Gardener's Watch

Claude Has Flowered

2026-02-11T00:21:00.001-06:00

It's been over eight years since I started growing cacao trees again. My first attempt in 2014 wasn't so good, probably because I didn't have as much information on exactly what a cacao tree wanted for good growing conditions.

Claude has gone though several pot and dirt changes and additions over they years. This little flower means he is getting the right light, water, and nutrients he wants to finally flower and one day fruit. I don't expect fruit for some time still. This is the first flower and he will probably need another flowering cacao tree to produce fruit. I say probably because the majority of cacao trees do not self pollinate even though they have both male and female portions to their flowers. There are some cacao trees that can pollinate themselves but it is much less common. Is Claude one of these? I have no idea.

Fortunately I have another cacao tree, Claudette. She's like Claude but smaller. I don't know if they are the same kind of cacao or not since I haven't seen either of them fruit yet. The leaves of course are so similar that it wouldn't help. I believe they were from the same purchase of pods but I got 4 different kinds of pods and planted almost all of the seeds. Even then the cross pollination will give variants even in the same pod so there's that.

Long story short is that the long story of growing my own chocolate is still a long way from being realized. This is only one of the many steps toward that goal.

If you look closely at the bud it almost looks like a cacao pod in miniature. If it had been pollinated and this was a pod in progress it would be in this shape and keep getting bigger. I was told that even when they are the size of a tennis ball they aren't considered fruit yet. They are still just baby cherelle. It isn't until the fruit is almost full size before you can really expect it to succeed. Before that it could still just fall right off.

The color and shape of the pod are unique to each tree. No two trees are exactly the same due to the cross pollination of trees to make more seeds and trees. Trees next to each other may make very different pods but both could be ripe. One might need to turn red while another is ripe at yellow. This is where a farmer really has to know his trees. The shape of the pods are also specific to the tree. Anywhere from a little bigger than a softball to bigger than a football. This is why the fruit grows on the trunk and not the branches as the weight would break off branches.

Harvesting fruit also has to be done by hand since you have to protect the pads where the fruit grows. If damaged it could stop flowering from that pad for good. There's another spot I'm watching that may produce flowers too but not sure yet. There's something going on there at least.

Claudette Coming Home

2026-02-03T06:31:00.005-06:00

Soon I will be working from home. I've been with my current company almost ten years but saw an opportunity that I really thought would be an interesting career change and applied, not really thinking they would hire me but if you never ask they can never tell you yes.

I'll be starting at the end of the month and this pretty little lady will need a place to live at the house. She's not super big still so I hope one of the corners will be suitable enough but the lighting might be an issue. Claude already has two grow lights and the basil plant near him is doing good so I think there is plenty of light there. The problem comes with space though. The basil plant is already sitting on a desk that needs to be clear for working. There is no way Claudette can live there and be functional.

She has a base for her pot though so location is a lot easier than Claude which has no base and instead sits on feet and drains to a mat if there is drainage out of the bottom of the pot. The mat is textured to absorb some of the water if it does and the bottom of the mat is rubber so it doesn't leak though to the carpet. A nice industrial type mat.

I also have another pot in the office (not shown here). So much to plant so little space in my home office. That pot might be going out into the greenhouse and have veggies or a small tree. It's a decent size pot. What do you think would be good to grow in an approximately 2 gallon pot?

Claudette Really Filling Out

2026-01-06T15:26:00.007-06:00

Claudette is filling out nicely. Soon she will be back to her old self and who knows how long it will be until she flowers. Will possibly be able to take her home at that point or maybe just move pollen from one tree to the next. Will just have to see how everything goes.

With the greenhouse in the yard now some of the more summery plants are now starting to pop back up. I think it's turmeric breaking ground again in several places. Not the one up front though. Although the day lily is still going strong. Will see how cold it has to get before it kills it back for the year. I remember even in Southeast Texas they would die back and come up in the spring.

Several other seeds have been planted in the green house to see what might sprout. I know they say you can start seeds in a green house but I've never been able to find out. At the house in Arlington the "green house" was more like a drafty covered porch.

I've got the study pretty well cleaned up and Claude is loving the new light setup. I have the grow lights mounted to the wall finally and they are set up on an intermittent timer. Day is on 1.5 hours and off 0.5 hours. Night is the opposite. It keeps the leaves from burning quite so much it seems.

