Garden

[vonIam]

@Sweetbay magnolia Ficus in general are just finicky in my opinion. I do not have the Triangularis, but have have several other varieties. They don't like to be moved and throws a fit by dropping leaves when you do.

[Mary Bailey]

@vonIamput them in a dark cool place for a few months, water very sparingly. 

I'm trying to get mine to bloom again. I put in guest room a week ago, fingers crossed.

[Lucky Charm]

Oh how could I forget my mandarin plants!

I have two on either side (behind me) as I type.

They are from the spider plant family (nothing like a spider plant) and have orange stems and beautiful dark green leaves.  

I also have several cacti in a huge planter in an upstairs window.  The tall one is a white haired man or lady and there are several other I have no idea what the name of them is.  They are the only plants I put outside in the summer.

[Lucky Charm]

My biggest fear is the fact that I have hardwood floors throughout (brand new) and I'm so scared of water laying on them for an extened period of time without my knowledge.  

I am just as a-nal  (okay I'll say annual...lol) about my planters as I am the plants that live in them.  I search high and low for the perfect pot to complement my decor and just as importantly--please the plant.  Although, no home is eternal, so I'm on a constant search.

Lighting is of essence and I'm always reading up on what the best is for each plant.  You ask several experts and they'll give several differing expert answers.  So sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind.

Perfect example, bright light I would've thought of as indirect, but an extremely bright area.  No direct sunlight. 

But I've read where bright light does mean a few hours of actual sunlight.  When I've put plants in direct sunlight, they don't seem to like it and back they go to an indirect but bright area.  And they're happy.

I move plants around, too, during the day.  Not every plant, not every day.  Am I the only one?

[Othereeeen]

@Carmie 

I hear you on the dead leaves!!

On "Warm" days in winter I take each pot outside and "rub off" or otherwise discard the leaves, the plant seem to love that!!

The air is very dry in my house....

When I can't get them outside to do this, I gently pull them off or use the wand on the vacuum to get as many as I can!

I use the largernTemptation "lid its" from the bakers as plant saucers. They are pretty, don't leak, and since I won't use them in the oven to cook with, (cracking hazard) they get some use. Clean up is easy too...residue from plant dirts, leaks and Miracle Grow come right off!

I never throw out old Tempations bowls etc...I use them for flower pots and  plant saucers til they break! You can use a "masonry" drill bit ( for drilling into tile) to carefully drill drain holes in the bottom of the bowls if you want to, but I mostly use them to contain the plastic flower pots they come in from the garder center

. In summer, things dry out so fast the water doesn't have time to collect!!!

[Sweetbay magnolia]

Good morning houseplant fiends (I mean friends).

I just bought a new rex begonia.  I have a collection of 6 now.  If you haven't seen them, the foliage is extraordinary, though they also bloom - the flowers are much like the wax begonias we grow in the garden, but less plentiful.

Later I'll post a photo of some of mine, but this is a stock photo of my newest:

I resisted getting a second one, as it's a variety I don't have.  I may cave on that though!

ETA:  There are also some new maidenhair ferns where I buy houseplants.  Another one I resisted - so beautiful but doomed to fail.  What I should do is find a glass jar and make a terrarium with one.

[ninjawife]

DH and I have two houseplants.  His is a Money tree which has gotten pretty big.  Mine is a Christmas cactus.  I know the cactus isn't supposed to be in direct sunlight but mine sits in a sunny window and it blooms every Christmas.  

[Growing]

I have a lot of houseplants because I love them and can't have pets. I will just write about one. I had a spider plant "baby" grow out and so I cut it out and put it in a cup of water until it grew little white roots (4-6 weeks maybe). Then I potted it in a tiny pot like you buy for outdoor plants at the nursery. I kepy the soil pretty damp for a month I guess. Now I am letting it dry out in between waterings as spider plants don't like damp soil all the time. And I noticed this morning how much my baby sprout is now growing. I'd say some "leaves" or fronds are six inches long and it is multiplying itself. I have never had luck making a spider plant baby grow. So I am patting myself on the back!

[Growing]

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@vonIam wrote:

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

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I have good luck with mine but I do the totally dark room for 12 hours a day starting in September for at least six weeks. I am currently overwatering mine and they aren't doing well. Why I have been overwatering them is just plain dumbness on my part. I know better. I also repotted mine into big pots and now they are huge but don't bloom much. Mine were pot bound or root bound before. That is not good for them either. I have read some good things online on gardening websites about cutting them back in late summer to encourage blooms. I will try this next year. I also use an organic fertilizer on them and they seem to really like that as they put out a ton of new growth after fertilizing. Mine are Thanksgiving cactus' and one is still blooming. You can tell what kind they are by the types of leaves they have. 

[River Song]

So, why did my Christmas cactus only put out six blooms when every branch had flower buds on them?  All the buds then fell off when it was done flowering.

I live in Florida and the cactus is outside on my shady screened-in front porch (south exposure).