I try everything, regular watering, decent light, spritzing with a fine mist, but some plants just shrivel up and die while others bust out of their pots and require a bigger home, like a hermit crab looking for a new shell. I have yet to figure out what I’m doing wrong or right, but I am determined to keep trying. My sister-in-law Natalie can grow anything in a pot or in the ground. She inspires me (with envy) every time I visit her magical gardens.
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| My sister-in-law Natalie's Christmas Cactus |
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| My Christmas Cactus |
HALLIE EPHRON: I'm pretty good with houseplants, but my philosophy is, if they don't thrive, they're compost. Hey, it just wasn't meant to be. What I have to be careful about is overwatering. And at the first sign of scale, OUT. I'm hit and miss with orchids.
My daughter will be moving soon into an apartment where she wants plants, so I've been propagating mine. Here's the two plants I started for her. A begonia Rex that I started from cutting from a plant that was started from a cutting of a friend's plant. And an African violet started similarly, from a cutting from a plant that started as a cutting.
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| Propagating Hallie! |
LUCY BURDETTE: I'm pretty good with houseplants too. And here's my tip--don't overdo anything, especially water. And don't be afraid to give them a haircut. I had a gorgeous rosemary plant that began to die off, leaving only one little stalk green. A friend advised me to cut everything else off and we did. Here's what it looks like now--happy as a clam in silt. Hallie, I want an African violet slip next spring, ok?
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| Lucy's Rosemary |
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Dead dead dead. Dead. I should learn from the reality that the only ones that live are the ones I don't care about . so ignoring them seems to be the key. I had a truly ugly poinsettia that I got free from the grocery that lived for THREE YEARS. But! I have one success, and that is this African Violet that Rosann Coleman (Reed Farrel Coleman's wife) gave me as a house gift. It has bloomed several times a year for four years, and it is so happy! (For whatever mysterious reason.)My orchids live, because I give them four ice cubes a week, if I remember. But I am better with cut flowers. I really take care of them, and no pressure, because they will inevitably die no matter what I do. SO basically? Unless someone gives me a plant, forget about it.
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| Hank's Violet |
DEBORAH CROMBIE: This is something I don't have to worry about too much, because I have a plant-eating cat. The only things I can have are orchids, which seem to do pretty well and do not tempt the cat, and the Boston ferns I bring in from outside and hang in the sun porch for the winter. Usually when the ferns go back outside in the spring, I buy new ones for the sun porch so that the room doesn't seem so bare, but this year they were horrible and I gave up on them after a couple of months. And, yes, the cat eats any fallen fern leaves, too. And barfs.
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| Deb's Ferns! |
INGRID THOFT: Hank, I think your African Violet is so happy because it’s from Rosanne! Of course, it blooms! I have a pretty good track record with indoor plants with the exception of one. This plant (and truth be told, I don’t know what is is) has been battling an infestation of white, gunky stuff for some time. I treat it with insecticidal soap, and it still isn’t happy. Luckily, it has kept its condition to itself, but I fear it will jump to the healthy plants. One of my favorite things about indoor plants? Shopping for beautiful pots to put them in!
RHYS BOWEN: I think I'm okay with house plants or would be if I was home for a nice long stretch. But alas I move between California and Arizona and spend time in Europe in the summer, not to mention book events, conventions etc. I leave some house plants with my daughters, who kill them or like them and forget to return them. A few small favorites get transported with me between houses. If I'm gone more than three days forget it... that's what John does. Forget to water plants. I've never kept an orchid alive to bloom again, but I can just manage African violets.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's a funny thing. I never used to be able to keep house plants alive. The only living plants we had were a Christmas cactus that Ross took care of and a couple friendship plants that are pretty much impossible to kill.
Then Ross passed away, and suddenly I had a green thumb.
I have geraniums that have survived and flourished. Begonia and impatiens that were only supposed to be porch plants for the season. Succulents and philodendron that multiply. The Smithie has a theory: she thinks I have an absolute limit on nurturing, and husband, three kids, two dogs and two cats used it all up. Now I'm taking care of fewer of them, I have more mojo for the plants. I dunno, she may be on to something.
