[JenThePlantGeek]

Hemianthus micranthemoides or "Baby's Tears".

I love it.

It grows in such a dense bush, is SO easy to trim and shape, and the fine leaves give such a great bushy look. I also love the light lime-green color. The killies love snuggling in the bush too! :icon_roll

I have about 1/3 of my 15 gallon covered with it. The tank has 65 watts of lights and DIY CO2 (when I remember) and some Excel, and this has just taken off.

It's SO PRETTY!

I'm hardpressed to find a plant that I like more right now. It isn't anything fancy or new or rare, but it's a great plant.

I have the version that has two leaves per node (Amano perlweed I've heard it called?) Anyone have the version that has 4 leaves per node? I'd be more than happy to trade or buy.

Who else loves HM?

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

And this is it in it's messy form - I had just been in there pulling up clumps! (See the space in front where it had tried to take over the Marsilea minuta)

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Minsc - Sounds great! I'll send you some of mine too if you'd like to try it out!

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

*CampCreek* - OH I love those hygros too! Ever just get STUCK on a plant though, and can't get enough of it? That's me and HM right now. Before it was Rotala rotundifolia, and before that Bolbitus heudolotii. And you're going to LOVE The Winter King, but it does take awhile to really get into it. By the end of the third book it had me in tears . I'd just skip Eragon (I wasn't a fan, :hihi: - to me it was like he took the names, plots, and settings from all my favorite fantasty books, chopped them up and pasted them together, adding filler and a heaping helping of Star Wars and voila! I'm harsh, I know, but when I consider that it was written by a teenager then I can cut him some slack!).

*Fishscale* - It's a stem plant, so you pretty much just push it down into the substrate. When you trim it, it branches and grows into a nice bush.

Not expensive at all since it is such a fast grower. I've seen it at LFSs in a pot for $1.99 or so. I can send you a good clump of what I have for cost of shipping if you want, just PM me your address.

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Scissors work, but you will definitely have a huge mess floating around in your tank for a while.

Mow the lawn, then scoop out all the floating stuff. Hey - at least it floats when trimmed :hihi:

*fishscale* - Growing it in a 10 gallon might be easier since you have less depth for the light to filter through and theoretically could have higher light (i.e. it grows better for me in a 15 gallon with 65 watts than in a 110 gallon with 4x65 watts)... but there's no reason it wouldn't just grow in your 55.

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Yep! It's the same in terrestrial gardening. One year it was wandering jews, another year brugmansia (how can you NOT LOVE something like this?! Pink Favorite Brug), another year it was beans, another year... And these fascinations honestly did last a year at a time, and sometimes more. I just got to where I couldn't get enough of them! Just flat out could not quit looking at them, reading about them, playing with them, getting more of them.

OOOH good! I'm so going to PM you and pick your brain when I start on my garden. Now that school's out it is time to get started! I'm still working on developing a green thumb for potted plants and stuff outside - haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet though!

And how do I use my HM? I've done it as a short-trimmed foreground in the 15 but right now it is just an unkempt bush (killie spawn media!). I've mixed it in with Sagittaria in the 110 and it looked really nice, softened the lawn a bit. The bush look might be the most popular.

I LOVE your idea for a veggie-garden look! I had a crazy idea awhile back of doing some little small-scale mirror of real life in the tank. I wanted to do a church made out of driftwood with plants as landscape in a "forest" and moss growing down off the roof like shingles. Cute eh? I'm still working on it though - No one is allowed to steal the idea until I get it done though! :hihi: Imagine a couple bristle-nosed plecos or a synodontis as the church resident!

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

Just how short can you trim this for a carpet and still have it be green and healthy?

Not sure - I've trimmed it down so that only little nubs were left and it grew back. I bet you could keep it around 1" - but that'd be a LOT of trimming. My 15 foreground kept it about 1.5-2".

I like the church idea, Jen! Sounds too cute! Are you going to add a touch of the morbid and build a cemetery next to it? *snicker*

Ooh! Do you mind if I steal that idea? Imagine little iwagumi grave stones in a yard of HC! Hahaha, OH that'd be too cute!

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

LYNN! Haven't seen you in awhile - how's that new ADA tank of yours looking??