I am soooo excited to be sharing these new plants with you! Overnight of launching the project, I have received almost 40 requests for plant kits. Originally, I was planning on giving 5 plants for each kit, thinking I would be able to give about 10 kits every two months, but now it seems I am running out of resources very fast!! W.O.W!

I am in awe at the potential lives these plants can touch. The positive messages from the plant kits receivers have been great motivation! It makes all the late nights transplanting and packaging these babies so worth it. There is an amazing plant community where I live (Madison Wisconsin Free Plants and Seeds FB Group). I put out a call for plant baby donations, and I have already received almost 80 younglings that I can nurse and pot, and eventually adopt away.

If you have received a PZT kit, here are some tips on how to keep them alive for the next few weeks*:

1. Aloe Vera – the landlord vampire
   • Light: Aloe is a vampire, it burns easily at contact with direct sunlight. Put aloe in any bright room but away from South or East facing windows would be great. Aloe can also tolerate fluorescent/artificial lighting of an office.
   • Water: The best thing to do to an aloe is to neglect it. I only water my aloe once a month when rent is due. A handful of shots per month should be sufficient. Sometimes if the air is too dry (especially when the heater is running in the winter), you may want to water a little more.
   • Soil/pot: when your aloe seems to outgrow its current pot, probably not until May, use a cactus soil mix.
2. Spider – the boogie Frenchman
   • Light: Spider likes bright light and can tolerate 3-4hours of morning direct light through a window, but it will also be okay in a bright room with only filtered light. Spider likes it a bit colder too – so you can definitely have it on the window sill in the winter.
   • Water: spider is a boogie Frenchman when it comes to the kind of water it drinks! Voss or Fiji at a minimum! Or use distilled or fresh rain/snow water. Watering about 3-4 times a month, 2 oz each should do the trick. Get on a schedule so you don’t forget. Every Friday night, you get a glass of wine, your spiders get water!
   • Soil/pot: regular potting mix is fine for spider. They can tolerate any kind of soil as long as it drains well and is not too dense. Spiders do not like to sit in water…
   • Fun Fact: The spider plants shoot out long “whiskers” and then form new baby plants at the end of those whiskers. Many people call those spider pups. You can just wait for those to develop, cut them off and you have another spider plant!
3. Jade – the sun-loving cat
   • Light: Jade loves full sun, just like how your cat likes to curl up in the sunny spot. Give your jade as much light as you can. Supplement with light bulbs if you do not have enough light.
   • Water: Water your jade when the top of the soil feels dry. So every day you wake up, just go pet your jade and touch the soil. If it feels dry to the touch, give it a couple of oz.
   • Soil: Jade is pretty tolerant to its soil of residence. If the conditions are right, however, your tiny jade plant can grow into a big 7ft tree (in many years).
   • Fun Fact: If a leaf falls off the plant, you can just stick it into some relatively dry dirt, leave it alone, and it will grow another plant! WILD!
4. Tradescantia Family (either T. Zebrina or Purple Heart) – The stripy crawler
   • Light: These love sun when they are indoors. If you take them outside in the summer, they should be shielded from the high afternoon sun. Sunlight is what gives these plants their colors and stripes (called variegation). They can also grow in a lower light condition; they will just revert back to … solid green. BBOOOOOOOORRRRIIIIIINNNNGGG!
   • Water: These are semi-succulent. Let them dry a little in between watering. You can probably get away with watering them on the same schedule as the aloe, but they will need a little supplement of water every now and then.
   • Soil/Pot: Since these plants grow more like vines and trails, most indoor planties grow these in a hanging basket or on a high shelf and let the plants trail down. Fun fact: Once the plant grows big enough, you can cut the top 8” and stick it back into the pot to grow another plant and fill the pot. But don’t worry it about that now. It will just need to survive through the winter. 🙂
   • Fun Fact: Honestly I am rather obsessed with this family of plants. They come in so many different varieties and cultivars with many possible colors. Some with lilac and pink stripes, some with neon green stripes, some even have ALL of the colors (called the rainbow tradescantia).
5. Pothos or Philodendron – the fish bowl plant
   • Light: These can tolerate regular house lighting condition but would enjoy very bright indirect light (Think a room with 3 windows and all white walls and white furniture). Avoid letting the sun hit the leaves for more than 2 hours. They can burn. The perfect lighting conditions will bring out the best colors of the leaves.
   • Water: Keep the soil moist by watering when the top inch of soil is dry. If you have a fish tank/fish bowl, you can just stick the plants in the fish bowl and they will be most happy there. 🙂
   • Soil/Pot: They like moist, fluffy soil, like a good birthday cake! These are also trailing like the Tradescantia Family.
   • Fun Fact: Pothos and Philos are two different plants. Many people get them confused, and many people have spent their lifetime of wisdom describing their difference. Some of the rarer philos are quite expensive and highly sought after, but I don’t have any of those to show you… 🙁
6. Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter/Holiday Cactus
   • This plant is easy to keep alive but a bit more difficult to help bloom. So I’m just gonna leave a Youtube video here if you are interested in all the gory details.
7. Succulents – The step child
   • To be honest with you, succulents are just not my thing. 🙁 I have a couple of them, and they’re cute, but I like big leafy plants with colors and flowers.
   • Apparently the best way to water succulents is to give them a flash flooding thunderstorm and then a drought, and repeat. Do not let them sit in water. That means, you should put the succulent pot in your sink and water through, wait for the water to stop dripping, then put it back on the saucer.

If you are new to plants, please feel free to reach out for a free plant kit. I will try my best to get them to you as soon as the plants are ready.

Until next time, keep planting, friends! 🙂

*I am no way an expert at plants. Most of the materials here are gathered through experience and internet knowledge, some are specific to the climate here in Southern Wisconsin (hardiness zone 5a).