My son and I do minimal gift-giving at Christmas. I give almost exclusively edible treats and vitamins. Chris usually comes up with something simple but wonderfully thoughtful, like a box of LED light bulbs to replace old bulbs in all my fixtures.
This past Christmas was no different. He brought a package of two saws — long, narrow saws designed for making precision drywall cuts. They also cut wood. Chris had remembered from a previous visit the difficulty we had pruning away cleanly stems and branches located in tight places where regular pruning saws don’t fit.
These saws cut on the pulling motion, as all my favourite saws do. I find this way of cutting most efficient and easy. I’ve already found my Christmas saws useful in thinning out some of the crowded base growth on a viburnum and some of the hydrangeas.
House plants. The other gift Chris brought was a big box of house plants taken from his collection of around 160 plants that fill his tiny studio apartment. He’s begun to thin them out and was thrilled to know I was back into house plants after taking a lengthy break from caring for them.
The box held some old familiar plants, and some mysteries. Some Chris had bought and propagated. Others were grown from pieces taken from friends’ unidentified plants.
* Monstera deliciosa, also known as Swiss cheese plant and split-leaf philodendron, is a familiar house plant with tall stems bearing large, deeply cut leaves. Since its arrival in my house, the plant has produced a new shoot from the soil.
*Syngonium, commonly known as arrowhead vine, or “goosefoot.” My plants are very young still, but the bright, light green, slightly quilted and sharply pointed leaves are attractive. Many varieties are available, some with different types of white or yellow variegation.
* Neon pothos has heart-shaped leaves in a brilliant yellow-green. Chris has many pothos plants, which are all easy-growing trailing house plants. I like them as well, and had acquired two — Marble Queen and an unnamed golden-streaked one — for my first collection, arranged at the living room window. Christopher’s plants are at the dining room window.
* Silver pothos. Neither of us knew what this one was. I examined page after internet page of likely foliage plants until I found it — satin pothos (silver pothos, Scindapsus pictus). The dark green leaves have an elegant silvery cast that sets this pothos quite apart.
* Brasil philodendron, another unknown. Further internet searching brought up an image of the same heart-shaped, dark green, glossy leaves, each with a distinctive yellow streak down the centre. This plant is a trailing heart-leaf philodendron, another easy grower.
All the plants are tropicals that thrive in bright indirect light and average indoor warmth. Chris waters his huge plant collection from a large water tank with attached pump and a long, slim hose with a trigger end. I’ve made the care of my new house plants easy with windowsill trays that I found in the catalogue from Veseys Seeds.
The trays are green, 76 cm long and 17 cm wide. I set the plants in them, and pour small amounts of warmish water into the trays once every week, when I also lift each pot to see whether it needs watering from the soil top.
Some plant labels indicate that the soil should be allowed to dry slightly between waterings. To allow for this slight drying, I set the pots on overturned saucers or plastic jar lids.
Watercolour courses. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is offering the following courses with wildlife artist Richard Wong. For details and online registration go to hcp.ca/events to find a calendar. The site’s home page also lists courses. For safety regulations during the pandemic, type “Horticulture Centre of the Pacific + COVID rules” into a search engine. Register online or by phone: 250-479-6162.
* Year of the Ox, Sunday, Jan. 31, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Cost $55. Celebrate the Chinese New Year with learning to create animals using waercolour on Japanese art paper. Open to all levels. Beginners are encouraged. Masks are required.
* Nuthatch, Thursday, Feb. 4, 6 to 8 p.m. Online via Zoom. Cost $20 per screen. An introduction to watercolour for adults and families with children.
