying "Goddamnit I do not want to be terrified of plants" and working on it. I once spent an hour staring down a poinsettia and almost touching it. In retrospect this is utterly ridiculous; at the time it was totally serious.

Comments

[hebinekohime]

...Am I a horrible person for d'awwwing at that story?

I used to be terribly afraid of beeping things (like smoke detectors) and loud electronic sound effects. Gee, that couldn't possibly say anything about my interests now.

[jadia.livejournal.com]

It may be ironic that I'm giving you advice because I've managed to kill a spider plant which people assured me was unkillable, but:

Don't bother with trimming. Trimming is hard on plants. Mostly, if they are brown and wilted, the only thing you can try is give it water and see if that revives it. Most plants need to be watered once a day or two. If it starts looking yellowish on the edges without looking wilty, you may have over-watered it. Wilty plants want more water. Brown plants may be past saving.

So, anyway, try watering it today and see if they perk up by tomorrow.

[kelkyag]

For now, water. For many shrubby things, pruning in the late winter/early spring is best, but it varies by plant, and large chunks that are definitely dead (which I would not make a call on until I'd given them plenty of water and a chance to recover) may want to go sooner. My default for that sort of pruning would be to remove dead sections a little above the part that's still green.

Yay, gardening! I'm proud of you. :)

[eredien]

Just try and water them. The berry plants especially will need a few rounds of soaking; as in saturate the earth and come back again 15 m later to do that 3 or 4 times. The smaller plants will also need to start with a soaking, especially the willow tree which is a waterloving plant anyway. If you do want to trim them later use the clippers in the garage. If you did not get my earlier set of instructions to you and the person who was supposed to water the plants, I can send it again. I would say daily watering for now though. You'll be able to tell when they perk up again. You will want to throw out the dead herbs and ab3nd's plant as otherwise they will rot and attract bugs.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Actually it would be awesome if you resent it; I'm at inbox 7544 and I have no idea which things I filed and didn't.

I've already watered everything once but I'll water the berry bushes a couple more times, thanks.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

When you water, water slowly. I think you've had pretty hot droughty conditions, yes? Putting the hose on, on a tiny trickle, and leaving it for a couple hours will allow the water to seep in slowly and really spread through the soil around the plant's roots. It helps a bit to heap up a shallow ridge of earth about 12" from the stem, in a circle, to keep the water from just spreading away, as it comes out of the hose. Move hose and repeat for each plant you want to water.

The other way to do this is to have a big bucket, like 5 gallons (Home Depot sells them for tools and Stuff), that you punch a very small hole in at the bottom, which you place next to the plant, fill rapidly with water, and leave to seep. This way you don't need to remember to turn the hose off too!

Potted plants suffer drought more than in-ground ones (with the exception of geraniums/pelargoniums); berry plants are pretty tough and if you nurse them a little now (no fertilizer, just water, and spray off with the hose on high pressure any aphids that start in on them) you'll probably find they overwinter OK.

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

My general rule is probably bad, but it works like this: If I stick my finger in the soil and it feels moist, I don't water, but if it feels dry, I do. The rate at which a plant will dry up the earth around it relates to the mobility of water in the earth and the size of the plant, so my big houseplants (relative to their pot) require watering more often.

Overwatering will cause roots to rot, and possible mildew on the surface of the soil. This is hard to do outdoors, as the drainage area is huge, but easy to do in pots.

The dead herbs may be able to be cut off and dried, so you may yet get some use out of them.

[sovay]

Today I mowed the lawn --- all of it, which took maybe an hour and a half --- and tended to some plants in the back.

Mazel tov!

[(Anonymous)]

As above, water is key here. Trim only if entire segments are clearly dead and gone, but water is the solution to brown.

If there is ANY green at all on the plant, it has live cells which will pull the water in and begin regenerating. Within a week or two of watering them good and deep every two days you should see new sprouting going on. Anything that hasn't responded within two weeks can be culled.

[rustycoon.livejournal.com]

errr, that was me.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Do give the things that look dead a couple of days of watering before you toss them. Sometimes things that look dead can come back when all hope seemed lost.

