Any houseplant enthusiasts?

[Mia]

Love Boston ferns, but maybe lemon button fern needs less humidity? All I can do is mist, I would not be able to keep it in my windowless apartment bathroom.

The button ferns seem to have less in the way of fronds, and what looks like a more leafy structure. They may require less moisture or humidity. But I've not cared for one like that, so I can't be certain. It rains a lot here, and it can be pretty humid so that's likely why ferns do so well.

 

[Momo]

I have a bonsai, his name is Runt, because he's a very thin bonsai, he was the runt of the bonsai litter but I think he's cute anyway. (If you can't tell I've used my bonsai as a pet replacement, it's cleaner)

 

[Lanastei]

I have a lemon tree which I planted myself. There's a madagascar dragon tree and a dracaena lemon lime as well.

 

[Gracey]

Thank you! I'm going to try a hanging set up.

I'm really nervous. I haven't had plants in over a decade.
I keep Googling "low light indoor plants" and "cat safe plants."
I will need to be very vigilant for the first few months, because changing my schedule to add checking plants, wTering, misting, etc. is a challenge for me.

I am looking at spider plants, lemon button fern, prayer plants, and those little Victorian table palm plants. I plan to try Bitter Apple on the plants until LapCrusher loses interest in salad. I tried to give him cat grass, and he wasn't very intrigued.

Love Boston ferns, but maybe lemon button fern needs less humidity? All I can do is mist, I would not be able to keep it in my windowless apartment bathroom.

In my fantasies, I have hpuseplants and we are all happy. Might take a lot if research to get me there.

@Warmheart
Maybe try some catmint (cat nip) to grow indoors for Lapcrusher if he's not interested in the catgrass?


Mia, I love your stories of your plants and the tips you gave for keeping them well!

 

[Gracey]

@Mia
Is there anything special you do for that wonderful looking Mother in Laws' tongue?

I'm in England and don't tolerate heat so well, needless to add my house is cooler than most. My specimen certainly doesn't look like yours?

 

[Kyn]

I love plants of pretty much all types. I have 12 houseplants in my room right now, and a large garden outside. I have had a prayer plant for a long time and I just love it. It moves! I also have a dracaena that I have had since I was in my first apartment 15 years ago, 2 orchids that used to belong to my grandmother, a begonia, a peace lily, an aralia, and some others, the names of which I can't think of right now because I'm tired. I'll take some pictures tomorrow!

 

[SusanLR]

I love plants and since I am living with someone else in their house, I can't have pets inside now, so plants are my hobby. Most I keep on the lanai by the pool. Orchids and cacti, succulents and bromeliads mainly.

I do have a hanging pitcher plant that is a carnivorous plant that is unusual. The humidity and heat in Florida is perfect for these types of plants. And as far as pets, the pool is enclosed in a huge screened cage, so I have tree frogs that live in there with the plants. They are truly pets. Hand feed them every night and they are so cute and smart. Hard for a lot of people to believe.

This is a Stick Plant:

Madagascar Dragon Bone with one of my pets.

 

[Bolletje]

@Warmheart is your cat actually called LapCrusher? Because that is brilliant. My cats like to chomp on plants as well, I got a few beautiful dracaena plants and a spider plant for my birthday this year, they're all secreted away on top of my kitchen cabinets now, because that's the only place where they won't be bitten. My cat bit my aloe plant once, didn't like the taste of it so just decided to tear it out of its pot. I got rid of the aloe after that I used to have a lot of plants but most of them died during my depression. I have one plant that survived two of my depressions. He's my champion for hanging in there, no matter how much I neglected him Most of the plants I have now were gifted to me from friends, shoots from their plants. I like this thought very much. And it's fun to visit their houses and watch their 'parent' plants, haha.

 

[watersprite]

A little trick I use for keeping my cats away from my plants: they have their own little pots of live, green produce that are okay to chomp. They have access to a lot of outdoors grass most of the year, pots of "cat-grass" in the winter, as well as catmip. This way, they get the greens they crave and leave the real houseplants alone.
The grass and catnip are inexpensive and easy to grow from seed.

 

[Mia]

I'm in England and don't tolerate heat so well, needless to add my house is cooler than most. My specimen certainly doesn't look like yours?

My home in Canada is quite cool as well. The picture of sanservia is from the internet, but mine looks quite similar. My experience with sanservia is that they like a consistent temperature, and nothing below 45F or 7.2C., anything below that will cause them to flop over and look horrid.
They're related to the succulent family and hold a lot of water in their stiff leaves. 1/4 Cup of water every 2-3 weeks or so. Also when I re-pot them, I amend the potting soil with a small amount of sand, as they like a heavy soil. They take many years to grow fully, mine are about thirty years old. I re-pot every two years, and every once in a while use some liquid fertilizer in the water.

