A Follow Up to Yesterday's Post and Repotting a Friend's Wandering Jew

I thought I would follow-up yesterday's post with this picture of the paperwhites after I removed them from the soil.

As I wrote yesterday, my plan is to store these over the coming months in a mesh bag, tucked away in a closet.  Hopefully, they will go dormant and in the fall I can replant and get another year out of them.  I have read online that you can get two to three years growth from these bulbs.  I have never been able to do that, but we are going to see what happens.  There were a couple of bulbs that did not develop root systems, so I just tossed those because if they did not develop last year, they most certainly will not develop this year.

In addition to the work with the bulbs, I have a friend who gave me this lovely little Wandering Jew plant and told me she did not know what to do with it.  It looked a little unhappy, so I spent some time with it and I think it is on the mend.  Take a look.

There are several species of these plants and this one is Tradescantia zebrina.  I thought the first thing we needed to do was to get it out of this pot.

I found this cute little white ceramic pot on a wooden stand.  This was so cute I would have bought it whether I had a plant to put in it or not.  The wooden stand is attached to the pot, so there is no need to worry about the two getting separated or the pot being knocked off the stand.

I always keep a container of these little white river pebbles around in case I get a project like this.  I used to keep a bag of pea gravel in the shed at Crest Avenue, but I no longer have a shed, so you improvise.

I added a couple hands of the river pebbles to the bottom of the pot.

Then, my old standby, Miracle Gro Indoor Potting Mix.  I have very good luck with this potting soil.  I'm not saying there aren't other very good mixes out there, but I stay with this because it works every time.

A little potting soil in the bottom of the pot.

Then, in with the Wandering Jew.  You see in the picture above that not only is this the cutest little pot in the world, but the wooden stand lifts it up so that whatever you plant in it, especially something vining, has room to grow and cascade over the side of the pot.  Very nice.

Here is my friends lovely Wandering Jew, repotted, and looking quite healthy.  I think the main problem was that it was not getting enough light.  They like bright, indirect light.  Also, be sure not to over-water.  It is a bit of a balancing act with these plants and the watering routine.  Let the soil dry out on top and then water liberally, but make sure the pot has good drainage.  This particular pot has no drainage hole on the bottom, hence the river pebbles in the beginning of this project.  Oh, I also added a Jobe's Fertilizer spikes to the soil. 

I use these in all of my houseplants and they do a very good job of slowly releasing the fertilizer into the soil over several months.  For most of my plants I add a new spike about every three months.  They are easy and simple to use; no mess; and you just make a reminder in your task list to add a new spike at a set interval.  Couldn't be easier.

We will check in on this in a few weeks and see how things are looking for our repotted Wandering Jew.  Who knows, my friend may not get it back!!!!

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