House plants: search and destroy!

I prefer fresh flowers which someone else looks after for me.

Cactis are good if you're good at killing plants, I have a loverly money tree that I can leave for a few months, then the leaves start to fall off it, then I start watering it, and nice new growths grow from where all the dead leaves were.

what kind of plant is here?

So when my calathea came into my home, it looked like this:

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i191/fluxion23/calathea.jpg

It does not look like this anymore. It has exactly 15 leaves left (I just went and counted). It's a very unhappy, somewhat pathetic specimen nowadays. I know it likes a lot of humidity, and I have tried to give it that -- lord knows I've tried. All the way up to running a humidifier near it, and placing it inside a large tray full of rocks and pebbles that I keep moderately moist. It keeps dropping leaves like they're nasty habits. I just repotted it, with some somewhat richer soil, and we'll see what happens.

I have not had this trouble with any of my other plants. My Boston fern is happy as a kid with candy. My peace lily is eternally peaceful. My zigzag plant is a cactus, so there's not a lot bad I can do to it. It even fell off the windowsill once (stupid wind), and all the dirt spilled out, but I put it all back in the pot and it's better than fine. And of course the spider plant just grows and grows -- it's kinda what they do.

Why is this one plant so dadburn persnickety?

I have no idea but it was a lovely looking plant - what is it?

Anyone looking for a houseplant I would say get an Aloe. I was walking in the Body Shop many years ago and a woman walked in and gave us a tiny little plant. From that plant I have given out probably about 15 or 20 other plants and the original is still with us. They won't grow huge indoors but they will grow and are fantastic for when you burn yourself, you can rip a leaf in half, apply the 100% gel and the plant won't care.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2284/2153800651_7a58fe56e9.jpg

Kenan, shine a fluorescent bulb on it for a few weeks. Every time one of my plants is about to die, I do this and they turn into rampaging green monsters.

Haha, I just realised kenan answered my q. in his first sentence. Seems he isn't the only one with a problem. I really like it though, might get one, my living room is a plant free zone at the moment.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs218.snc3/22577_504924592503_259200096_145020_4015560_n.jpg

mother in law's tongue, so cool!

i have been slowly killing my chrysalidocarpus areca (which is a go-to-ikea plant, i guess i was wondering if there were any other owners on here) for a while, & only just realised that the internet would be a source of information for it, like how much i should be watering, & when to start detaching fronds.

http://growing-houseplants.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/areca-191x300.jpg

i am going to give it an occasional misting!

i have a wandering jew aka purple queen in the bathroom. it is simply unstoppable.

this guy is by the foot of my bed. it's nice. i think i bought it just to formally enter the grown-up, plant-owning classes, but it adds colour & i'm fond of it. plants in bathrooms is a good idea (i think i saw your kitchen elsewhere on ilx, btw, it was idyllic).

I have a Crassula and a Spathiphyllum, plus a third plant - I don't know what it was as I inherited it from a mate who was emigrating to the US.

I may take a picture of it and post it here so you wannabe botanists can identify it.

I should take more care of all of them.

I just managed to kill a jade plant, which I inherited from my dad, that was over 30 years old. I'm really bummed about it. Gonna get a baby one and start all over. :/

Don't toss it yet. Put it somewhere bright and warm and wait. Even if all the leaves fell off, it may try again. Just don't let it sit in water.

Since when has painting succulents (and/or covering them with glitter) been a thing? I don't get it.

And gluing paper flowers on them, which I've started to see.

I hate house plants. Especially air plants. Why are those a thing.

i love house plants

succulents have gotten a little played out mind you.

Succulents now, tomorrow, and forever!

painting succulents? glitter?

holy fuck people are evil

why don't i come over and douse you in paint and glitter you disgusting savages

Please don't destroy any house plants

"Played out", what is this, high school, huh huh huh

i don't want my home to look like the nearest boutique or the local yuppy brewery

i still have succulents mind you, i just don't like the associations they bring up nowadays if you live in an urban centre

I lost half my houseplants at the beginning of the year because I misjudged how dry my somewhat new apartment is. I have done well in the past by keeping them all in containers in the bath tub with water just right below the edge of the pot (they suck in the water they need throughout the weeks). I did that and then also the upside down wine and 2 liter bottles for the larger ones. I came back 3 weeks later and it was bone dry.

my wife and I bought a bunch of plants during these COVID times, getting CERB benefit and not having to work made my wife go on a real home improvement kick.. sadly my work station points toward my messy kitchen where there are no plants so I can't show them off when I am in my zoom meetings. got a fern, a "regular lipstick", a dieffenbachia, some bamboo, few succulents, and a couple odds and sods that I don't know the names of. taking pretty good care of them so far, the fern is my favourite.

can someone tell me what are the best plants to get?

we got a spider plant in our bedroom and the air is so lush now

my cat will chew all plants but the bedroom is a cat-free zone

whats the light like? is the crucial question here.