 

[Mia]

@SusanLR Those are all beautiful, and I really like your pet frogs. You have an amazing green thumb, orchids are so picky and difficult. A lot of plants had to give their lives before I learned how to properly take care of them.

 

[Chance]

My plants won't fit indoors... so mine doesn't really count I guess.
I manage golf courses. I raise and care for golf greens for a living...
Its a challenge... I also have some other cool plants but I got to go get pics of them.

 

[Ambi]

I used to keep African violets, orchids, and jade plants, when I had better lighting. I now still have an orchid, but I need to change the potting mix. I had switched it to be drier and looser based on recommendations on line, but it retains so little water the poor plant dries out far too soon and often - so I need to finally add more moss to the potting mix (I have procrastinated for months!). We have low light now, so we've got 2 spider plants that nothing seems to kill, they just keep making more baby plants and putting out white flowers. My favorite plant that we've got right now that's good for low light is heartleaf philodendron - it's just so lush and green and drapey

 

[Chance]

I'm not sure on your growing region, but we use fescue in all the shady places here...

I think your plantain issue is like our "swine cress" here... Its a real problem because most anything that eliminates it kills the Pencross Bent Grass (greens grass) Lots of hand work if you dislike chem. apps. I dislike chem. apps... but I am taking care of hundreds of acres and millions of dollars invested so we have too, but we use the safest chemicals we can buy (all are golf course certified). Plus we use beetles and all sorts of alternatives to keep as organic as possible.

What is your new grass that you mixed in with plantain? I can cross reference them and see if there is something if you want to spray?
Lots of people don't like that (I'm not real fond of it myself). I understand if you don't.

 

[Mia]

Unfortunately it's hardiness zone 3a. It's pretty difficult to grow things outdoors, do a lot of alpine and local plants. Fescue might do well here, I'll try that, Thanks. I used kentucky blue grass, which I think was inappropriate, but at the time the only seed I could find locally for low light. Suspect that it was mixed/contaminated with plantain seed.

 

[Gracey]

@Mia
Thanks for the advice on the Mother in laws' tongue, much appreciated. Mine has some sort of long, stemmy flower thing every year so I figured it couldn't be that unhappy but the whole plant looks pale when compared with that lush, green example you posted up.
Thanks again x

 

[Alaska]

I decided that if I put the energy into plant indoors, they have to be useful/edible. I have one beet I grow for leaves for juicing since the leaves have better nutrition than the beet roots. I killed more of them when I was sick. I will probably get and plant more soon.

I also have a couple of basil plants because that is my favorite herb and I love pesto. I have cuttings in water that I need to pot.

I usually have cat grass growing, but they like beet leaves also.

There are some small herbs that need repotting. Rosemary plants are the ones I am most interested in.

I have been saving seeds from wild herbs/weeds that I want to try growing indoors because I dislike using plants that have smog and road dust on them.

I want to add baby carrots to use for juice.

If you put mostly CFL lights plus one incandescent light, you can light up quite a few plants without a huge power bill.

I make my own self-watering containers. This usually keeps plants going when I feel bad.

Aquaponics seems like a good idea since it could cut down on work if I get an underground greenhouse some day. I have not felt up to doing all the study necessary to deal with fish lately. I have not given up on this yet, though.

I have taken seeds from wild herbs and scattered or planted them in more convenient places outside in the last place I lived. I am not sure I can get away with this here, but might try it.

 

[8398]

In the end I'm more interested in growing edibles outside. But I do like seeing plant life in my room. I had an aloe, it was dying so I harvested to juice, it was really nice on my face. Got rid of zits. I also have a pink quill bromeliad which is gorgeous. I want to start a carnivorous plant collection, I had a few flytraps but the naughty birds I was raising tore them along with many other things.

 

[Chance]

I saw this indoor herb garden that is made on the wall... I am remodeling my house, (its a nightmare right now)... Not even living in it at this time. I hope to be done and back in it before I leave this fall.

I like to cook, and use everything I can local. We call it "farm to fork" here. I think it would be cool to just go in the mud room and harvest what I need and it would smell good also.

 

[Mia]

That's a really good idea Chance. Would really like to have one entire wall inside that looked like that. I've seen these advertised, but they are far too expensive:

Looks too as if they grow lots of herbs and lettuces, but the pans would grow plants with a very shallow root system. So only specific plants would work. As much as I like the idea, I probably don't eat or want to eat this kind of food all the time. Would prefer vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, beets, celery, squash, zucchini, peppers if I were to grow inside. Yet, I think they might require much more sun, and likely a greenhouse.