It's Not Work, It's Gardening!: houseplants

Showing posts with label houseplants. Show all posts

Showing posts with label houseplants. Show all posts

The good and the bad

>> Friday, September 22, 2017 – agave, bamboo, clematis, damage, elephant ears, houseplants

My garden -- like yours I have to assume -- is full of good and bad this year. Here's an example of good and bad in the same view:

It's the front bed between the driveway and the house. The Alocasia make it worth looking at -- they really set off the understory of bamboo and hakone grass. The bad part though is obvious: the clematis. All of my clematis vines do the same thing each year: grow like gangbusters, bloom, then halfway die during the summer. Blech. Maybe I should put the maypop here too?

Ficus #2 update

>> Thursday, January 26, 2017 – houseplants, pruning

I had forgotten that I drastically pruned another ficus last year, and thought I'd show that too.

I bother to post about these probably because they are the two best looking houseplants I grow. Not the most exciting of post topics, but more evidence that radical pruning is sometimes the best thing for a plant.

Ficus update

>> Wednesday, January 25, 2017 – houseplants

Just a little update on one of my houseplants, one of a few fiddleleaf figs (Ficus lyrata) I have.

Here's the way it looks right now. Want to hear more about this and why it's somewhat amazing?

My updated overwintering strategy, part 1

>> Monday, December 5, 2016 – houseplants, overwintering

As I've mentioned before, I have a new strategy for overwintering this year. Well, perhaps "attitude" is a better word than "strategy", but it's a change nonetheless. The mild autumn we've had probably has something to do with it too, as does my busy schedule.

I always break up my not cold-hardy plants into two groups each autumn: those that cannot survive the dip below 32ºF (0ºC), and those that won't suffer until the temperature gets below 25ºF (-4ºC) or so. Usually I play it safe with the cactus and other succulents, but this year I'm pushing things.

Three things

>> Tuesday, February 16, 2016 – houseplants, seeds

As winter drags on, it's becoming more difficult to find interesting things to post about. I'm avoiding the seed catalogs this year as I always buy too much and I'm intent on using my existing seed stock, so what's there to say on another grey, cold morning?

A trip to Home Depot for something unrelated to the gardening provides the answer. Home Depot always comes through with good topics to question, and today there are two.

More indoor growth

>> Monday, February 8, 2016 – houseplants, overwintering, pruning

Last week I talked about the cactus that always seem to grow during the winter, regardless of how much light or water they get. Although I'm happy to see something growing at all during winter, my excitement is balanced by worry -- that winter growth won't be as "strong" as it will be once the plant moves back outside in the spring.

Today I'll show you something that I'm very excited about, no negative to balance it out: my fiddle-leaf fig.

What's going on here?

>> Thursday, January 7, 2016 – houseplants, propagation, pruning

My garage floor was covered by a significant pile of sturdy leaves yesterday:

What's going on here?

Terrarium refresh, step 1

>> Thursday, December 10, 2015 – cactus, houseplants, succulents

It's time again for my annual (or biannual?) terrarium refresh, where I do some pruning, digging, planting. I have to warn you, the images in today's post won't be so pretty.

That's because the terrarium is quite overgrown. A few light-loving plants have hogged the "temporary" lights (that are taking a long time to replace) resulting in a tangled, ugly mess.

Wednesday Vignette: Fire?

>> Wednesday, December 9, 2015 – houseplants

Anna at Flutter and Hum hosts the Wednesday Vignette meme, and today's vignette is a scent. For whatever reason the last few nights we've been out later than normal, and entering the house each night gives me quite a shock.

It started on Friday evening, when opening the front door I was met with what seemed like the smell of burning plastic -- my first thought being that there was an electrical fire in the attic or in a wall somewhere.

So random

>> Tuesday, December 1, 2015 – bamboo, cuttings, foliage, houseplants

Time for more random observations.

I had such a hard time keeping this pot wet enough this summer. Now I can't keep it dry! (I want to get some of the water out so I can bring this indoors, but it just keeps raining!)

Wednesday Vignette: Cramped

>> Wednesday, November 18, 2015 – houseplants, succulents

Anna at Flutter and Hum hosts the Wednesday Vignette meme, and today I thought I'd showcase my jam-packed, overgrown succulent terrarium.

In a corner of the basement with lights on a timer, this thing gets ignored for at least six months of a year, and then I pay attention to it again once temperatures drop and I start using the treadmill again.

Salvaging houseplants, again

>> Wednesday, February 4, 2015 – houseplants

I've said it before: I'm not that good with houseplants. I've finally determined that it's not my fault though, it's my house. There's just not enough light coming through the windows for much of the day.

A perfect example of the problem is this dracaena. It has diminished quite a bit in the last year or so. looking very feeble.

Indoors, in a hurry

>> Friday, October 31, 2014 – autumn, freeze, houseplants

Although the freezing temperatures won't arrive until tonight, I brought in all of my tender plants yesterday. As usual, this was before I really had a place to put them all.

I brought them in a day early (at lunchtime) because we were expecting rain in the afternoon, and many of these plants would not be nearly as happy sitting in a cold garage in wet soil. Plus they're easier to move when dry -- much lighter!

Terrarium Trimming

>> Monday, February 17, 2014 – houseplants, pruning, succulents

First, I want to apologize for disappearing briefly. Having missed a couple of days of posts due to a crazy work week which included some travel, I'm back and eager to talk about plants and the garden again. With temperatures expected to get into the 60's F for a few days later this week, I should actually have the motivation to get out into the yard to take some photos too.

But first, I finally decided to do something about the somewhat overgrown terrarium. Remember, I look at this every time I get on the treadmill, and it was really starting to bother me.

The sweet scent of winter

>> Monday, February 3, 2014 – blooms, houseplants

For a week or two every winter, my basement is filled with a strong scent that is difficult for me to categorize and even harder to avoid. It's a sweet, flowery perfume that is almost too strong for me to bear.

It starts in the early evening, is gone by morning, and always takes me a few days to remember what "that smell" is when I walk into the room.

Terrarium succulents, up close

>> Friday, January 31, 2014 – cactus, houseplants, succulents

I've been spending a lot of time in recent weeks on the treadmill, which means I spend a lot of time looking at the terrarium -- which is on the table in front of the treadmill.

I know I recently posted about the plants here, but today I just wanted to give you another, even closer look.

Update: cuttings

>> Thursday, January 30, 2014 – cuttings, houseplants, propagation

I've got a couple of things to update you on. First, I recently put some lettuce cuttings into water after reading that you could regrow lettuce this way.

I'm pleased to report that this actually works, and that I'm growing new lettuce!

Cuttings update

>> Friday, January 10, 2014 – cuttings, houseplants, propagation

Back at the end of November I did some major houseplant pruning when I hacked one of my lanky Dracaena into pieces.

It's been seven weeks, and I've been patient, but there's finally something worth showing you.

Aloe Vera: pretty

>> Wednesday, January 1, 2014 – houseplants, succulents

Although it's quite common on many kitchen windowsills -- even those belonging to non-gardeners -- I've only been growing Aloe vera for about a year.

Even though we don't need to use its soothing properties very often (once), it's so pretty in the kitchen, it will be there for years!

An update on the terrarium

>> Thursday, December 19, 2013 – cactus, houseplants, succulents

It's been quite a long time since I converted my terrarium to succulents -- almost three years -- and almost a year since I've even shown you what's going on there (when I replaced one of the plants).

It's time for an update, as I'm planning on doing some work on this little basement garden over the holidays, and having a good record of "before" is necessary.

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