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

This is true of the plant I gave you. I have one that got too dry, dropped all its leaves, and then grew back from the roots when I started watering it again. They're not as hardy as spider plants (or succulents), but they can be pretty durable.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Good for you for facing the plants! If you have such an icon, it should feature bravery.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

If the herbs are in pots, and the stems still seem flexible, they may be recoverable.

So, try putting them in a shallow basin of water (like, a roasting pan) and letting them sit for a while to take up water. You might need to weight them a little if they want to float. The soil will take in some water---slowly---so leave overnight, say, and then set them out of the sun for a few days. You may see signs of green budding on the stems. If so, don't saturate them, but keep them from drying out again. Don't be surprised if the stems die back from the tips, but there may be new growth toward the bottom.

[cshiley.livejournal.com]

If you want to tell if something is dead you can kind of scratch at the stem. If you get dampness and green, instead of crispy stick, it can be saved, although it might not be worth it. Do this if you're about to throw it for being dead, or do it on branches but branches may have died where the plant is still alive.

aka "stab it and see if it bleeds"...

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

I once spent an hour staring down a poinsettia and almost touching it.

I don't mean to belittle a harrowing experience, but that is adorable. May I draw a picture of that in a few months?

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of Lutris and my experience with Monkshood. I really wish I hadn't killed that plant, as it never got a fair shot at killing me.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Sure, that's fine with me. :)

[lhexa.livejournal.com]

I'm going to back out of the offer; what I pictured requires more skill than I have.

[lutris.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that so much died, you've my sympathies. I've been trying to keep some pansies alive in our apartment, so far my success rate is about 2.5/6. One's doing wonderfully, a couple are somewhat reduced but still doing moderately well. The trick for them seem to be to water them until I'm sure I've watered them too much and then keep going.

Hopefully they'll survive me being away for a week. I lost one a weekend when my roommate didn't water them as she said she would, but since then I've learned that sousing them before going away can manage a weekend. Ten days away will be more than that can handle, though.

I would like to get some low-light plants to keep. These make the room smell delightful, but they are rather limited to the bright windows or they get rather sad rather fast. Some small conifers for my room and a rose for the hallway would be nice; conifer groves feel wonderfully peaceful to me, and roses remind me of my grandmother's home.

[annag.livejournal.com]

Gah. I wrote a long comment that lj ate. Oops.

Anyhow. Good for you, attacking your fears and facing the challenges of gardening!

I sometimes say that I like plants especially, because when (not if) they die, I'm the only one to cry (in my experience, anyhow).

The worst was when I'd nursed a macho fern from infancy (brought back from Hawaii by jsd my (first) frosh year) to more than a foot across, at which point it was extending rooted shoots (to make more ferns), which I tried to plant and take back with me to MA, but the trip was too much. The mommy plant I foolishly placed in the care of a non-plant-type housemate, who quickly neglected it.

The most sudden was when I discovered overnight that pitcher plants do not, in fact, deal well with open windows in winter. ;_;

Anyhow, good luck with the plant care and revival. :D
And, don't plant blackberries: they'll eat you alive. :(

(this comment brought to you by smiley-faces! :P )

[annag.livejournal.com]

Oh and. You should totally get an icon based on some Edward Gorey drawing of a plant. Possibly eating someone.

Zombie

[mzsylver.livejournal.com]

Just give them water. Keep watering them. Plants are hard core.

My one month roommate couldn't figure out how to feed my Aerogarden when I was gone for a month and I returned to all dead plants but a Basil. I removed all but Basil, Mint, and Parsley. After watering, two months later the dead Mint & Parsley have come back to life... Zombies?

I vote for you just watering them & hoping! Let us know!

[slashaddict.livejournal.com]

A slightly old entry, but do you have an aquarium? If so, I have a ton of aquatic plants and could certainly send some cuttings to you for propagation~ :D

[rax.livejournal.com]

I have a terrarium (leopard gecko), but no aquarium. I have been vaguely considering it but I have not been able to put enough time into the lifeforms I nurture as it is, so it's unlikely. :) But thank you!