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Cluttermagnet

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Cluttermagnet

Hi, All-

 

A recent gardening success at Casa David- this Pothos plant was coaxed into growing

out of a very long stem from the parent plant above it. There's a bit of a story here...

 

N4RQTRn.jpg

 

I found a very lonely cutting languishing in a soft drink bottle in a window, up in Betty's

bedroom. It had no doubt been filled with water like a vase and put in a window that

gets the afternoon sun. But then it got forgotten, for who knows how long. It was

looking a little pale. There was no water in the bottom of the bottle, but it was still

slightly damp like a terrarium. There was a bit of moss down there, and a few

stringy roots. I took it home to Casa David and gently planted it in a small, white

plastic pot and crossed my fingers...

 

WZDeB1R.jpg

 

Fast forward about 3-5 years. That cutting survived and thrived in a sunny window

with a SW exposure in our very shady yard at Casa Clutter. The stem made two large

circles. I then got a plantlet started at the end of that long stem. Tried air layering

which isn't really the best way to propagate Pothos, but I pulled it off somehow.

That cutting is now a thriving plant back at Casa Betty (also SW exposure):

 

Gjgqmxw.jpg

 

So I tried air layering again with a now leafless, long stem and wasn't really getting

anywhere with that. One day recently, I went outside and got some clay dirt and

filled a shallow tray and watered it. Just covered that leafless stem down in the dirt.

The plant got the message and immediately produced a nice new leaf. The humus

seen in the photo was just an afterthought to make it look nicer- that vine is in clay dirt

really. Note to self: Pothos doesn't really do well with air layering. Just stick any part

of it into dirt and water. New plant results.

 

Di2Imp5.jpg

 

These little house plants have meaning for me because they came to me through

Betty. This came from the last living plant inside her house. She was actually a pretty

good gardener, I believe. But she told me she had had bad luck with indoor plants.

She had mostly converted over to silk plants by the time I got to know her.  Probably

life got busy and she forgot to water... in retrospect, I think Betty and I got busy

tending a different garden- our relationship. Many wonderful memories from that...

 

Clutter

 

 

 

Edited by Cluttermagnet
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Nice one, Clutter. I love house plants. Unfortunately they are all I have currently as I live in a unit with no garden. Hopefully will have a garden in the future sometime as gardening is one of life's great pleasures.

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Cluttermagnet

Thanks! Well, it is even possible to have house plants if one only has a sunny window.

In our hemisphere, anything facing roughly SE through SW; in yours, the inverse.

 

It's ironic that I currently have two abodes, yet both are very much shady. That puts

a sharp limit on the plant types that can thrive in the lower light. And even those windows

with the right exposure only get direct sunlight for part of our day. Pothos is one of

those shade tolerant types.

 

Time permitting, I have been meaning to knock together a couple of 'window bookshelves',

so to speak. That would increase the number of pots possible in each window.

 

I have also been meaning to get started with experimenting with growing my own

edible sprouts and 'micro greens'. The latter type is going to want some more direct

sunlight during the short growth period prior to harvest. I have a couple of pounds

of sprouting seeds in unopened bags up in a cupboard. I need to get busy with that.

Just recently I had some great salads which included sprouts from the grocery

store. Nice! Sprouts are loaded with nutrients.

 

Clutter

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22 hours ago, Cluttermagnet said:

Well, it is even possible to have house plants if one only has a sunny window.

Or if you use plant stands and artificial lights. I've grown small flowering plants that way for years now. It does raise the electric bill a little, though. I started when I lived somewhere for years with no sunny windows at all.

Edited by ebrke
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i have a brown thumb and no real sunlight window. I do have good results with a plant that does internal air pollution mitigation,

Zamioculcas zamiifolia.

 

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Cluttermagnet
1 hour ago, crp said:

i have a brown thumb and no real sunlight window. I do have good results with a plant that does internal air pollution mitigation,

Zamioculcas zamiifolia.

 

 

Cool. I read recently that Aloe also performs that task. They mentioned one or two

other types but that's the only one I remember. I'll go look up your 'Z' type later...

 

Clutter

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Cluttermagnet
3 hours ago, ebrke said:

Or if you use plant stands and artificial lights. I've grown small flowering plants that way for years now. It does raise the electric bill a little, though. I started when I lived somewhere for years with no sunny windows at all.