JENN: I was catching up to the rebooted Murphy Brown (I love that show then and now) and she was talking about taking up gardening in retirement but "It wouldn't be fair to the plants". I hear you, Murph. LOL!
Okay, Readers, tell us your secrets, successes and failures with houseplants? All tips, tricks, and advice welcome!
Ordinarily, I might I have said that plants do well here . . . but my Crown of Thorns suffered some sort of an unknown, but deadly mishap. It was fine one day, departed the next. :(
ReplyDeleteBut the herbs are all doing well, as are the petunias and the other houseplants. I have glass globes that drip water into the pot, so I don’t have to remember to water the plants all the time [just to refill the aqua globes] . . . .
That's so smart. I need to get some of those globes!
DeleteAqua globes?! Just checked them out on Amazon. Sounds perfect for when we go on vacation. Problem is, I'd need a LOT of them.
DeleteI hadn't heard of these, but now I think I might order some for my father. My mom left behind many lovely houseplants, and he's evermore not a plant kind of person.
DeleteI have a brown thumb. Any plant I try to grow dies a slow, painful death. Even the cactus I bought for my garden window died.
ReplyDeleteI have some boxes I can plant stuff in, and I gave up on that because my balcony gets too hot. Even though plants aren't in the sun, they roast in the summer.
I'm no good with potted plants outside either - desert life! They fry up fast!
DeleteOutdoor plants require constant watering. I'm good for a few weeks and then forgetful. All it takes is once.
DeleteYes, and it is so depressing after you take care of them and take care of them, and then, a week goes by with no rain and you forget. But impatiens will come back, just douse them.
DeleteI confine my gardening to the outdoors because I have three cats who will eat any plant life inside. I used to do well with African violets and pothos and all the easy indoor things, but now the cats just mow through them. The lone exception was a poor, stunted Norfolk Island pine somebody gave me for Christmas one year. I kept that baby alive for maybe ten years, moving it outdoors in the summer and back inside in the fall, until I took it out this past spring and my silly youngest dog decided it would be great fun to grab it by the trunk, rip it out of the pot, and take it on a victory lap all around the back yard, shaking the dirt from its roots. It never recovered.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm working on a perennial garden on the front side of my house, and had a pretty awesome plant stand on my back patio this year, so I'm not really worried about the relative greenness of my thumbs.
I can totally picture that Gigi, laughing now but I bet it wasn't funny at the time!
DeleteMy garden is all shade loving perennials. So mostly green.
DeleteSuch a dramatic death!
DeleteI'm pretty good with indoor plants - except Christmas cactus. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteRoberta, what's your secret with rosemary indoors? I can never get it to be happy inside - and it's just a bit too cold to overwinter it in the ground outside.
I've kept it in a very sunny window and that's it. And as I said, we cut most of it off when it started to die...
DeleteEdith, I need to make you a Christmas cactus, too - they're SO easy. And so rewarding when they go into bloom. I want a yellow one which I saw once in the supermarket and should have bought.
DeleteI would love that, Hallie. I inherited both of mine (one is pink and used to bloom near Mother's Day) and they're both in terrible shape. Repotting didn't help!
DeleteThanks, Roberta. I'm going to dig up the outdoor one and see how it does!
I’m with Edith - Christmas cactus hate me.
DeleteI have huge success with indoor plants...as long as they are made of silk ;) I've given up on the real things, as they are more stress inducing than pleasure giving in my life. Outdoors, I've got a good perennial garden going with shade-loving plants. They seem to hold their own with minimal intervention from me, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Hank on cut flowers - those I love, and would have fresh all the time if money were no object!
Yes it’s so fabulous! And they are so beautiful… There’s some kind of quote about taking pennies from your food money, and saving at them for flowers. That’s how I feel!
DeleteI have a friend who always has fresh flowers - there is something very cheerful about them.
DeleteThe aqua globes sound ideal. I have an aloe plant sending satellites over the kitchen counter and a wimpy orchid I feed with ice cubes qne spend the winter enjoying potted amaryllis and paper white narcissus.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love to do the Amaryllis in the winter! Thank you for reminding me!
