Anyone want to talk house plants?

[dr.girlfriend]

Maybe this is something that comes with age, but I'm trying to move away from my previous "only the strong survive" approach to houseplants and toward something that might be considered actual care.  :-)  In particular, I bought a rather expensive little plant at the Flower Show and am trying to make sure it survives, which has made me realize how lackadaisical my care of other plants has been.  So, if you're interested:

1. What's your favorite house plant?

2.  What's the house plant you've owned the longest?

3.  What's your newest acquisition?

4.  What's your biggest indoor plant?

5.  What's your smallest plant?

6.  What plant would you recommend someone get next?

7.  What plant have you given up on trying to keep alive?

8.  What's the best general tip you have for maintaining houseplants?

Answer any and all, and bonus points for pictures.

Here's my Flower Show plant, a dragon tail (raphidophora descurvia) that I just moved to get more light in hopes it'll get more densely-packed leaves instead of growing all vine.  It only had three little leaves and fit in my purse when I bought it in April.  That's a 25" moss pole it's on now.

[Susie]

1. What's your favorite house plant?

A cattleya orchid

2. What's the house plant you've owned the longest?

Stretching the definition of "house" plant, I have two peace lilies in my office at work that I've owned since my law school apartment (roughly 2005).  I've since split it into two pots.

3. What's your newest acquisition?

None recently.  I have an 8 month old puppy that has stalled plant acquisitions.  I've also been working more on my veggie garden and my landscaping.

4. What's your biggest indoor plant?

At my office I have what I think is a banana plant that I inherited from an attorney who left the firm.  It's now restricted by the height of the ceiling and I'm not sure what to do with/about it.  I have a cathedral ceiling family room, but no way to get it here.

5. What's your smallest plant?

At home, a lady of the night orchid that is struggling to grow.  I think it may not get enough sun.

6. What plant would you recommend someone get next?

Oh geez no clue.  Depends so much on conditions you can offer, effort and learning you're willing to put in, etc.

7. What plant have you given up on trying to keep alive?

I haven't had any die on me recently.

8. What's the best general tip you have for maintaining houseplants?

Learning about each particular plant's needs.  I like following @plantkween on IG.

[maudefindlay]

This is a pothos plant we got from late MIL after she passed 5 years ago. It is at least 25 years old per DH. It has given countless starts. We give starts to nieces and nephews when they get their first apartment or house. Tons of starts to preschool classes for when they decorate pots with plants as gifts for their parents.

[dr.girlfriend]

This is both my oldest and biggest. It used to be in my office and was about 8" tall, and now it's probably over five feet. Some kind of corn plant maybe? It keeps getting taller and has survived my terrible plant care. Usually when I'm taking a half-drunk cup of water to the kitchen I dump the extra in it.

[RockNVoll]

1. What's your favorite house plant? Impossible to answer, but a few I'm really fond of are my clivias (orange flowers), bleeding heart glorybower, and my various orchids. Sample pics of the first two but these aren't mine:

2. What's the house plant you've owned the longest? I've moved several times so hard to say but a few plants lived with relatives while I was gone and they were kind enough to give them back when I returned. The clivias is one of these and I would guess I've had a couple of my plants for 15+ years.

3. What's your newest acquisition? Maybe my ponytail palm? Mine is similar to this one.


4. What's your biggest indoor plant? Probably one of those corn plant dracaenas.

5. What's your smallest plant? A tiny aloe I'm trying not to kill. I have the worst luck with succulents, weirdly.

6. What plant would you recommend someone get next? I actually think phalaenopsis orchids are pretty easy to care for and if you want a flowering plant that's a little exotic, they're great.

7. What plant have you given up on trying to keep alive? I picked up this weird fuzzy-leafed plant that someone left out on the sidewalk to see what I could do with it (it was potted, not some random weed LOL). It just never did anything interesting and I got bored with it and let it die.

8. What's the best general tip you have for maintaining houseplants? Be realistic about how much care you want to put into them and buy plants accordingly.  Everything I have I generally water either once per week or once per month (snake plants, aloe) and anything that needs more care than that probably won't enter the house. You might be surprised by the huge array of plants this encompasses though!

[orval]

Airplants are my newest plants. They are low maintenance and kinda cool.
Where does everyone keep their plants? I have a window in my kitchen nook where I have a plant stand with a kolanchoe, peace lily and a croton. I have a couple phaelanopsis orchids in my basement. My airplant dish is on my kitchen table most of the time. I don't have more room for another plant stand and a couple of these need to be repotted into bigger pots.

[RockNVoll]

Oct 11, 2023 5:41:18 GMT -5 orval said:

Airplants are my newest plants. They are low maintenance and kinda cool.
Where does everyone keep their plants? I have a window in my kitchen nook where I have a plant stand with a kolanchoe, peace lily and a croton. I have a couple phaelanopsis orchids in my basement. My airplant dish is on my kitchen table most of the time. I don't have more room for another plant stand and a couple of these need to be repotted into bigger pots.

I'm lucky to have some south-facing windows. The biggest space is in the dining room where I have a console table right in front of the windows with a bunch of plants on it. There's also a buffet in that room with plants that don't need as much direct light.