 

Anything special about your lights? Or just plain old fluorescent or incandescent?

Apparently a lot of folks have these 'grow lights', whatever spectrum they

put out. I've had no direct experience with them myself.

 

Clutter

 

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nope, nothing special about my lights. basically indirect sunlight. i did find out that putting the plant in the path of the pc power supply exhaust was not a good idea.

 

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3 hours ago, crp said:

i have a brown thumb and no real sunlight window. I do have good results with a plant that does internal air pollution mitigation,

Zamioculcas zamiifolia.

 

Ah yes, the ZZ or Zanzibar Gem. I'm very tempted to get one but space is scarce now.

Most plants are good for indoor air quality. I have spathiphyllum, calatheas, aspidistra, dracaena,  sanseveria which are all good and all enjoy being in east facing windows. My unit is a bit light poor on cloudy days so window is the best place.

Loungeroom garden:

KmoYadw.jpg

 

Monster bedroom calathea. For scale, that's a mid tower computer on the floor.

YUVy0vw.jpg

 

Sorry the images are quite large. They're scaled to 25%; I tried 12.5% but they were too fuzzy.

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On 8/9/2020 at 5:16 PM, Cluttermagnet said:

 

Anything special about your lights? Or just plain old fluorescent or incandescent?

Apparently a lot of folks have these 'grow lights',

 

I do use grow lights. They put out a wider light spectrum and can be helpful getting plants to bloom, which requires more light than just green foliage. Many people have used just a combination of cool white and daylight fluorescent tubes in the past with good results. Some plants require so much light I think it's prohibitive in terms of artificial light, but gesneria (african violet, streptocarpus, episcia and other varieties) will bloom well with 2 40-wat grow lights for 14 hours each day.

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My 90 year old friend who had to move into a senior development with her husband mentioned that she missed her violets. I bought her a violet plant and took it over last year. She has it setting on an end table with just the table lamp turned on most of the day. She calls me every month or two when the plants has new flowers. I don't know anyone who has gotten so much joy out of a $5 plant!

 

I thought I had a brown thumb until my husband's cousin gave me an orchid plant in 2013 when my mother died. I've managed not to kill it. In fact, I now have 8 orchid plants with 4 currently blooming. 7 are mine that I buy when they are almost dead and marked down to about $5 at Lowe's. The 8th belongs to my hairdresser. She had it outside when it finished blooming with plans to toss it. I said let me take it home and when it blooms again, I'll bring it back to the shop. So far it hasn't bloomed but the sad, sun burnt and bug eaten leaves have dropped off and new ones have gown in as replacements.

Turns out orchids like East facing windows and that's where I set them. Dumb luck on my part. Now I'm a bit more knowledgeable.

Here is what they looked like in June. I moved them to a tray table crowded together so I could fit them in one picture.

c06fe11351530206.jpg

 

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Those are beautiful, zlim. I had the impression those phalaenopsis orchids were sold with flowers and then intended to toss out. Maybe I was misled by my neighbour who has a habit of drowning her plants. I gave her a calathea which died only months after. Maybe I'll have to get one/some.

I used to grow cymbidiums back when I had a backyard. So easy to grow, the more you neglect them, the better they flower it seems! Here's some of mine after I had been overseas for 3 months so they hadn't any attention at all (my lazy housemate hadn't given the grass any attention either):

cymbidiums.jpg

 

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Cluttermagnet

My dear friend Don grew orchids, joined the orchid society, etc. He did pretty well with his.

Miss him too. He's been gone  about 8 years now...

 

Clutter

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Yes, orchids don't like their "feet" wet. I give them very little water. I say "hi" to them every morning while I'm drinking my coffee but only water them once or twice (in the winter when the heat is on and dries out things) a week.

 

I sent pictures to my pen pal in Belgium. We've been corresponding since 1964 and at that time we were both stamp collectors. I never realized she was into orchids. She has more than phals. She must have 30 plants and sends me pictures of her mob in bloom.

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Cluttermagnet

My new plant had sprouted a second leaf when I cut the stem.

Brought it from Casa David over to Casa Betty. There it sits in

as sunny a window as I have available here. It gets a few hours

of direct sunlight in the summer...

 

Rq7pN20.jpg

 

Clutter

 

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