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Frequent Contributor
Posts: 127
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Just wondering if anyone would be interested in doing a weekly houseplant discussion. A place where we could discuss any questions, provide care tips, share in excitement of new plant babies, etc.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,721
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

I need to get my geraniums in for psychotherapy.

 

The bloom ALL WINTER in the house...they must LOVE where I have them in bright light...they get beautiful thick foliage and many blooms...

 

then summer comes, I put them outside ( still in the pots) and they  make gorgeous thich foliage and NO flowers!!

 

I love these three plants I have because the flowers are so pretty....

 

I live in four season climate ( Western PA) and have had geraniums for decades. I think they're supposed to "rest" over the winter, but they are so pretty I don't want to cut them back too much for fear of killing them.

 

 

 

So I buy other flowers for summer use. These are only three plants, but boy are they pretty!!!

 

YES I would read about plants.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,634
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

I have a brown thumb, but I do have a couple of plants that are doing well in spite of me.

I have a beatuiful ivy (Named Fern), a fern (Named Ivy), a bamboo plant (Named Rambo & Rambo just had a baby!), & a wandering jew (The green & purple striped variety, & it hasn't picked it's name, yet.)

I have them in the corner of my dining room on an old wooden high chair with a flameless candle tucked in there, so they glow at night.

My husband commented last week that it looks very "Martha Stewart-y". 

I don't think Martha would have the sad, most common plants in the world on her high chair, but it's okay!

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,028
Registered: ‎04-03-2016

I prepared a large pot with cuttings of my plants I had on my deck this summer - coleus.  Unfortunately they have all died.  I guess I over-watered since stems turned brown at base and it moved upward.  So disappointed.  My house plant skills need improvement.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,249
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

I'm in! 

 

I just started rooting Christmas cacti. I had great luck with getting mine to bloom this year,  I prefer easy plants!  They live on my patio all summer long.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,658
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

I have 3 plants from 2 different friends.

2 are amaryllis and they haven't bloomed yet but have huge green leaves that once they take off seem to grow before my eyes! One is my daughters that I rescued and am hoping with love and care it will bloom too. The directions are complicated I think.

 

The other one is pretty with dark  green leaves and doesn't need much care or light.

 

I haven't named mine😄, but like my mother  always did, I do talk to them and pet them!

"If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew. Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains? can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"
Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,604
Registered: ‎10-25-2010

@Othereeeen   I bring in my geraniums for the winter.  They are pretty big.  i take small cuttings and put the stems in water and never buy new ones for  spring plantings unless I want a different variety or color.  I don't cut them back, but boy, do I have to clean up dried leaves.

 

I am wintering two very large Mandavillas in my garage.  i didn't cut them back.  I hope they survive the winter. They are still flowering.

 

I live in South Central PA.

 

I too, would like a forum about plants.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,882
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

I love houseplants!  I have over 14 pots going right now in my front rooms. 

 

I just split (anthruriums) into 4 pots.  I may've put them pots that are too big --which is a horrible habit I have!  They may not flower again which is a shame because one was a rather rare coral peach color that matches a chair perfectly. 

 

I have an orchid that is *down* (what I call in between blooming times).  It's 5 and half years old and has presented itself three times so far.  It's has light green colored flowers--very hard to find.  Bought it at a grocery store.

 

I also have a night blooming cactus, it's like an orchid, and is sometimes called an orchid cactus.  Bright fuscia pink flowers.  It only bloomed once, grows buds every year and they fall off.  The cactus itself is very showy, like a sturdier version of a Christmas cactus.  About a foot tall above the soil line.  I'm babying it in a bathroom over winter and hoping for the best next spring/summer.

 

My diehards are my Chinese Money plants, my foxtail ferns, an aloe plant and my African violets.

 

Unfortunately, my plants have had to travel with us from our summer place to our winter home.  That may be why some aren't doing so well (geranium especially---my mother has had one for about 6 years in constant bloom, pretty pink). 

 

The anthuriums are a dime a dozen, but I hope to find that pretty color again if mine doesn't bloom.  It's leaves are healthy and full, but that can be part of the problem.

 

 

 

 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,109
Registered: ‎04-14-2013

Great idea.  I have more houseplants than I could count in my mind right now.

 

Everybody's doing well, except for a ficus I got last year - it's Ficus triangularis 'variegata', one I'd never seen before (it doesn't seem to have a common name, other than "variegated triangle leaved fig"). It's a beautiful little shrubby plant, that is, if it didn't have just two looks:  with leaves, and without leaves.

 

I should have known.  I remember when weeping figs were all the rage and they were notoriously temperamental.

 

It was happiest on the front porch this summer, mostly ignored, rarely watered.  I'm trying it in the third place inside the house this winter, in a room flooded with light and a humidifier running 24/7.  If I can just hold it 'til spring I'll put it back out, but I wanted to showcase it in the living space, not just use it for a porch plant.  Oh well.  Maybe with time.

 

Each day more leaves fall, but the good news is, they're not all perfectly good looking leaves (like, it's normally shedding older ones, rather than just indiscriminately dropping leaves) and appears to have new leaf buds.

 

Any tips on ficus culture would be welcome!

Cogito ergo sum
Frequent Contributor
Posts: 127
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

@Mary Bailey I have 3. Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter and I've never gotten them to bloom. But one day....