Kitchen window has a few small things in it plus a jar of water where I keep my scallions. Other plants are in front of the slider door and living room window that are also south-facing.

Low-light areas have snake plants in them and they're all thriving. There are a couple of plants in our office space, several growing aquaponically in the primary bedroom, a money tree in the primary bathroom (since they like humidity and don't mind being in a north-facing window), a small dracaena in the guest room...

Basically there are plants all over my house, LOL. They make me happy and completely change the feeling of a space.

[macmars45]

1. What's your favorite house plant
The ones that live. ;-)

2. What's the house plant you've owned the longest?
All I've acquired over the last almost 3.5 years.

3. What's your newest acquisition?
My mom gave me 3 of her house plants recently. One is probably older than my almost 38 years. I also took in one of grandma's this past spring and that one is probably on the older side as well.

4. What's your biggest indoor plant?
Uh, none are huge.

5. What's your smallest plant?
Uh, something I bought at a plant store last spring. I don't remember the name.

6. What plant would you recommend someone get next?
That depends one what effort someone is willing to put in.

7. What plant have you given up on trying to keep alive?
I haven't had any die on me recently. I almost lost my Angel Wing (or something like that; I'm terrible at remembering their names) almost a year ago. I was ready to give up on it but kept trying and it revived itself.

8. What's the best general tip you have for maintaining houseplants?
Learning about your plants.... or in my case texting my mom & oldest sister with all my plant questions.

[dr.girlfriend]

Oct 10, 2023 21:08:51 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

5. What's your smallest plant? A tiny aloe I'm trying not to kill. I have the worst luck with succulents, weirdly.

I actually have the worst luck with succulents too, but I think I've realized it's more that they are completely out of my control.  I used to have one on my windowsill at work that grew amazingly -- then they outlawed plants at work and when I brought it home nothing I could do would keep it alive.  I currently have three on my kitchen windowsill that are doing fine, but any I try to keep alive in the living room are just dead in days to weeks.  I finally gave up this week and bought a bunch of fake succulents on Amazon prime to replace all the dead ones!  A lot of times someone has given me a succulent and I stare at it trying to figure out if it is real or fake, so I figure of all the fake plants maybe those are the least offensive.  :-)

[dr.girlfriend]

Oct 11, 2023 5:41:18 GMT -5 orval said:

Airplants are my newest plants. They are low maintenance and kinda cool.
Where does everyone keep their plants? I have a window in my kitchen nook where I have a plant stand with a kolanchoe, peace lily and a croton. I have a couple phaelanopsis orchids in my basement. My airplant dish is on my kitchen table most of the time. I don't have more room for another plant stand and a couple of these need to be repotted into bigger pots.

I have a lot in my main living room, although I'm realizing that the light is really too low in there for a lot of them. Exhibit A, that money tree which I also brought home from work and then immediately died, but the corn plant accomodatingly turned giant and is in that spot now.


I've bought a couple of pots with stands so I can move some of them to the hallway where hopefully they will get more light.



Otherwise, I have a few on the kitchen windowsill, a few on the hall entry table, and a few in another room, but if they are in a different room I will tend forget about them.

[dr.girlfriend]

Here, I actually took an updated photo of that table. You can see the fake succulents and the fake mini monstera trying to obscure the fact that the rest of these guys are struggling... ;-)

[dr.girlfriend]

6. What plant would you recommend someone get next?

Answering my own question, but I love my Pothos. If I go too long without watering it, it just looks sad and then perks up immediately once I've watered. I've overwatered it so badly that there was like 1/2 inch of water on the surface of the dirt, and I didn't even notice until I looked in the pot when I got ready to water it again. The pot has no drainage, and it's been in the same one for years, and it doesn't seem to mind. It doesn't seem to care how much light it gets.  I can cut pieces off and put them in water and give them away to other people who want an unkillable plant. Overall 11/10 for ease of maintenance, and it looks nice too. You can let it be drapey or cut it back and/or loop the vines around so it's more compact.  I'm too lazy to go take an updated picture but it's the plant on the right in this picture.  And the plant on the left is that same corn plant that is now five feet tall, showing off the pretty pot it broke when it got too tall and tipped over!

[simpsongal]

Oh my, I was hesitant to respond b/c I didn't know the names of all my house plants

I've got a lot pictured in this thread (pothos, umbrella, violets). My fiddle leaf fig is doing quite well, but I may need to prune it or something once it reaches ceiling height.

I love having plants but hate forgetting about them in odd spaces. I'd managed to keep an aloe and snake plant alive upstairs, so a win there - the rest of my plants are on the 1st floor.

I may put a plant or 2 in DS's snake terrarium... sometimes I let the snake climb our umbrella plant, he really loves real plants over fake (big surprise right?).

[dr.girlfriend]

Oct 16, 2023 8:40:20 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Oh my, I was hesitant to respond b/c I didn't know the names of all my house plants

I'm just now learning the names of most of mine thanks to that houseplant group!

I love fiddle leaf figs but I don't think I have enough light to keep them alive.  I just ordered grow lights for the monstera and the dragon tail to see if that helps.