DeleteLove the paper white narcissus. I’ve also gotten into air plants- you just soak them once per week. No soil. Easy peasy.
DeleteI put last winter's amaryllis outside and it rebloomed this past summer!
DeleteJenn, I am right there with you. I've killed cacti, and even philodendrons, which are supposed to be nearly impossible to kill. I had a lovely Christmas cactus and then one day I...didn't.
ReplyDeleteThe Girl took an orchid to college with her and then I bought her some green/yellow leafy thing at Whole Foods. And she wants a rosemary plant when the season comes back around. I wonder how they're doing...
Mary/Liz
I just killed a philodendron and a spider plant - is that even possible? Yes.
DeleteI'm horrible with plants. I know this and never set out to acquire them, but occasionally I receive them as gifts. The poor things are lucky if they last a month.
ReplyDeleteReally, trying to galactic them! Just water when you think of it, and it seems to work. I have a jade plant, or something like that, that seems to be thriving because I don’t remember it’s there :-)
DeleteOn borrowed time - I hear you.
DeleteYou might be on to something, Hank. I'm sure the plants would do much better if I simply ignored them. They certainly couldn't do worse. And Jenn, I am now going to think of all future plants that end up in my house as "soon to be deads"!
DeleteI love gardening--indoors and out. But this house isn't plant-friendly. In desperation, older nephew begged for a spider plant from a friend and she (he named her Victoria) is now hanging quite happily in the kitchen window. But there aren't good places to put plants in the other rooms--and no place you could possibly park a plant is safe from the cats anyway. In my other life (sans kids/cats and different house), there were many well-loved and thriving plants--including a Christmas cactus that bloomed faithfully. Outside I had a white flower garden in front of my porch--white so that as the night drew down, the blooms were still visible. Flower boxes full of vivid blooms. A shade garden. Alas, those days are far behind me :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, Flora, that’s so beautiful… What a lovely idea. I love white flowers, two, and I love my white tulips in the spring! When do squirrels don’t eat the bulbs. I bring them indoors, and they last for so long! But I am so neurotic about cutting them… I can never decide whether they want to be cut or not.
DeleteI’m with you, Hank! I have a terrible time cutting flowers of my own. Much easier to buy them cut. Flores, your former gardens sound lovely.
DeleteI have one house plant that I've kept going for decades now, a Christmas cactus with season dysphoria: blooms at Thanksgiving and Easter. Every few years I repot it, often forget to water it from one month to the next, and never fertilize it. The cat tries to pee in in, but a good many well place wooden skewers discourage that business, although I feel a bit like the Viet Cong.
ReplyDeleteOrchids I do well with but I'm done with them. I don't have the room in the kitchen when they get steam and indirect northern light et al. As long as Trader Joe's sells them for 10-15 bucks, I buy a new one when the old one is done blooming. Every spring I put what I have out on the patio in a shady spot to see what happens.Any that survive may get another chance. Or not.
Our sunroom with windows on three sides should be perfect for houseplants, but I seem to neglect them if I put them in there. Then I have only carcasses to deal with. Not worth the bother.
I am boggled that people can get those Christmas cactuses to thrive - boggled!
DeleteMy husband used to have one. It bloomed at odd times. Easter, Valentine's day, 4th of July. Rarely Christmas.
DeleteChristmas cactuses thrive on benign neglect.
DeleteI enjoy houseplants because they help a home look less barren to me. That said, I don't have very many at the moment. We moved across the country to help my mother-in-law, who is having difficulties with memory, and several months afterwards there was a house fire. Because of some reconstruction, painting and the pervasive smoke, I feel the need for some air purifying long term. And so I bought some old favorites for the job like peace lilies, golden pothos, aloe vera, and Mother-in-law's tongue. I keep the aloe vera near a window but the others are strewn across the house in rooms with little sunlight, they are forgiving of mild drought (when I forget to water for a time, and are still doing very well. These are good troopers. Unfortunately, peace lilies and golden pothos are not good for pets to eat, so far as I know.
ReplyDeleteBefore my move, I had a well loved goldfish plant. It was kept in a sunny window and was happy enough to bloom regularly. A friend gifted me a parrot beak plant that only lasted a year. I put the two plants together for the sunlight and called that area of the window sill, "Neither fish, nor fowl."
