{"id":36266,"date":"2012-12-29T23:49:58","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T03:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=36266"},"modified":"2012-12-29T23:49:58","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T03:49:58","slug":"starting-over-with-kalanchoe-pink-butterflies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=36266","title":{"rendered":"starting over with Kalanchoe &#8216;Pink Butterflies&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><big>Its lifespan as fleeting and evanescent as a butterfly&#8217;s, the mother plant&#8217;s single stalk ultimately elongated to over 4 feet tall, bloomed, and dropped all but the topmost leaves.  All in less than two years&#8217; time.  Seen <a href=\"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=18519\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a> in better days.  <\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/dec2012\/P1015392.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photobucket\"><\/a><br \/>\n<\/center><br \/>\nOne of the parents of this hybrid is excessively weedy, known by the cautionary name &#8216;Mother of Thousands,&#8217; but true to &#8216;Pink Butterflies&#8217; reputation it absolutely was not weedy.  Quite the opposite.  The kalanchoe shed the ruffly plantlets along the leaf margins seen in photos in the older <a href=\"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=18519\"><strong>post<\/strong><\/a>, but they did not take root in the potting soil, even though they covered the top of the container like mulch.  I waited to see if the tall, leafless main stem would grow new leaves, but it didn&#8217;t.  Tempted though I was to just toss it on the compost pile by this point, I instead chopped the long stalk into 2 to 3 inch pieces at leaf nodes, rooted them in sand, and after a hit-and-miss summer watering regimen now have just two cuttings slowly making size again.<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/dec2012\/122912aft.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Photobucket\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m wondering how others have fared with this remarkable kalanchoe, but haven&#8217;t come across much information on its growth habits so far.  I never expected it to behave like an annual and am frankly underwhelmed by its gangly performance.  Should it be pinched back?  Hopefully, more cultural reports will be coming in on this fairly new hybrid.<\/p>\n<p>The agave on the table with the never-camera-shy Evie is &#8216;Kissho Kan.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Its lifespan as fleeting and evanescent as a butterfly&#8217;s, the mother plant&#8217;s single stalk ultimately elongated to over 4 feet tall, bloomed, and dropped all but the topmost leaves. All in less than two years&#8217; time. Seen here in better &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=36266\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[28,36,27],"tags":[65,250,1196],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-9qW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36266"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36319,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36266\/revisions\/36319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}