Houseplants

My grandmother had a house full of house plants. I use to have some and enjoyed them. I do not have a good place for them now. I had a huge rubber tree over 12 ft. that started out as a 1ft. baby. I hated giving that one away.

I love my house plants and do not mind taking care of them or finding spaces for them. I love what they add to our decor. I have at least one in every room.

I used to have lots of house plants. Then I got cats and they liked to eat them, so I got rid of the plants and replaced them with silk plants. Well, the cats liked to eat the silk plants too! My kids used to tease me that I even killed silk plants when they stopped by and some some of the twigs left of the silk plants. So, alas, the only plant like material I have around the house now is in my wreaths.

You are right in that houseplants don't seem to be as popular as they used to be. For some reason my green thumb turned brown, so I was plant less for a few years. I have about six now and have a small humidifier in the center area where most of them are (near a window). I don't think the house I live in now is conducive for plant life, but I really missed having plants and am trying again. I won't have artificial plants in my home (not good energy). One thought I had was that so many of the new homes are very airtight, which probably makes the indoors drier causing plants to be prone to mites and missing the humidity that the outdoor offers.

Even though my mother and grandmothers had lots of houseplants, I have had very limited interest in them. Now that my husband has COPD, and my daughters have asthma, I no longer keep plants in the living area of the house due to mold spores in the dirt. I do have 2 plants I keep in the basement; a wax leaf begonia that belonged to my maternal grandmother, and a Christmas cactus that belonged to my paternal grandmother who died in 1969. I also have the large poinsettia from Christmas in the basement, and it is leafing out and greening up again, and will be ready to put on the front porch in June.

I have many plants in my house. In fact today I am repotting several into larger pots. I always said I would never have fake plants or flowers but I have to admit I tucked a couple of small silk plants into a bookcase where nothing real would grow. I just water the ones that need it once a week and they thrive.

I think you see fewer plants in homes for many reasons including allergies, pets, children, lack of time or interest to tend them, etc. I have two large fiddle leaf figs that survive despite my neglect, but mostly I keep plants outside where they are easier to water and get plenty of light.

I love houseplants and I only have two currently. Lucky bamboo and I cant remember the name of the other one. It comes around in Lowes and Home Depot every spring and summer. Its a little tree looking thing that butterflies and/or humming birds tend to like and the flowers are beautiful but I swear the flowers only last a day or two before they fall off. So it looks green most of the time. In the winter time we keep our house at around 60-62 degrees because we heat by oil. So any new plant that I decide to get I will have to make sure they are very tolerant and dont mind that we keep our house a little chilly

But houseplants make me happy. And my dh too. He is excellent with plants. Im ok. He has had to revive some of mine that I thought were doing ok but not really. Im not horrible with plants but dh has a nack. I swear he can bring almost any plant back from the dead, and he will try his hardest too! Right now I want to transplant my lucky bamboo from the little clay pots they come in with the little pebbles to a nice pot with soil. I have to do some research on what kind of soil they like.

I love houseplants but have a brown thumb. Every once in a while I will go crazy and buy a bunch of plants, determined that this time, I'll keep them alive. Ha! They're dead within 6 months.