What is Tissue Culture? Keeping your Moss Poles Wet

Learn from the Blossm Masters 🎓 🌱 Volume 1: How do you Keep Your Moss Poles Wet? 💦 

Each month, we’ll be asking the Blossm community for their input on a topic we’re curious about and handing out Blossm bucks for the best answers, as voted on by all of you!

This week’s topic: What’s the best method to keep those moss poles from drying out? Check out our submissions from our 3 finalists below:

We can’t wait either Mel!

Vote below. Winner gets $25 Blossm bucks. 💰🌱🙌

Blossm’r(s) of the Month - @ashleycassi

The season of giving has arrived and nobody has done it better than Ashley & Cassi (@ashleycassi) from Pot of Magic by Heirblooms. They have done so much in terms of sharing the love - inspiring several ‘giving’ themed LIVE shows on Blossm and setting the trend 💁‍♀️.

We’d love to take a second to share a little bit about this literal ✨Pot of Magic✨ human being who has shown themselves to be such a generous community member. Ashley owns a licensed Idaho nursery with her colleague named Cassi - the locals know them as Heirblooms.

Q: How did your plant journey begin?
Cassi and I started our plant journey by bonding over our Grandmother’s beloved houseplants. One plant in particular, not a houseplant but an outdoor beauty…the amazing Peony! We have fond memories of this plant from each of our childhoods and even got a matching Peony tattoo to act as a reminder of our friendship, childhood memories, and how plants can impact our lives. Simply put, our vision is to provide healthy, long living houseplants to our community and share the love we’ve formed for plants over time. After inheriting and sharing our Grandmothers houseplants, we had gained experience in plant care through trial and error and we had begun expanding our knowledge on more advanced species of plants and propagation methods. Locally, we have several big box stores where the majority of people purchase their houseplants, as they are the only option. We began to notice a need for a trusted local house plant retailer free of unhealthy, pest infested plants… something just clicked. We recently expanded our business to online platforms and it has been nothing short of fantastic! We love being a part of this community and are grateful for the support we have received. What a great Blossm community! Thank you for all of the support! We are so happy to contribute to a kind, loving, caring community.

Q: What brought you to Blossm?
The desire to sell our plants online. We got much more than just selling plants online, we found a community!

Q: Whats your favorite plant?
Ah, there is too many. That's a really hard question... Our heirloom plant would be the (Oxalis Triangularis) Purple Shamrock. Currently, I'm diggin the Syng. Chiapense Variegated, rare scindapsus', Florida Beauty, Gabby, Var Alocasica and the list goes on…

Follow Ashley, Pot of Magic by Heirblooms on Blossm!

Pet-Friendly Plants: Safe and Stylin’ Options for Animal Lovers

As pet owners, we cherish the companionship and joy our furry friends bring into our lives. When we com it's crucial to ensure that the plants we choose are safe for our beloved pets. Fortunately, there is a wide variety of pet-friendly plants that not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of our living spaces but also provide a safe environment for our four-legged companions to roam freely.

Here are some of our favorite pet-friendly plants:

Calathea, Parlor Palm, Spider Plant, Hoya Pubicalyx Splash

Additional Tips for Pet-Safe Plant Care

🕵🏼‍♂️ Research Before You Buy: Before bringing a new plant into your home, research its toxicity levels and ensure it is safe for your pets.
🐶 Monitor Your Pets: Keep an eye on your pets' behavior around plants and discourage any chewing or nibbling.
🧸 Provide Alternative Toys: Offer your pets safe and engaging toys to deter them from exploring your plants.
🔝 Elevate Plants Out of Reach: Place plants on high shelves or hanging baskets to prevent pets from accessing them.
🔎 Regularly Inspect Plants: Check your plants regularly for signs of damage or wilting, and promptly remove any fallen leaves or debris.

Blossm Spring Live Sale 🌱🎥

The sale is upon us, and trust us — it’s been a blast. 🚀

If you haven’t joined a LIVE show yet, there’s never been a better time to try it out. Tune in now and:

• Get $10 off your first purchase in a LIVE show

• Earn $10 in referral credit when you refer a plant friend and they make their 1st purchase

• Claim your Free Pest Guide

• Hang with some of your favorite Blossmr’s (both old and new!) for hours of sales, plant care tips, and fun

What is Tissue Culture? A Kleenex Community? 🤧 😂

by @happyplant

With @nativetransplants live tissue culture sale a few weeks ago and @exoticaroids Noobs and Test Tubes live happening tomorrow, people have been asking: how did these little 🦐 plantlets 🦐 come to be?

Tissue culture (micropropagation) revolutionized plant propagation by allowing the rapid multiplication of plants under highly controlled conditions. This method involves growing plant cells, tissues, or organs in a nutrient-rich medium, leading to the production of genetically identical clones. This is typically done in a lab environment due to sterility requirements. Here's a quick overview of the process:

🧗🏿‍♂️🌱 Initiation: Surface-sterilized plant tissues are placed onto a nutrient medium (murashige skoog and agar agar) in a sterilized container to initiate growth.

✖🌱 Multiplication: Cells divide rapidly in this medium, forming callous tissue or shoot primordia (which then can be subcultured for further growth). Basically mini plant forms.

√🌱 Rooting: Shoots may be induced to form roots, and plantlets are transferred from jars to typical substrates for acclimatization.

🧐 Challenges: Maintaining sterile conditions, optimizing culture media, and addressing genetic stability are key challenges.

Curious about buying tissue culture (TC), but not sure where to start, or even whether you should?

We feel you! On the one hand, they’re typically much cheaper than a mature plant, especially if you purchase them in jars. On the other, it will be up to you to acclimate the tissue culture plant, i.e. remove it from the jar and pot it up, etc., once you receive it.

We’ve created a list of pros and cons to help you on your journey. 💪

Tissue Culture Pros:

🧼 They are 100% sterile, free of pests and pesticides
➕ They typically come with a lot more plants
🪷 Easy to prepare for acclimation

Tissue Culture Cons:

🛁 Since they are so clean, they’ll take awhile to acclimate
⌛ They’re so tiny, they will take awhile to get to the size of plant you’re used to
🤢 They don’t last forever and will spoil if left in the jar (buy them ‘fresh’)

Here are some pointers if you plan to pursue purchasing.

⏰ Wait 24 hours before removing the plants from the jar once you receive them. The exception to this rule is if the jar is cracked - in which case take them out right away.

❌ Remove all tissue culture media (the jelly) from plants to avoid fungi problems.

💦 Once plants have been removed from the jars, keep them at 100% humidity for a week or so.

🪨 The best substrate for new tissue cultured plants is a 50-50 mix of fluval stratum and perlite. You can use moss too, just make sure you are feeding the plantlets with either fish fertilizer or a non-urea based nitrogen fertilizer.

☘️ Around four weeks in, we usually remove the humidity dome and repot them in soil at around 6-8 weeks.

Are you a TC Pro? If so, we’d love to have you hold an educational live show on the topic. Let us know in the comments or reach out! 🤓 💚