Love that, Lil!
DeleteLOL! Sorry about the trials but love your plant tales.
DeleteNo plants for me. We have two cats, and I don't want to expose them to plants that might make them ill. In case you didn't know, Lillies and Poinsettias....and Diefenbachias, etc, etc, can kill a cat....so check before you get houseplants, if you have cats.
ReplyDeleteEven if we didn't have cats, I wouldn't have houseplants. They would die of neglect. I don't plant things outdoors, either. I'm perfectly happy to let other people do that.
I have a Poinsettia, J, and I solved the cat problem by putting it on a plant stand that's only large enough for the pot. I figured if the cats tried to jump on and knocked it over, I'd hear and come running before they could eat anything. But neither of them has ever assailed it.
DeleteThankfully none of our cats are plant eaters!
DeleteI love plants and flowers, both indoors and out. They don’t return the love. Well, they used to, but somewhere along the line, no matter where I have lived, we haven’t been able to co-exist. When I was in my early twenties I had dozens of houseplants, all thriving. I even named them: Will(for Shakespeare), William Blake, Chaucer, etc. (Yes, I was an English major.) I used to spend hours each month on Saturdays, browsing up and down the aisles of greenhouses, picking out plants to add to the “family” either that day or eventually. One Saturday morning I noticed that a couple of my plants had some sort of “dust” on them. I pulled bought some plant books and researched what to do for it. I followed the directions. Within three days all of them, around three dozen, were dead.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I slowly started buying plants again, or received them as gifts. They nearly all died. Right now I have about half a dozen houseplants. A couple were from cuttings given to me by a coworker (The Plant Whisperer) a long time ago. They’re still alive, but... barely, until I get around to watering them. One of my oldest plants, a Peace Lily, was given to me by my sister for my Fiftieth birthday (so you know it’s OLD). It has lots of leaves but the only blossoms it has ever had were the ones it had when I received it. When the leaves wilt, I know it’s time to water it. (This pains my friend The Plant Whisperer.) My biggest problem is that I rarely remember to water anything. If I didn’t have the Peace Lily I probably wouldn’t remember that plants even require watering. I love watching it come back to life. My friend thinks that’s sick.
When I do go to plant nurseries now, I wonder if any plants I might be interested in have panic attacks when they see me coming, and shriek to each other “Play dead!! Play dead! The Plant Killer is here!
This summer I did do some deck gardening again for the first time in years. It was a wet summer, so almost everything lived. I even have an over abundance of basil, and had lots and of sweet golden cherry tomatoes. My sister, giver of the Peace Lily, gave me the plants and planted them as a retirement gift. Maybe that fooled them into surviving?
DebRo
I kust now posted my bit on the front page of the blog, DebRo, but I have a similar story to your, in reverse. Any hapless plant that fell into my clutches died within months, if not weeks. But after my husband died, I suddenly had an amazing facility for keeping plants alive and growing. I've gone from a couple friendship plants and a Christmas cactus to two succulent gardens, two philodendrons, a pair of begonias, a poinsettia, two geraniums and a basket of mixed plants - all thriving, despite my house getting downright chilly over the winter. I can't explain it.
DeleteWow! How about mailing me an index card with your thumbprint on it?! I can wave it in front of my Survivors, and tell them “this is the Julia Seal of Approval!
DeleteDebRo
The Hooligans gave me a peace lily a few years ago - it started the plant journey. It’s still with us - barely.
DeleteI'm afraid it's pretty hit or miss. I've learned not to waste money on ferns in hanging baskets. They die. I've managed to keep a peace lily alive for 12 years now. It was split off from one Mom received when my little sister died. I've another green plant, philodendron maybe?, from when Dad died. Ugh. I do have the Christmas cactus I gave Mom last year. It is alive and hopefully will bloom. I parked it outside on the porch where it is enduring a deluge at the moment. Outdoor plants, planted and in pots, are again hit or miss. I've managed to keep a potted yester-today-tomorrow plant alive for 15 years now. Wow. Its blooms smell so good. And I have an even older aloe. Those are pretty hard to kill though. I'm more in the benign neglect camp. I try to remember to water the plants. If I don't they droop and remind me.