Full Moons of the 2026 Seasons

2025-12-31T18:06:00.006-06:00

Super proud of this one. I've been playing around with ai photo generation and with a bit of help and formatting research came up with this one for the moons of 2026 by season.

There is no blue moon this coming year but also no December moon for the seasons either. That will be tacked on to next year's list as the first full moon of winter. The next blue moon is May 20 of 2027.

So once in a blue moon has a chance again that month.

Greenhouse for Winter

2025-12-16T11:39:00.005-06:00

I always wanted a greenhouse. In Arlington we never got around to having a nice greenhouse. It was instead a covered enclosed patio that was crumbling and the roof had a hole in it where rain would come through. This one is still missing a window but I have the manufacturer informed and expect they will send us the piece soon and I can just pop it in.

As you can see there are already plants in it and I expect to put in shelves real soon to add even more plant storage and humidity. The key to a good greenhouse is humidity. This guy seals up really well and I expect to have it going in full swing in no time.

So far I have about a dozen pots in there although half of them have no plants to speak of. The one seen in the picture though has green onion, turmeric, pineapple, and the remains of a tomato plant. I don't expect the tomato plant to bounce back though. It got in too late after the last freeze to help. I also have an aloe in the back (lots of moisture in there and twice the size as when I bought it). In the middle left another turmeric and day lily pot. One of such is still up at the front of the house and a good enough size pot that I expect it should be fine. Winter isn't usually harsh enough to kill, just enough to kill back.

I'm hoping to get some more interesting plants growing in there as well since humidity is one thing I never really got previously so this should be interesting.

Winter Garden

2025-12-08T07:53:00.005-06:00

Getting the gardening going in the winter this year. We purchased two raised garden bags which have eight - one cubic foot areas each in a 2x4 grid. The packets are laid out in the order in which we planted them.

The seeds are a bit old but something should still sprout. We purchased these seeds back in 2013 and most of them have at least an 85% viability rating. A few even higher.

My wife asked if that means they are all done for now since it's been 12 years. The percent viability is at the time they expect you to be planting these seeds. It's more like a half life though. Every year less seeds will probably be viable and sure eventually they will probably all be useless and not sprout but even 12 years isn't so long for seeds.

There are records of seeds remaining viable for over a hundred years. Some of the oldest seeds to germinate did so over a thousand years. One source claims a seed was over ten-thousand years old and was still able to be grown into a flowering specimen. Not sure how they dated that one but that's what they are claiming. Personally I can easily believe the hundred year old seeds but past that I think it's more of a guess how long the seed has been around.

Claudette2 Hanging In There

2025-11-24T10:57:00.007-06:00

So far she hasn't died yet. There is still some limberness and some of the tips are still green. I trimmed back all of the leaves since they were dry and brittle anyway. The leaf stems fell off but so far the branches haven't followed suit.

There is a little thinness to some of the branches and they might not all survive the ordeal but I'm still hopeful that she'll pull through. All I can do now is water and wait and see. I have to keep the ground from drying out and killing the root.

Clautedde1 however is still doing pretty good. There are a couple leaves that have turned but that always happens anyway and isn't necessarily a sign that there is a problem. What I'm watching now is the new leaf growth. There are a couple new leaves popping in and I just want to make sure they continue growing. If that happens then we're all good.

I did plant some tomato plants in that pot and they've already sprouted. I expect them to die though and add nutrients to the soil. Also the English ivy I put in is still green after a couple weeks. Waiting to see how this affects things if at all. Usually there is a little root but English ivy tends to sprawl and cling to things, possibly the outside of the pot. If on the off chance Claudette2 doesn't make it, I have some other tree seeds waiting in the wings to swoop in for the pot.

Cactus Bush, For Real?

2025-11-16T00:20:00.005-06:00

I had thought about taking a picture of this bush myself on my way home from work. Currently you see more bush than cactus. In fact you can only see about 5 of the paddles sticking out of a much larger bush than you can see here. This is actually a street view image copied and posted as a jpg.

About a year ago there was no bush and it was just a cactus on the side of the road.

