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Top 3 poisonous plants during the holidays for pets

Cats and dogs’ adventurous tastes can prove especially worrisome around the holidays when you add Christmas decorations to your home. Mistletoe, holly, and Christmas trees (both real and fake) can all send your four-legged friends to the vet for an expensive visit.

Poinsettias — a common fear among pet owners — actually prove less toxic than many other potted plants you’ll find this time of year.

Here’s what you need to keep an eye on

Mistletoe: Just one bite has the potential to make cats and dogs sick — usually in the form of vomiting followed by lethargy. If you decide to have this traditional plant inside the home, make sure it’s hanging or placed high away from your pets.

Holly: can cause an issue two different ways, First, if it has the little points on it, that can be very mechanically irritating to the stomach and cause vomiting. But the holly also does contain compounds called saponins, which are soap-like and cause severe stomach irritation.”The combination can lead to blood in the vomit — a sure sign your dog or cat needs professional medical care.

Amaryllis: The pretty blooms and tall slender stalks won’t send your pet to the hospital, but the bulbs will. Toxins in the parts below the dirt can cause vomiting with or without blood and potentially low blood pressure — necessitating a trip to the vet. While mild stomach upset is possible, you can rest easier if your pet just took a bite out of the flowers or leaves.

If your pet ingests a toxic plant after hours when your veterinary clinic is closed, or if you’re very far from an emergency veterinary hospital, you can call an animal poison control center. Two animal poison hotlines are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week: the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435 (consultation fee applies) and the Pet Poison Helpline at 855-764-7661 ($59 consultation fee applies).

Tillandsia Tectorums Air Plant

Tillandsia Tectorums are some of the most unique air plants within the species of air plants. They are known for their beautiful snowball appearance and exaggerated white look. Tectorum have a soft, fuzzy feel to them and are very lightweight.

Tectorum are amazingly drought resistant and can withstand more direct sunlight than even the most xeric plants, including Xerographica. These can get fairly large, we have had them the size of softballs before. If you follow care instructions carefully, you will find that your Tectorum will produce pups at their base and provide more for you to enjoy.

Tectorum plant care: It needs less water than most air plants. When watering your Tectorum, only dunk the plant in water a few times once a week or so. They do not need to be submerged, but if you do submerge them, only put them in water for a quarter the amount of time as the rest of your Tillandsia. Tillandsia Tectorum needs a lot of light to survive since the trichomes on top of the leaves reflect most of it. During summers, make sure to keep it under bright, indirect light as direct sunlight can damage the leaves. During the winter, this plant can be exposed to direct sunlight without any consequences.

Propagating Christmas Cactus

Did you also know that the Christmas Cactus really isn’t a cactus at all? It’s really a type of succulent. But, it’s not an ordinary succulent that you find growing in sandy soil in hot climates.Christmas Cactus is a relative native to the rainforest of Brazil. And it originally grew in the moss near the tops of the trees in the rainforests of Brazil. As you could imagine, it thrives in humid conditions.

What Is “Propagate”?

Propagating is simply a way to make new plants from an existing plant. There are many different methods for propagating plants. Fortunately, Christmas Cactus happen to be one of the easiest plants to propagate.

Easy steps to propagate your cacti:

Select Cuttings.

Take cuttings that are 2-6 leaf segments or leaves. These segments can be cut or twisted off. To twist off the segments, hold onto the plant segment and then twist the section you want to remove. Again, be sure to select a segment that is 2-6 leaves long. You’ll want one to four cuttings for each pot you plan to grow.

Let Heal.

Once you have cut or removed your cuttings by twisting them off the mother plant, you want to simply lay them some place out of sunlight to let the cutting heal over for a day or two.

Root In Water.

Fill an empty glass jar with about two inches of pebbles or stones. Add enough water that it covers the stones. Then place the cuttings in the jar, with just the very bottom of them touching the water. You’ll still have quite a bit of the cutting in the jar, but only the bottom portion should be in the water.

Place the jar with the cuttings in a window so that it gets indirect sunlight. You should see roots growing in about 1-3 weeks. In the meantime, keep an eye on the water level in the jar and add more water as needed. You want to be sure to keep the cutting watered.

Ready To Transplant.

I like to wait until the roots are maybe ¼ – ½” long before planting. Once you have roots, select a small flower pot (Christmas Cactus like to be crowded). Fill the bottom of the pot with pebbles for drainage and then fill with a potting soil mix for succulents. Plant each cutting about 1” deep in soil and water.And you’ll probably want to repot your Christmas Cactus every 2-3 years, just to give it a little more room to grow.

You can propagate your Christmas Cactus in early Spring, or if you have a large plant that you want to split and repot into two pots then you can do this any time.

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LIGHT BULB TERRARIUM

Give a lush look to the interiors of your den with these comprehensive light bulb terrarium how-tos. The eco-friendly projects contribute towards purifying the ambient air owing to the self-sufficient closed ecosystem.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR LIGHT BULB TERRARIUM

What you’ll need

1 lightbulb
1 pair of long tweezers
2 tablespoons of sand
A small handful of preserved moss
A small handful of reindeer moss
A tillandsia (air plant) or Venus fly traps, Pitcher plants, Sundew plants.
Small rocks or coloured glass stones

WHAT TO DO

If you really want to make your light bulb terrarium from scratch, you can simply use an old light bulb and clear it out by yourself. But when we say that this will probably involve shards of broken glass and you’ll need to wear protective glasses, you might prefer to take the easy option and buy an ornamental bulb that’s already been prepped.

1. Put two tablespoons of sand into the light bulb. You can buy this from a garden centre. If you’re taking it directly from the beach, be sure to dry it thoroughly first.

2. Place the preserved moss into the bulb and distribute over the sand with the tweezers.

3. Repeat with the reindeer moss.

4. Place your tillandsia or carnivorous plant inside the bulb.

5. Arrange the rocks or glass pebbles around the plant.

To keep your terrarium in tip-top condition, spritz once a week with a water spray.

TIP FOR KIDS: Terrariums are great little miniature gardens children can enjoy. Make them even more fun by adding a tiny tiny toy animal.