As the year comes to an end, our last Plant of the Month for 2022 is the Crassula muscosa. This succulent goes by many names colloquially: rattail crassula, lizard’s tail, zipper plant, princess pines. But the most common nickname is Watch Chain, due to its chain-like appearance. This succulent has thin long stems that are tightly-lined with very small green leaves and grows in a bush arrangement. The botanical name Crassula muscosa comes from the Latin word muscosus which means “mossy”. The Watch Chain plant is native to South Africa and Namibia and grows best in moderate humidity and warm c ..read more

Welcome back to Ina’s Crystal Corner, this month we’re covering one of my favorite crystals of all time: Lapis Lazuli. This crystal is a favorite of mine not just because of the uses it has in my spiritual practice and gardening, but also the long history behind it. Lapis has been used in artifacts dating as far back as the 7th millennium BC in the Indus Valley region in Northeast Afghanistan (which is still one of the main sources of the stone today). In ancient Mesopotamia, the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians used Lapis for seals and jewelry. Its popularity is evident in an abundance o ..read more

The five methods of propagation are grafting, layering, cutting, seeds, & budding. However for the purposes of this guide, we’ll be focusing on cuttings and budding as those are most commonly used to propagate succulent plants. At our previous Newark Fern & Fossil location on East Kinney St, we had this beautiful propagation station where we placed our leaf and stem cuttings on the wall to grow new plants!  Let’s use the snake plant as an example for our first propagation method: leaf cuttings. To propagate a snake plant, cut at an angle to create an “arrow-like” base. Make sure ..read more

Our featured plant this month, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana better known as the Flaming Katy plant, and I have a long history. It was one of the plants I inherited from my mom when I first started to learn about indoor gardening. Funny story, I’m embarrassed to admit it took me years to figure out that Flaming Katy are succulent plants in the Crassulaceae Family (like Jade plants) not the Araceae Family of plants (such as Pothos plants). This was before I learned how to identify plants and what their needs are, so having assumed that my plant had the same requirements as my pothos, I consistently o ..read more

Happy Virgo Season everyone! As we finish up these summer months, we’re taking a look at a crystal frequently associated with the sun and the lion: Citrine. This yellow variety of quartz is both found naturally and lab grown. Natural citrine can range from a pale yellow to bright gold hues, depending on the level of trace amounts of iron in the crystal. Lab produced citrine is created by heat treating another variety of quartz, Amethyst. This however results in darker shades of yellow and orange than the rare naturally-occurring Citrine. Citrine is commonly sourced from Brazil, Madagascar, Mex ..read more

Greetings Plant-Lovers! It’s time for another installment of Ina’s Crystal Corner! This month we’re covering one of my favorite crystals for both plants and witchcraft: Green Aventurine, another member of the Quartz family that often appears in rich shades of green. That said, aventurine can come in a variety of colors including: blue, yellow, orange, brown, and grey depending on impurities. The green variant gets its appearance from chrome-bearing fuchsite (a variety of muscovite mica). Green and blue aventurine is predominately found in India, while white and orange aventurine is often foun ..read more

Happy Spooky Season Plant Lovers! Before October comes to an end, we’re going to take a closer look at its birthstone Rose Quartz, also known as Hyaline Quartz. This beautiful glassy pink crystal is a Fern & Fossil favorite thanks to the dazzling pop of color it brings to our succulent terrariums. But rose quartz also has other properties that make it one of my personal favorite crystals for gardening. Dying plant? Plop a bit of rose quartz in the soil after repotting. This crystal is great for trying to revive plants or welcome new ones home. Rose Quartz and Green Aventurine are my favori ..read more

Etiolation, or as I like to call it “stretchy plant syndrome”, is the term used to describe plants that have elongated stems due to lack of sun. In order to meet the plant’s needs, it will “stretch” and grow taller to reach a position with more readily available light. Although it sounds like a problem, it’s actually a pretty common phenomenon amongst succulents grown indoors and usually won’t harm your plant. That said, it’s always important for plant parents to be on the lookout for signs of plant fragility. When a succulent’s energy is diverted to grow longer, it can result in weaker s ..read more

Happy Spooky Season Plant-Lovers! Welcome back to another installment of Plant of the Month! This October we’re taking a look at Echeveria setosa, also commonly known as the “firecracker plant” or “hens and chicks”. Like many other echeverias native to Mexico, this plant has plump green leaves in a rosette pattern. But upon closer inspection, one will notice short thin white hairs growing along the petals, giving it a fuzzy appearance. If you’re wondering why it’s called the firecracker plant, look no further than the red flowers with yellow tips that grow along the stems of the succulent in ..read more

Depending on the wood, it can take many years before we can harvest it. Some of us have been in the presence of wood that was germinated even before our ancestors walked the forests in which they grew. We write on it and casually toss it away. We build houses with it that are torn down a few years later. At one point, a sapling became a home for an entire ecosystem from canopy to root. We honor that tree that gave us the ability to provide our human home. We honor a part of this tree. In the spirit of sustainability, we took reclaimed wood and made it part of our shop. We chose to use what was ..read more