If you had seen this as an image on social media would you have expected it to be AI? We watched a video recently on how to tell if an image is AI or not and this one might at first hit some of those alerts if you don't realize what you're looking at. For instance the shadows on the inlet protection walls look a little off except for the fact that the wall is vertical that the shadow is falling on. This was probably taken around 8:00 in the morning in the late spring, looking at the grass and angle of the sun. The grass has been recently mown but the bush is obviously growing well. The sun shadow is also mostly to the East and is high enough in the sky for a fairly steep shadow in the inlet so this is well past winter.

Do you have any pictures that at first seem like they would be AI but are pictures that you took yourself?

Claudette2 Stressed

2025-11-14T07:46:00.004-06:00

So at the office I have had 2 smaller cacao trees growing in the same pot. It was about time for them to be in their own pots but this really puts stress on them. The larger one is doing fine but this smaller one that was continually living in the shadow of the other is struggling. There are a couple new leaves pushing out but for the most part i think it will loose ALL of its other leaves.

I trimmed some of them back in an effort to reduce what it was trying to keep going but I think it may have been too little too late for them. This is after a week of repotting and is better than losing all of the leaves on day 1 or 2. It has always struggled though to even put out the smallest of leaves in the other pot, the leaves being 1/4 the size of the other tree.

The soil is still moist but not wet and draining out. Added a little today to make sure there was enough moisture but it's hard to tell exactly what is needed at this point. I guess I'll just have to be patient and see how things go. Probably stop by here tomorrow as well to see how many leaves are left and assess the progress and state of the little tree. There is still plenty of hope though. I've heard of cacao trees that have come back even after a year of losing all of their leaves. They really are resilient trees.

Texas Winter Preparation

2025-11-10T07:20:00.006-06:00

Winter is coming to Texas. It got down almost to freezing yesterday in the DFW area. The cities further North probably did freeze briefly. Just means it's time to start to think about winterizing your more tender plants. I've always said that I only want to plant things outside that can survive every winter. Unfortunately not every winter is the same so I can only do my best. Also the longer a plant has had time to acclimate, the better equipped it is to survive a harsher winter.

Some plants just have to come in of course. One of our friends had a dozen or more plumeria plants which they kept on casters so they could easily bring them in every winter. There is no way they would survive outside being tropical plants (trees) even though they have pretty sturdy branches. We plan to one day have a greenhouse that would effectively make it possible to have a permanent home outsideish but in the mean time it's coming inside for the winter. Just have to keep the cats away while it's there.

Going to try to protect the fig tree better this winter so it can hopefully come back strong next year. It has struggled all year to make the few leaves it had and never had a chance to even think about fruiting. If these new, more tender, branches can be kept safe though we have a chance to really get it going and have the tree we wanted in the first place. Otherwise I may just have to dig it up and start over.

Beef and Bittermelon

2025-11-04T08:55:00.006-06:00

A friend grew some bitter melons, too many to use by himself, and shared some of the harvest with us. With the word bitter in the name of the vegetable I was warry. That's when having a wife who can find anything, including good recipes, is priceless. She found this recipe making a stir fry with the bitter melon but more beef than bitter.

Part of making it less bitter is removing the white inner pulp, the source of the bitter. I didn't want to remove it all though since that is also where a lot of the benefits of the bitter melon reside. It's bitter for a reason and a little bitter is a good thing. With the sauce you make for this dish it really compliments it.

We started by slicing the beef thinly for stir frying. This was boneless chuck roast. We marinated it for an hour in a mixture of corn starch, for thickening, baking soda, for tenderizing, oyster sauce, mirin, and dark soy sauce, for flavor, and a little extra water to keep it from burning to the bottom.

The bitter melon we sliced crossways to add surface area so the sauce could really coat it, it is pretty bitter if you don't offset it. We added garlic, some black beans for texture, more mirin, sugar, more soy, sesame oil and pepper. You know your taste better than anyone so play around with the quantities to see what suits you best. In the end there should be 1/2 to 3/4 cup of added stuff. Otherwise it can get saucy, unless you want more saucy. It's good over rice.

Fall Weather

2025-09-25T11:00:00.006-05:00

Fall is here and I couldn't be happier with the weather. It's cooling down and the rain is still only intermittent. Plants everywhere are loving it too. This little guy was just growing away in this planter near one of the shopping centers nearby.

Cooler weather also means less need to water so much to keep things from dying. Not too little though, so much still has months to grow and become hardy for the winter. We have turmeric that I still need to figure out what to do with. The fig tree I plan to mulch so it stays warm over the winter. Probably also get something to go over it so it might have a good start in the spring as well. Early to rise early to fruit. No figs this year after its near death experience last winger.

