I was elected by a friend when I showed her a photo of my sunroom.
Yes, I am a plant hoarder. At times, I’ve had the room to go hog wild, such as this house, which I’ve lived in for 20 years. Plenty of time to move things around and add to the collection. I also have a few low light plants in the living room (calathea, zz, and a prayer plant plus two more hoyas -more on that later). I have a small rubber plant and another small ficus upstairs, (a 10-footer in the sunroom) along with another calathea and a money plant. So. Maybe it’s time I admitted to myself … nah. I love my houseplants!
I’ve been raising houseplants most of my adult life, even if it was only one or two. That’s why I love my job so much, because I spend so much time in the houseplants at work. I love to talk to people about them. Yesterday a lady took home a calathea that has a plaid pattern on its leaves. Plaid! I kid you not. Super cool plant. We get all kinds and it’s hard to resist, although I usually do. I sometimes will bring home a plant that was not thriving due to conditions. Not all plants like it there, like the Mandarin plant, (Chlorophytum). It’s a relative of the spider plant, which likes less light. Very pretty.
I’ve got a large collection of different varieties of succulents, and some nice cactus. I had put together some fun dishes years ago, and they are now very overgrown. I also had put different plants with different needs in the same dish, and they need separated. The cactus and the Haworthia in this dish have been there a while, and need to be repotted badly. The brown on the Haworthia is called “corking” and occurs naturally, usually a hardening of the skin to help retain moisture. It is very pot-bound, I’m sure. I’ll cut the cactus off that’s growing out the side and give it to a friend who loves them, and put the others in another pot. These two have different needs, as a Haworthia is more like a succulent and needs more moisture than the cactus, hence the corking. It’s still healthy and I’m sure there are babies and roots. Succulents are super easy to propagate!
As a matter of fact, succulents are so easy to propagate that I have two bowls full of pieces and stems of all types.
Last weekend the nursery gave a workshop on repotting houseplants, and I was a helper. First, my manager gave an overview on houseplants and why they differ from our outside plants. Most come from tropical or sub-tropical areas, which is why they don’t like the cold temperatures most of the US endures in the winter. Do I blame them?! As I wrote my draft on Thursday night, it was snowing.
She talked about the types of pots and what to look for — the hole in the bottom. If there’s no hole, it’s better to keep the plant in another plastic pot and slip it out to water it. Otherwise, a small rock or coffee filter is all you need to plug the hole and keep the soil from falling through at first. I knew that it’s not a good idea to put a layer of rocks in the bottom but not why. She explained that it raised the water table and the plant was not able to access as much of the pot because the rocks hold water like a sponge. There were other topics, such as soil, but I know I’m likely to be preaching to the choir here and I also know there are things you know that I may not! We’re all gardeners, inside or out. I love that we all have so much collective knowledge on this subject and I look forward to the discussions.
Would you pay $20 for a set of tools?
These are my tools:
This rabbit’s foot fern reminds me of Charlie when he crosses his front paws. Or maybe it looks like little green tarantu... errm rabbit feet sliding out… it doesn’t bother me. They are very soft.
Speaking of Charlie, now that the two feet of snow has melted (finally) and the grass is green the bighorn sheep ladies are kaffee klatching above the house with the kids (last year’s crop, April is baby sheep month). He has his work to do, which is keeping them out of the yard and making sure we know he’s on the job.
Last but not least, I want to tell you about my favorite houseplant of all, the hoya. I think I should get rid of a lot of these plants that take up all the room and just collect hoyas. I have several varieties already and I absolutely love them. If I find a variety that I don’t have, I try to purchase it if it’s within reason. At this point I have 12 hoya plants (!), and although some are the same variety, hoya carnosa, they range from light green to variegated white/green/red. The top photo is a carnosa bloom. I have a cutting of my grandmother’s hoya. My first, it is in the living room and probably does not get the temperature and light changes it needs to bloom, but it twines up and down and is very happy. The other one in the living room is a Krimson Queen (white, red and green variegated leaves).
The sunroom hoyas are very happy, they love all the bright light. I’ve collected a few different rarer forms:
Hoya kerii: this is the one with the heart leaf. It grows veerrrry sloooowwwly. I have a ¾ leaf because it fell off the shelf at work and I got to take it home. When it fell, it showed a root structure so I hope eventually it will pop up a new leaf. It’s been alive for several months. This variety can root a single leaf but it never grows more. Hopefuly not this one. My sister and I saw some beautiful mature specimens in a plant store once. VERY expensive.
Next is a hoya retusa. This guy is odd-looking, with thread-like leaves. It likes a little more water than the others. Hoyas usually like to dry out between waterings.
I have a hoya kentiana which got too big for the shelf so I put it in a plant hanger and it’s very happy. There are already three carnosas hanging in the window so it has good company.
This silver pink hoya is getting too big for the chopsticks so I’d love to find a little trellis of some kind. I’ll have to search the internet or find something at hand.
How many of you are members of the HPH Club? Let me know what you’ve got. Questions? Someone can answer them!
A new rug I just bought…