Birthday Mini-Jungle
It was my birthday a few months back, and my lovely nieces sent me a voucher for a plant place near me. I didn’t get any plants straight away, because I knew I’d be away for a few weeks, and didn’t want them to die while I was away.
So today I went plant shopping and this is what I bought — a mini-jungle.
Isn’t it gorgeous? I think plants inside (and out) make a house so. much friendlier.
They’re just sitting on the table at the moment. I haven’t decided how I want to arrange them in the house yet.
I already have quite a few indoor plants, and I’m happy to say they all did quite well while I was away. My lovely neighbor watered them with the garden hose, which only just reached to the under-cover courtyard. So that little experiment worked well.
But at the plant place, they told me one of these plants — the calathea, the stripy-leaved one — had to be watered only with rainwater or pure filtered water. It was the most expensive, too, so we’ll see how that goes.
Do you like indoor plants? Do you have a favorite?
I have so many indoor plants (not to mention the ones that live outside in the nice weather and come in for the winter). My favorite is a jade plant which was propagated from the one my mom had when I was a kid. It is now at least 50 years old. When I was young it got attacked by fuzzy little mealy bugs, which must have introduced a virus. It developed a graceful weeping form. Mine is on top of a 3 foot shelf and has branches that hang down and curve up at the ends. It reaches the… Read more »
Robin I had a big old jade plant some years ago, but I never much liked it, so I gave it away. Since then I’ve learned to appreciate them. How interesting that yours developed a weeping habit. It sounds lovely. Do the babies also weep? I also have several pathos that I grew from a cutting a friend gave me. They’re lovely and very satisfying to grow. Actually I watched a youTube video today on propagating them, where the fellow snipped off all the long vines, then snipped them into much shorter cuttings, and resulted in a bushier plant. I’m… Read more »
Yes, some of the babies are getting big enough they are starting to drape over the edge of the rectangular bonsai pot where I planted them. The pot seemed apropos for artsy little plants. I forgot to mention they also have rather small rounded leaves compared to many Jades.
I’ve got some other little guys in water, rooted, waiting to be gifted. Sorry, probably would break all sorts of agricultural regulations to send you some :-)
“ Sorry, probably would break all sorts of agricultural regulations to send you some :-)”
It certainly would. Australian & NZ customs are really strict about plants etc. I recall author friend, Jane Porter being taken aside in NZ by customs when the sniffer dogs reacted. Turns out her little boy had a half-eaten apple in his bag.
But the little jade-ttes sound gorgeous.
I used to have lots of indoor plants, including an amaryllis and an aloe vera descended from ones my grandmother had. Now I have gotten rid of all my plants because they were driving me crazy. They would die or get weird looking. Some of them were doing so well I couldn’t keep up with repotting them and dusting them was horrendous. One of them kept getting large spiders in it, complete with webs. I don’t know why they liked it but they did. I finally gave up and just enjoy the ones in my yard. I’ve started cultivating roses,… Read more »
Karri, plants can become a lot of work and the spider problem sounds awful. And you can’t go wrong with roses. In one rental house I lived in there was a dark red, almost black rose, and I would pick just four or five roses and pop them in a vase, and when I came home later, the whole house smelled gorgeous. I wish I’d taken a cutting of that rose — the landlord blitzed that garden and left nothing standing. I was horrified And heart broken, as so many of the plants were ones my Dad had given me.
I grew up with plants all around the house. My mother loved anything that produced a vine and it would be helped along the walls which always looked so nice. I usually had one or two little plants, but space in a small studio apt was limited. Once I married and we moved into a house, we decided to get cats to live with us. They ate anything green – even artificial plants. So for the longest time no greenery in the home. Now I have no more cats, a large yard surrounding the home and I have taken in… Read more »
Margot, I’d never heard of a Queen of the Night plant, so I looked it up. Wow! Their flowers are spectacular, so it’s a real shame yours hasn’t flowered — yet.. I googled why they might not flower and there are some good suggestions to try. Best of luck with it. Mum grew aloe vera, and she used to break bits off it for various healing purposes. Enjoy the coming spring. Here we’re slipping into autumn, which is my favorite time of year — brilliant sunny days and cool nights.
I’d never heard the name, but recognize the leaves on Google. Sounds like the flowers are quite ephemeral. Best of luck!
I enjoy indoor plants, but wish I had room for more. Your jungle is beautiful. My favorite plant right now is an umbrella plant which is thriving.
Umbrella plants are lovely, I agree, Carolyn. Glad yours is thriving.