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Posted: Sep/15/2008 1:22 PM PST
Hi folks, I have been MIA since spring time. I was in a car accident. Smashed my left ankle to smithereens and sprained the other one so had to be in a convalescent home for about 6 weeks till I was reasonably mobile again.. get around on a wheel chair and could stand up. Made progress since then, but I'm not fully mobile yet. Thank heavens I have good neighbours and lots of friends to help or my houseplants would have been gonners. AND I HAVE A LOT! So many that I have to recount at least 3 times to be sure I got it right. The plant population changes fairly often. It shrinks when some plants get infested with spider mites and die, or are too old and sickly so I condemn them. The population grows as I cannot bear to throw a healthy plant away and am forever making babies with the branches that get ridiculously long,(like hanging in your face). Today's count is 50. oops I forgot the ones in the solarium + 5. The reason I can have so many is that I have an open plan home (kitchen, dining room, living room) with a cathedral ceiling and 6 big windows in the ceiling. The rafters and the window frames can handle lots of sky hooks (ranging in length from 18 inches to 3 feet long). Watering many of my plants requires getting up on a tall ladder. The plants are scattered throughout the house in every room except the grandkids guest bedroom (too dark). My very favorite houseplants are HOYAa. I have several carnosa Compacta (curly), curly Panache (variegated), Kiri,(heart shaped leaves) Kiri variegated, standard carnosa, carnosa variegated, several Hoya H. Purpuea-fusca (almost black green & looks like it was splattered with silver paint). The rest of my green family covers a lot of ground from Episcia (large, fuzzy, variegated leaf with tiny bright red trumpet flowers. a creeper) I keep making babies with those- to the plant my daughter gave me whose name I never learned. I think its a Syngonium but not sure. That one has been on steroids since I got it! I have to lop it back about every 3 months, and being me, stick the cut off branches in water and make new ones. I can't seem to give them away fast enough.. sort of like growing too much zucchini! LOL Same goes for my 2 Aloe plants. 2 types.. short stubby leafed one and the long spicky tubes one that is good for treating burns. I have a Citrus Japonica (mini orange tree), Aglaonema Maria (aka chinese evergreen. I have had that one for 30 years). a Spathofilium, tons of Calanchoes cuz they are too easy not to grow. A couple of Christmas Cactus, a few Zamia, a Cycus, A dracaena, a Stephanotis. My pride and joy, a pineapple plant with a baby pineapple that I grew from a cut off top of a pineapple. I won't name all the species..it would read like a green house catalogue! Will name the species I had no luck with or refuse to grow cuz too much trouble.. All the ferns... they don't like central heating and dry air, tend to draw all the worst bugs so I gave up on all those a decade ago. I lose fewer to bugs now that Ron has taught me the Rubbing alcohol/water 1 to 3 spritzer trick. African violets.. too fussy to tend to.. although Episcia are first cousins. I avoid plants that are unforgiving.. with 50 + plants to water every week, it's easy to forget one. Because of my car accident I had no outside vegie gardens this summer. My Jack-of-all-trades helper was good enough to plant a whole bunch of pots for the patio and plant my raised herb garden and make me a plywood runway so I could reach it in my wheel chair. So all in all I was pretty lucky everything considered. Glad to be back on GG Gimpy2 |
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Posted: Sep/15/2008 2:16 PM PST
I have none. My allergist told me that because I was so allergic to molds, that I should think about getting them out. The dirt grows a mold you don't even seen. Used to have a whole house full and with the birds I had, it was like a jungle in there. I loved it. Can't even have a real Christmas tree anymore, because of the mold on the trunk. I hate that part. But wadda ya gonna do? 
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Posted: Sep/17/2008 10:20 AM PST
big zero for me! I'm the only person I know that could kill an air fern! |
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Posted: Sep/18/2008 11:33 PM PST
It was a big 0 for me too! Then I bought one and that was that for a few years. (edit: forgot  about the 2 house plants i bought after the one above.  They still live too lol! )In the past 1 or 2 months I bought a bunch for my new home. ONLY, I keep 'em all out on the patio. Do they still count as house plants?   I don't forget to take care of them anymore, YIPPY, 'cause I hang out in the area a lot! I'm starting to like having them around. I'm hooked for life! Today, I planted 4 different plants in one "pot" and brought 'em inside...wish me luck!?
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Posted: Sep/19/2008 8:01 AM PST
One - a peace lily that my roomate waters. My mom has these big bay windows and hangers all over her house and about five hundred houseplants. The ferns grab your head when you try to walk by, etc. I think it scarred me growing up. |
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Posted: Sep/19/2008 11:25 AM PST
lol aimee! My mom's plant scared the heck out of me too. It grew all over the place. She even had some of it hang over the fridge and high up around the ceiling. I think it was a pothos or a similar plant...don't remember. It grew everywhere and it was planted in one pot! 
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Posted: Sep/19/2008 6:06 PM PST
Quote: LOL!!
Originally posted by palmettogal big zero for me! I'm the only person I know that could kill an air fern! |
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Posted: Oct/17/2009 9:07 PM PST
Lets see, I have a beautiful Shamrock,an "Elephant Ear" I don't know the real name for it and I have a lovely I don't know what. It is some kind of fern maybe. We got it from a funneral for a close cousin of my husband, mom and dad were over run and sent it home with us from Texas. I had a gorgeous prayer plant that was sent to us when our son passed, but my hubby killed it  . Oh well life goes on right. I have to keep them all up high so the cat doesn't get in them. She never tries to eat them she only wants them as her personal restroom.
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