I'm an outdoor plant guy (succulents mostly, with some California natives) because my house is too dark. I could probably keep a pothos alive but they're so boring.

mmmok here we go

after a bunch of poking around on various websites there are a dozen or so plants that are well liked for their hardiness and suitability for offices etc. the only exposure i have for them is northern so light will always be weak; we'll see how they do in the winter.

i've got:

a couple succulents, a jade and a crassula under a full spectrum bulb and even with that they're leggy
peace lily
a knobby cactus, no idea the variety
aglaonema
a couple snake plants, the flat kind and a cylindrica
dracaena
dieffenbachia
pothos
rojo congo philodendron
zz plant -- these are great, totally unkillable, come in a bunch of sizes
a small english and a grape ivy; i made little 8" bamboo trellises for these, i hope they take to it!
little minis of these: rhoeo/oyster plant, peperomia, fittonia and asparagus fern

careful with some of these because they are toxic to animals; dieffenbachia's common name is "dumb cane" because it makes your mouth numb if you're tempted

the only basic starter plants i didn't get were a monstera (people love those) or an aspidistra (written about by Orwell funny enough)

oh and the herbs, all of which look like shit: a melon sage, mint and thyme.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a32552/houseplants-that-purify-air/

Spider plants are good air purifiers. Dracaena love bright light and will twist around to find the window (if you rotate them by 90 they'll try to find it again, which is why the bigger ones get all their stems all nice and twisty. They like to dry out and then get flooded with water If you have a shady spot away from the window put a Peace Lily there, they like low light although they are hard to kill wherever they are. Handily, they also tell you exactly when they need water because they droop - water them and when you come back in the room two hours later they'll be erect and happy again. I think they produce more flowers in the shade than in direct light. Pothos/Devil's-Ivy like direct and shaded spaces and the foliage will be either solid green in a shady spot or variegated in bright light. They are good dangling from the ceiling in a hanger and grow very fast, which is satisfying. You can grow them up a moss pole too but I don't like those poles much. Spider plants are good for hangers too.

goole, try a Peace Lily for your apartment. Spider Plants too will be mostly happy in the shade.

my cat does love a much on plants so we keep the non toxic where he can munch and the toxic up out of reach on top of furniture or hanging

a hanging spider plant is my next plant purchase I think

i've got a peace lily and i love it! it's got new spikes coming up everywhere and a couple new blooms

if you like color, the aglaonema and rojo congo both have these great pink-red stems. the nerve plant variety i have has bright pink variegation in the leaves. and the oyster plant has truly lurid purple coloring on the undersides of the leaves, it looks like someone inked them

excited by all this plant info

My pal has a bathroom where the WC is next to a window which is festooned with beautiful plants. It's really beautiful and I admit to spending far longer than I need to sitting there. It's right next to a bath/shower so the ferns really love that. One tip for an unhappy plant is actually to give it a shower. Most plants in the west came to us from the rainforest and most need to be rained on. A Dracaena or a Monstera/Swiss Cheese will really love a shower. If you don't want to put them in the shower (a large showered-on plant can be very heavy to move back to its usual location) then they will mostly still like a trip to a steamy environment, so give them a vacation to that room. My bathroom does not have a window so I can't do that, however.

If you can't do either of those things you (mostly) should still be spraying the body of the plant on the reg. Not cactus/succulents though ofc.

The reason the Monstera develops the holes in the first place is to let water and light through to the lower leaves as they grow vast in size in the rainforest.

now i want to turn my apartment into a jungle and have plant shower parties

wild scenario, map.

People always talk about pothos being impossible to kill but mine died in a matter of weeks

My only successful plant has been a goddamn bougainvillea which I planted 6 yrs ago in an absolutely terrible spot and it’s now out of control and won’t die no matter how much we hack at it

I get really jealous when I see jungle-style apartments. Clouds has a beautiful plant menagerie iirc.

Our downstairs is lovely and jungle-like but I can't take any credit. In my office room I have ~4 spiders (unkillable), 2 parlour palms (pretty robust) and 1 calathea (was 2 but I've just killed one).

Clouds has a beautiful plant menagerie iirc.