ReplyDeleteMy father lived in the same small Bronx apartment for more than 40 years. He truly had a green thumb. With very blocked sun, he found a way to have a cornucopia of plants that thrived. I haven’t been back to the apartment since his death, so I don’t know if my stepmom has kept the plants there. The living room was already cluttered so she might have given the plants all away.
ReplyDeleteIn my little apartment complex, in Bucks County, PA, I really don’t have a good window for sun. Our windows are west facing and somewhat blocked by large oak trees. So, I’ve done without plants for the 8 years that we have lived here. A year ago, in March, I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show. I was delighted, in particular, with a booth with an exhibit of bonsai plants. I purposed in my heart to get a bonsai by last Christmas for myself. Well, it didn’t happen. Even a young bonsai seems expensive. A friend of mine gave me an indoor palm plant of some sort which her cat would not stop munching on. It doesn’t look like much but it is still alive. The web says “don’t over water it.”
This past May, I saw on Amazon, a plant that they called a Devil’s Golden Ivy. It didn’t look like much in the tiny pot that they delivered to me. The book says they’re hard to kill. Well in the 5 months that I’ve had it, three leaves have turned into 18 leaves and two of the branches are climbing. I transplanted it to an eight-inch terra cotta pot and the web says again “Don’t overwater it.” All summer, I kept it in a sill of my bedroom window, which gets some afternoon sun. This past weekend, I transferred it to my living room desk where the other plant is. It’s right behind my laptop, so it is in my field of vision often. I love it. Maybe, next Spring, if it survives the winter, I will try a cutting, especially if it needs to be repotted.
I still have my heart set on a bonsai.
The Hub is longing for a bonsai! Let me know if you find a good one!
DeleteI do not garden inside or outside. I do not feel bad about it. I have to tell myself this whenever someone starts a gardening or plant discussion. It's not that I don't enjoy gardens, flowers and plants, but I just don't have the gardening gene. Having said that, if I get my back screened-in porch turned into a sunroom/office, I will probably have a plant or two.
ReplyDeleteMy gardens are best outdoors so I hear you.
DeleteI discovered that it’s less stressful and more interesting to approach plants as an experiment: how long can this survive me? This has been my most successful year, including starting some plants from cuttings. (Granted, they’re the kind that spread madly, but I chose where they would spread, so I’m taking points!)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!
DeleteThe inside of my house is the plant equivalent of The Green Mile. Outdoor plants have a 70/30 chance of seeing the next year...not so bad. Elder daughter shames me by apologizing to plants as I purchase them. And yet, I persist.
ReplyDeleteI had to bring the ferns inside last night! 43 and raining in Dallas and I have been out in it all day. Welcome to winter!
ReplyDeleteI was happy to see that I'm not the only one with plant munching cats.
ReplyDeleteI love gardening outdoors where God helps to water. Indoors, not so much. I have 2 excuses. First a double house doesn't have many good windows for sun. Second steam heat comes up like crazy and then goes cold. I've brought home several fully blooming Christmas cacti, and as soon as they get in the house all the flowers fall off. It isn't worth the hassle.
ReplyDeleteI'm good with some houseplants, others, not so much.
ReplyDeleteA boyfriend gave me a croton in 1976. It was a pretty large plant then, bigger than any I'd had before, but the thing grew, and grew, and grew. Finally, since it was completely filling the big bay window in the kitchen, and encroaching on the space we use for the table, I donated it to the local Waldorf school. That was four years ago. I just got a report about it. Still going strong, and very much enjoying its much bigger space. That makes me so happy.
A spathe lily, another croton, and a dracaena marginata that were all part of a dish garden someone gave me 12 years ago, are all HUGE now. The dracaena was very spindly, but I carried it outside for the summer and it sprouted all kinds of new growth. These plants were all under 5"; now they are 3-6 feet tall. I keep putting them in bigger pots, and try not to overwater them.
Years ago my son's girlfriend gave me a cactus in a terrarium. She said I couldn't possibly kill it. I did.
ReplyDelete