The plumeria will have to come inside when it gets too cold. Also have to figure out when that is going to be. This is the first time I've gotten one of these to grow so well and not die after a week. I can't have all of the plants people give me die immediately. That wouldn't be very encouraging.

I have a few seeds that I want to get going too. One is a pine seed I got from a nice tree outside a hotel. I intend to plant it where it can really take off and not destroy my foundation or water/irrigation lines. So much to do and no time to do it in.

Fall Tomatoes

2025-09-12T06:33:00.001-05:00

I have to wonder what tomato I got these seeds out of. I thought they were more round than these. All of the ones here are kind of pointy and long.

I guess the cross pollination came into play here. This happens a lot in producing fruit. Apples particularly are planted in areas with varieties that you eat and varieties you plant because they give off a lot of pollen. This makes it unlikely that the seed you get out of an apple will produce a tree that will give you the same kind of apple.

At any rate they look good and are a decent size. The one in the back should be good to eat tomorrow and the two in front there in a day or two after that. Several green tomatoes are here and there and I expect it to continue through early fall.

Another seed I got recently is a pine seed from a hotel pine tree I was near. The tree was trimmed a lot and not too tall but it looked nice. Thinking about planting it at the edge of the HOA lot where the drainage goes. Pine trees usually have a pretty good root system and there near the lake will keep it in good shape through the hot summers we get here.

Hibiscus Flowers

2025-09-09T21:10:00.001-05:00

We were recently at Beard Park in Little Elm. Apparently the area combined several smaller settlements to make a town, eventually with a dry goods store, post office, and more.

There is a replica house and post office there, unfortunately with a wasp infestation. They left everyone alone though so I guess it isn't too bad really. Likely they were attracted to such flowers like the hibiscus shown here.

Growing up we had a lot of hibiscus plants. This was another of my grandfather's breeding projects. I really don't remember the colors we had, I was little and that was probably the least of my concerns. Everyone knows that lizards and garden snakes are much more important. Our yard really did have a lot of both of these. The anole were all over the house and green houses. As for the snakes all you usually had to do was turn over one of the larger rocks to find one curled up resting.

This was only one of the colors they had out at the park. Got a few seeds of course to see what cross pollination occurred out there. There may have been even more hibiscus flowers in the area. Pollination can happen over fairly large distances and with the number of pollinators in the area the likeliness is pretty good. We'll see what pops up.

Hummingbirds in the Garden

2025-09-02T15:44:00.001-05:00

We got a hummingbird feeder for the backyard and they're already hovering around it. The most we've seen at a time is two so far.

They were already attracted to our yard with our plumeria plant so it wasn't really a surprise to see them. One of them has a red throat. Not this one though. I haven't looked into it but I'm guessing it's a male thing? Will have to look it up later.

Ok, it's later and yep it's a male thing. The females have no red coloring. It might be a mated pair then that we're seeing come around. That would make sense since they aren't chasing each other off. Hummingbirds can be territorial and aggressive to interlopers.

The cats have taken a keen interest in the hummingbirds coming around and have jumped at the window more than once trying to catch them. We have since bought another hanger for the feeder and moved it further into the yard. That also keeps the other birds away from it and less likely to scare each other away.

Plumeria Flower

2025-08-07T13:19:00.006-05:00

Our plumeria puts out mostly yellow flowers with just this tinge of pink. The pink is much more noticeable on the back though.

This is after a day of falling off of the plant. It's still holding its shape. Probably why they are so useful in making leis. Abundance is nice since they grow all over Hawaii but if they wilted in an hour they would pretty much be useless for crafts.

This got me to wondering if you could use them elsewhere. I quickly found a unanimous "Don't Eat Them." Ok, I won't.

They are used in fragrances though to varying degrees. Some claim to be just like the scent but reviews range all over the place. About what you'd expect for any product.

This was one of my grandmother's favorite scents though and she had a candle that did smell just like plumerias, although she liked to use the word frangipani which made finding out exactly what it was, once I grew up and didn't remember clearly what she called it, difficult to say the least. So nice I can go outside right now and smell it straight from the plant.