Yes, he's the man you want for this thread! His apartment looks more like a plant nursery that happens to have some furniture and a bed in it. Maybe he's got a kitchen, maybe he gave it up to the plant-world. I think he's been gone for a while but he comes back from time to time.

I would love to have orchids but every time I've brought one home the flowers drop in 1-2 days, and the whole thing is dead a week or two later. Maybe my place is too cold in the winter.

water with cold water once a week, let it run completely through so the roots don’t sit in it. prune back all the way to the bottom after the flowers fall off. it’ll come back and it’ll be an event.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rdzd9ghfhu0ex4p/P1120200.jpg??raw=1

I did a thing for an online radio show and they specifically asked for a photo of your life in lockdown. I grumbled about it because I didn't want a face pic connected to the thing but then decided okay, got slightly drunk and took this photo of me in lockdown as if I was the main character in a play. I figured that if you didn't want to have your photo taken then you could, at least, be extremely camp about the photo you had to take to be included. I'm actually delighted with it but hated the idea of doing it. Bugger to do on a timer, as well.

The Kimono is a proper Japanese vintage silk one that's at least 50 years old. It was bought for a production of a late Tennesse Williams play I designed a production of a decade or so ago which I "forgot" to return to the producers at the end of the run. I've never actually worn it around the house but would love to if that were possible. It's about a foot and a half too long to walk around in, it would just be picking up the dust, or worse, on my floors as I walked around the flat.

Anyway, that's some of my plants! Ridiculous, I know. I'm really getting more camp as I get older and I don't mind.

Can you see the photo? I think I got the html wrong.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rdzd9ghfhu0ex4p/P1120200.jpg?raw=1

That is sensational.

👍

pictures of ilxors who seem to have figured out how to live

I love that pic!

I’ve thought about getting fake plants but no matter how realistic they look it’s just not the same vibe. I think a good compromise for an extremely neglectful person such as myself is vases of cuttings. Bunches of greenery are pretty cheap (and prefer them to flowers). Also thinking I should covertly take my garden snips on a walk around my neighborhood - we’re surrounded by big corporate offices that have really nice gardens along the sidewalk.

Possibly stupid plant question: I thought you weren't supposed to have plants in your bedroom because they exhale CO2 at night when you're sleeping and that's not great for you?

I gave all my house plants to my aunt to mind while our house was being renovated and they clearly were much happier in her porch than they are in my house, because now I have to repot them all because they are huge.

plants consume CO2 and emit oxygen when they're getting enough light for photosynthesis, then reverse that process in darkness, sort of like a time-stretched version of our own respiratory cycle, but with plants the net result is more oxygen than CO2 ... I think the volume of air turned over is small unless you're in an environment like a greenhouse

i would definitely sleep in a greenhouse if i could, don't tempt me

being around lots of plants is like the ideal sleeping situation. i won't tolerate this anti-plants-in-bedrooms propaganda.

I have a ponytail palm and a parlor palm arriving tomorrow

I might try one in my bedroom now that I’ve read the enthusiasm here

before the advent of hated agriculture, the angelic hominid slept in trees, come on!!!

nb i don't have plants in my br, light is terrible in there

Fine, I'll put plants in my bedroom, but if I get triffided in my sleep, you're all culpable.

lol

They used to take plants and cut flowers away from patients in hospital wards at night but they no longer do that.

inspired by jed_ because we have a similar setup!

https://i.imgur.com/uYij1sb.jpg

leftmost is a madagascar tree
a parlor plant on the upper-left of the window, a peace lily on the upper-right.
elephant ear colocasia on the floor on the right
behind me on the table, l to r, angel wing begonia (love these), a variegated pothos that i'm completely blocking, sorry, and an arrowhead plant on the right.

nice Karl!

very nice Karl, those hangers are fab

I've an umbrella plant that seems to be suffering. Leaves look ever so slightly sticky and sort of mouldy and "branches" are falling off, from the bottom. The top of the plant actually looks relatively healthy and it's still growing. Any ideas? (I've had it a good few years and so there's part of me that wants to rescue it but it may be a "chuck it" situation).

What does the mould look like? I just lost a very healthy string of pearls pretty suddenly to mealy bugs, which look like sticky fluffy white mould and leave a sticky clear fluid on the leaves.

Dull, white, powdery mould with some stickiness around it.

I'm convinced every house plant will die or thrive, and I can't change it. Each one a dice roll.

Is the plant something you can transfer to near an open window for better ventilation?

That does sound wise.