air date: May 3, 2025
Glowing, glowing, gone? Find out why summer’s beloved fireflies are on the wane and how we can help with Ben Pfeiffer of Firefly Conservation and Research. A rental house gardener charms up a small yard with plants, art, and creative ideas with curbside discards. Carder Nastri from Fireproof Plants shows how to propagate and graft succulents.
Even though his mom’s a supreme gardener, Cyrano Carroll wasn’t keen on digging in until a chance opportunity changed his life. Quickly, he discovered an artistic landscape design eye. Starting with a few of his mom’s pass-a-longs, he turned an eyesore rental house yard into a fascinating destination of tropical and native plants, herbs, and small ponds from repurposed basins.
Glowing, glowing, gone? Find out why summer’s beloved fireflies are on the wane and how we can help with Ben Pfeiffer of Firefly Conservation and Research.
Overgrown Agave: How Cut Off?
This is a great time to divide agaves. Gineen Cooper has a question about her foxtail agave that she brings inside during winter. It’s grown into a C shape and hangs out of the pot. It also has a bunch of baby agaves–called offsets or pups. She’d like to cut off the enormous top and repot.
We reached out to Carder Nastri from Fireproof Plants, who told us that the foxtail agaves tend to form kind of a long trunk. Just cut the head off right at the base of the rosette, then root the decapitated head, after allowing the cut surface plenty of time to heal and callus over. The remaining stump will also sprout new life in time, and a couple of new heads. Be sure to use perlite or pumice as the rooting media, to ensure good drainage, and to keep the succulent stem from rotting.
One of the best things about gardening is watching the cycle of life unfold right in your backyard. So we were thrilled when Heather Sommer, from Galveston, sent us her video of monarch butterflies. While visiting her in-laws in Houston last fall, she noticed that they had every stage of the monarch butterfly process going on in their yard. She grabbed her phone and made a video for the kids she works with as a speech language pathologist. We edited together short sections from her video, but you can see the whole thing on her YouTube channel, Ms. Heather Rainbow Speechie! All her videos are terrific for kids and the whole family, too!
Carder Nastri from Fireproof Plants shows how to propagate and graft succulents.