Make growing houseplants a lesson in science for school kids stuck at home
As the days become shorter, our need for living plants becomes greater. This week we continue our match making of houseplants with personalities and encourage more late fall bulb planting as we look forward to a beautiful blooming spring.
Q. Last year I planted 5-gallon plastic pots with three layers of bulbs using daffodils, hyacinths and tulips in each container. It was a glorious spring as the bulbs took turns popping up from the layers of soil and giving me months of spring color. My question is will these bulbs bloom again despite being packed in so tightly and left in the pots all summer? It is such a big job to replant the pots with fresh potting soil and new bulbs but I still want a repeat of that spring color. — J.T.T., Tacoma
A. I cannot promise you a blooming encore of your container garden, but I do suspect that at least some of those bulbs will flower again this spring if they were treated well. When if comes to spring flowering bulbs, the foliage needs to be allowed to turn yellow then brown and ripen slowly after they bloom. Then the bulbs like dry soil all summer as they sit dormant.
If you left your potted bulbs out in the rain all spring after they flowered then moved them under the eaves or to a dry spot during the summer months, they should sprout and bloom again this spring without replanting — or at least some of them will. It depends on how close together the bulbs were packed and how fertile and well drained your potting soil.
I suggest you add mini daffodil bulbs and some crocus corms to your old pots and cover with a few inches of fresh potting soil. This way you will get some early blooms even if last year’s bulbs throw in the trowel and decide not to delight you. In our climate, tulips return less often than the more dependable dwarf daffodils and crocus and the more adaptable hyacinths.
Houseplants for home schoolers
Kids learning from home need to get their hands off their computers and into the soil, so growing indoor plants that provide an activity can count as science as well as playtime.
SPIDER PLANTS (Chlorophytum comosum): They are adaptable and perfect for beginning gardeners. They are also called airplane plants because the spiky center sends out aerial shoots with flowers that then turn into baby plants that hang from the mother like small airplanes. The narrow leaves that form from the new baby plants spread out like spider legs.
Kids can snip the umbilical cord that connects the new spiders or baby plants from the mother and then pot up the new plants in small pots. Now you have plant propagation, botany class (look up that Latin name and what it means) and some new plants for your students to give away as gifts.
Growing Tip: The spider plant likes to be potbound and is more likely to send out new shoots when the roots are crowded and when the days grow longer. This houseplant also adapts to cooler house temperatures. It likes to hang near a bright window so teach a lesson in making macrame hangers and you’ll add arts and crafts to your home school curriculum.
Science lesson: Is your drinking water chemical free? Water two identical spider plants, one with tap water and one with distilled water. You may find that the spider plant given tap water develops brown leaf tips over time. This plant is sensitive to salts and other minerals in the water.
AFRICAN VIOLET: Another easy-to-find and easy-to-grow houseplant that can be used to teach plant propagation. African violets now come in super tiny miniature forms so they can fit on even the most crowded home school desk top. This blooming plant will thrive with fluorescent light so you don’t even need a window.
Growing Tip: Do not let water set on the hairy leaves of this plant as it will leave spots. This tropical plant likes constantly moist soil but good drainage.
Science lesson: Learn how to make new plants from just a single leaf removed from the mother plant. Students can research the different ways to take an African violet leaf cutting online. Another project is to encourage an African violet to rebloom by watering it with egg water. Just use the water from boiling eggs to water a plant that is no longer flowering and watch the new buds form. (Cool the egg water first.) Why does this work? Calcium leaches into the water from the egg shells and African violets need calcium to flower.
Reach gardening guru Marianne Binetti through her website at binettigarden.com or write to her at P.O. Box 872, Enumclaw WA 98022.