Plumeria Flowers

2025-08-01T10:47:00.001-05:00

The flowers are getting further along. I wasn't really sure what to expect but it wasn't this. I had though there would be a couple flowers here and there but this looks like it's going to spread and keep making more clusters.

Really though I think it's about done with the splitting. Maybe about 15 flowers from my count. It's nice that they are spread out like this though so they can really show off. I can't wait until it gets bigger and really gets blooming. Some of the trees we've seen in Hawaii have hundreds of blooms at once.

It's about to hit 100 degrees outside so I really need to be on keeping everything watered. Heat is the number one thing that kills a garden around here. I'll probably need to water at least twice a day if not more when the heat is unbearable outside. We're also on the lake so I'm expecting that the humidity will keep up with it and maybe drop the temps around the house at least a degree or two.

One thing I don't know about this plant is what color the blooms will be. There are so many different colors it could be from white to deep burgundy. I'll just have to wait and see what I got. If you haven't been reading the rest of the blog, I got this plant from a friend who originally bought it for her mom but hadn't picked it up from us for some time and was sweet enough to let us have it after we planted it and took care of it for over a month.

If you have a favorite plumeria color or favorite flower in general I'd love to hear about it.

Turmeric Plant Out Back

2025-07-30T10:11:00.001-05:00

I really love the way turmeric plants come up. The straight tall shoots unfurling and spreading out. They have a nice thickness to them that I appreciate. They form much the same way elephant ears and ginger do. Not sure if they're in the same family or anything but they grow similarly.

So far it seems that turmeric likes rich loose soils that drain well. They don't mind a pot. Currently this one is right in among day lilies and some other plants but it'll probably have to be moved to keep growing and spreading well.

As mentioned before I've heard it can go well wrapped around fish or other meats. I wonder if they can be used like banana leaves... We like to get tamales from Glorias that are wrapped in banana leaves and they are awesome!

Tomato Flowers

2025-07-28T10:11:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I've had a good home grown tomato. These grew from seeds and are a smaller variety so they should produce pretty quickly. They've shot up in the last week. I wasn't sure they were taking hold at first. Last Thursday though I noticed these little flowers growing and hope sprung anew.

Again once the sunflower is gone it'll have more room and may be getting much bigger.

My wife doesn't much care for raw tomatoes but cooked are fine. I find this isn't so great for the varietal flavor of the tomato and loses something.

If you like tomatoes raw or cooked, what's your favorite variety. The usuals are plum, cherry, and hothouse but the beefsteak and brandywine can also be found occasionally, especially at more specialty grocery stores like Central Market.

Composter

2025-07-26T10:10:00.001-05:00

Finally got a real compost drum. I prefer a pile but our yard really isn't set up for such a thing. This will have to do. These are quicker though so I'm thinking eventually I'll get the hang of it and it'll be fine.

One thing it won't do is attract ants to it but it also won't have some of the beneficial bugs that help till it together and further leave organic compost material.

I've transferred the contents of the laundry basket that I had put compost stuff in into the barrel and gave it a few turns. The other thing is the slosh. It has a bit of moisture in it. I hope the screws account for that. There are over 60 of them holding it together.

At the previous house there was a good location for a pile. One of the things you have to keep in mind is that they create heat and can be flammable even if they seem wet.

Sunflowers

2025-07-25T10:21:00.006-05:00

This sunflower has gotten pretty heavy. I hope this means that the seeds are developing well. I've kept it watered so this should be the case but won't know until I try harvesting.

The head is getting yellow but I want a little more darkening before I cut it off. Once he's gone the pot will have that much more room for the other plants. Will need to spread them out soon.

In this pot I have several things. Among them are tomato plants, turmeric, day lilies, green onion, and some kind of fruit tree (apple I think? really not sure.)

Up front there are of course more things growing but this was out back by the bird feeder where the seeds for the sunflower came from originally. So much going on at one time right now though.

Day Lilly After Rain

2025-07-21T14:06:00.006-05:00

By now if you can't tell that I really like my day lilies then you haven't been paying any attention. These flowers are short lived but have a lot of color. One of the benefits is that, as long as the conditions are favorable for it, they will keep putt on flowers.

This year the temperatures have been significantly lower than average and thus the blooming time has extended all month. Of course if you keep them watered well they can go even longer.