ETA:  I love their little halos!

[mrsukyankee]

1. What's your favorite house plant? A Jade plant

2. What's the house plant you've owned the longest? The jade plant - it's only been a few years

3. What's your newest acquisition? I've been growing a chili plant indoors. It hasn't worked the way I had hoped (got too leggy)

4. What's your biggest indoor plant? the chili plant

5. What's your smallest plant? the jade plant

6. What plant would you recommend someone get next? nothing much

7. What plant have you given up on trying to keep alive? coriander - I've tried over and over to grow it inside and it keeps dying

8. What's the best general tip you have for maintaining houseplants? hahahaha...buy plants that are easy to keep alive

[RockNVoll]

Oct 16, 2023 8:40:20 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Oh my, I was hesitant to respond b/c I didn't know the names of all my house plants

There are apps for that! You take a pic and they can identify the plant for you by it's leaves, flowers, bark, etc. Very cool stuff! I use PlantNet but there are others.

[wawa]

I started to answer the questions and realized my answers were silly because I really only have one plant (well two. of the same kind)

I've only recently started trying to have plants. My mom has several house plants (pothos, snake plant, some begonias, spider plants, aloe, I forget what else) that she's had for decades and she brought me some cuttings last year. And I promptly murdered them (mostly*).
And then I bought some plants from my neighborhood plant sale and most of those I ALSO murdered, but I got two dragon wing begonias and omg they wont stop growing. They're HUGE. I have a garden window in my kitchen (which is why I want to have plants to begin with) and they're taking over the whole thing. I cut them both back and stuck the cuttings in water and they immediately rooted. (I gave some to my sister, now I need to figure out who else to give them to...) Those suckers WANT TO LIVE. And they grew back to being just as tall in like...a month. I don't know how to get them to calm down. I think I gave them too big of a pot when I moved them from their little nursury pots and they were just like, "FREEEEEEDOOOOMMMM!" If I put them in a smaller pot will they slow the hell down??

*when I killed the pothos there was still one little stem that still looked green. All the leaves had fallen off and most of the viney bits had shrivled and turned brown, but there was like a 3" section of stem that was green still attached to some roots. So I trimmed it and stuck it in one of the begonia pots and kinda forgot about it...but it has a leaf now! just one.

Oh...and I have a cup of basil that decided to grow roots. So...I guess I'm kinda growing basil too? I need to just put that in some pesto though.
And a jar of green onion bottoms I re-cut the tops off of periodically. eternal scallions.

I'd love to be a person who just has plants all around. My mom and sister both do and I feel like it makes a house so homey, but I don't have a good track record and I'm not good at figuring out where to put them.

[treedimensional]

Oct 9, 2023 11:56:29 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

1. What's your favorite house plant? My new Philodendron. No visible flaws. 

2.  What's the house plant you've owned the longest? Spathiphyllum (peace lily) and Hatiora salicornioides (dancing bones cactus).

3.  What's your newest acquisition? A big Philodendron. My grandmother kept one indoors in a galvanized trash can for about 50 years in NY, and several years ago I planted it in my brothers front yard (Florida). It's amazing.

4.  What's your biggest indoor plant? Dracaenas scrape the (9') ceiling if I don't cut them back every few years.

5.  What's your smallest plant? Kalanchoe

6.  What plant would you recommend someone get next? Peace lily, dancing bones, or snake plant, they are very easy.

7.  What plant have you given up on trying to keep alive? None of them.

8.  What's the best general tip you have for maintaining houseplants? They are living things but they can't talk, so pay enough attention and give them what they need. Put them outside in a shady spot in the summer, don't forget to bring them in when it's cold. A few big ones add unmatched drama to a room. I have about 10 and most of them are pretty big.

[nicolewi]

I used to have a bunch of plants but I feel like it's just too much lately with kids and the dog! I still have some succulents and a lemon tree that I bring inside every fall, where it looks progressively more and more pathetic until I can finally put it back outside in spring. I was going to let the hibiscus tree go this year, but the night it was going to freeze here I felt so conflicted and guilty that I ended up bringing it inside! So now I also have the hibiscus inside for winter, where it also will drop leaves like crazy, probably get bugs, and look progressively worse and worse until spring comes!

[dr.girlfriend]

Nov 14, 2023 10:39:47 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

I used to have a bunch of plants but I feel like it's just too much lately with kids and the dog! I still have some succulents and a lemon tree that I bring inside every fall, where it looks progressively more and more pathetic until I can finally put it back outside in spring. I was going to let the hibiscus tree go this year, but the night it was going to freeze here I felt so conflicted and guilty that I ended up bringing it inside! So now I also have the hibiscus inside for winter, where it also will drop leaves like crazy, probably get bugs, and look progressively worse and worse until spring comes!

Might be worth getting a grow light -- you can even put a grow bulb in a regular lamp and aim it at the two of them.  :-)  The ones I got were like $30 for the set of two and have timers so I don't have to remember to turn them on.  IDK if this is wise but I actually have them come on at dusk so that plants get natural light during the day and then an 8-hour blast at night.  :-)

www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDXNP9SK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1