I should be able to cross them soon when I get more blooms at a time. The plants make pods with round black seeds, a dozen or more at a time. I crossed the lily I use for my avatar myself. Unfortunately I planted it on the north side of the house and it got very little sun. It died back and didn't return.

I now have 4 places I'm growing lilies and keeping a good eye on them. I don't plan to have that happen again. They also like being dug up and replanted. The one on the front right of the house in the front planter was not really dug and divided like the rest of them have been and it shows. It's put on some flowers but not like the rest. Come fall I'll dig him up, divide, and replant more spaced out, probably 4-5 dimes the space. Thinking doing the same around the tree and putting lilies there too. I should have more than enough by then.

Planning on getting a greenhouse soon too. Not sure how soon, maybe next year even, but sooner than I thought. I was looking at 6-7 years out. Rushing a plan is never a good idea. See how things are working and plan accordingly. You can always revise a plan whereas revising a yard is a lot more difficult.

Sunflower Bust / Turmeric Boon

2025-07-11T10:46:00.003-05:00

The sunflower produces only one seed. We replanted it in hopes of a better plant next time but I really don't know. There are many reasons this can happen. Looking at the flower head though, I think the culprit is poor pollination. I only ever saw one bee hovering around and that likely is the only seed that got a good dusting. There are bees around of course but we are a bit away from their usual grounds. We have farms near us so they may have bee hives. There are also woods around the lake we are next to so there could be wild hives as well. I think the more flowers people plant the better the chance we will get some good harvests. I know we have neighbors planting gardens, at least little ones.

I don't think the HOA wants bee hives in the neighborhood so the best bet is to plant some bee friendly plants near the woods in hopes of attracting a hive over there close by.

On a better note, we planted some turmeric in various pots. I know at least one of them started rooting but I can't remember which one I found that way. One of them, and of course I can see this one easily, has sprouted leaves. This is the first time I've actually gotten turmeric to grow. Usually it either dries out and composts or gets too soft, rots, and then composts. Either way it ends up being other plant food. Anyway I have high hopes of some day harvesting my own turmeric plants. That would be awesome!

I see the entire plant is edible so I'm now looking forward to using it to cook either pork or fish. Both would be good. The taste is said to be gingery, makes sense because it's related to the ginger plant, and somewhat floral.

What would you use turmeric leaves for?

Day Lily #2

2025-07-04T06:52:00.001-05:00

Here is the other day lily we bought last year that has decided to finally bloom. This one is an orange flower with a little darker center, a more common flower. This cluster has quite a few blooms on it though.

Day lily flowers only stay open for a day but the presence of so many buds means that it will have flowers for several days even if each individual flower is fleeting.

Next spring I'm going to have to amend the soil and divide up the root system. It can get really crowded and dividing give the plants plenty of room to divide and thrive.

Again I'd like to try cross pollinating these guys. This kind of flower is perfect for toning down or possibly a splash of contrast, depending on what the genes decide to do when crossing.

It's been a while but when I was a kid, back in the day, my grandfather had a grant to cross breed hibiscus plants. I don't recall how many varieties he produced but I remember him making charts and reports on the resulting plants. We had so many pots of them inside and outside of the house. The den would have them lining the wall in winter if it was going to get too cold. I still remember the flagstone path that led to the sitting area out back and the flowers that surrounded it. At the time I thought of it like my own little jungle.

Office ivy Growth

2025-07-02T12:48:00.001-05:00

Since last time I posted about the ivy it's grown quite a bit. It used to be in front of the wire sculpture and has since grown into it, around it, and back down the other side. Some impressive growth here. Our office manager said she'd like to repot it so it keeps growing well. It doesn't seem to have complained so far though so I'm not sure if that's needed.

One of the reasons ivy plants trail out so much is to have more room to put out air roots. These take the moisture out of the air and help the plant to keep going. If you feel along the ivy you can find these little root bumps all along it. These also help the plant cling onto anything it comes in contact with. They will form those webbing out roots and grab hold of buildings, trees, rocks, anything they can find. Apparently they don't seem to like the wire metal though. It has avoided clinging to it. Not sure if it's because it's metal, too thin, or what.

The white planter it's in has gone through some changes too. Currently it's sporting sun glasses and a beard. At one time there was an ear ring but it didn't last long. I have one of these pots at home too. It's made to hold your glasses and be a place to put a plant on your desk. I don't think they though about an ivy though.