This page last updated, barely, on November 29th, 1998… My main page is here: http://web.archive.org/web/19981205124711/http://www.dp.net/~twilight
I like my houseplants!
Having plants as a hobby is extremely relaxing and healthy. Plants clean the air in your house, converting the CO₂ you breathe out into pure O₂ that you can breathe in… Now that Montey and I both quit smoking, the air in our house is much improved and, with all the plants, very oxygen-rich!
I like to grow most of my plants from seed. For one, it’s a challenge… Second, when you start a plant from seed it is very adapted to the conditions in your house. After all, it has never known any other conditions to get picky about!
At current count (July 1998) I have sixty-seven houseplants. That number varies often as I start cuttings or condense two pots into one. The high number of plants is because I have multiple pots of some plants. As far as the different varieties go, I have twenty-seven different varieties (counting all the cacti as one variety).
One of the plants that I am especially proud of is the devil’s ivy in the picture below. It goes from the top of the stairway railing and cascades down the stairs… It is even fuller and longer now than it was in this picture…
Aloe vera – Aloe Plant
I currently have three pots of this. I took the pot I had, separated it into about 10 little 2-inch pots and one 4-inch pot, kept the 4-inch and two of the 2-inch, the rest I took to work and gave away. At last report most of them were doing okay. The ones that I kept didn’t look so good for a while but they’re coming along now. They are again multiplying and sending off babies.
Araucaria heterophylla – Norfolk Island Pine
I bought a 4-inch pot that had five Norfolks crowded into it for $3.50 at Lowe’s in December of ’96. I put all five into a 6-inch pot and they’ve gotten quite huge. I’ll likely have to repot them this fall into something a little bigger… I know they often grow as single plants, each in a pot of their own, but I like the effect of them all in one.
Ficus elastica decora – Rubber Tree
When I moved in with my husband in April 1992 he had this rubber tree that was one straight stalk covered with leaves. I don’t know what I did to it but it lost all of its leaves except for about five at the top.
When we moved to our house in November of 1993 I put it in front of the sliding glass door for one more shot at life. It put out new branches and leaves, but the top two feet were pretty spindly so I tried air-layering it… that didn’t work as well as I had hoped, but it shocked the bottom portion into new life!
It has gotten so huge that Montey had to build it a special platform across the top of the stairwell. It used to spend its summers outside but not this year—if it grew anymore I’m not sure it would ever make it back into the house!!!
Hedera helix – English Ivy
For a while it seemed as if this was going to die… it was not looking so healthy. I got worried that the original pot was going to die so I took a cutting in March of ’97 and stuck it in the terrarium.
Since then it has grown like wildfire! I have it wound around chopsticks stuck in the pot with it and it hangs down the stairwell a few feet. If I were to completely unwind it there would likely be pieces over four to five feet long.
I bought the original plant for 25 cents off a clearance table at K-mart in 1992—best quarter I ever spent… Besides the big pot and the cutting in the terrarium, I also have a cutting growing in water.
Maranta leuconeura erythrophylla – Prayer Plant
This has been hanging on to life, barely, for over a year now… it doesn’t flourish and it doesn’t die… I’ve got one 4-inch pot of it and it just keeps on keeping on.
Philodendron scandens oxycardium – Heart-leaf Philodendron
I have two pots of this. A small one hangs on the wall in the living room (part of a Home Interiors hanging), and a tan shallow bowl hangs in a scruffy green macramé hanger… It screams 1970s decor but I adore it.
Pilea cadierei – Aluminum Plant
My mother-in-law had a terrarium for fifteen years. When we got it, the only plants left alive in it were Pilea—it had choked out everything else.
I left two little ones in the terrarium and trim them back when they get big. I also took cuttings and planted them in potting soil, but they got tall and scraggly, so I cut them off and stuck them in water.
They’ve been growing in a jelly glass of water for over six months now. The roots are healthy and they look just as good as they did in soil.
Sansevieria trifasciata laurentii – Snake Plant
I have the yellow-striped variety in a pot I painted in 1990. I like the way they look—so simple.
I bought two pots of a different type about a year ago, separated them into six pots, and placed them in a rolling container Montey built me. One of those six bloomed this past spring, which seems fairly unusual.
Scindapsus aureus – Pothos / Devil’s Ivy
This stuff grows like a weed! It roots so easily in water it would be hard to imagine ever running out of it. If you want some, email me with your address—I’m willing to send cuttings out!
“(Originally written in 1998: I used to share cuttings by mail—this is no longer something I do.)”
Sedum morganianum – Burro’s Tail
I got some cuttings of this from my grandmother and a friend. It doesn’t grow fast but grows steadily. My grandmother’s hangs about six feet off the ground and is almost reaching it now—that’s a goal!
Mine is doing well with a few strands about 18 inches long. I also have another pot with babies and another container I’m trying to start more in.
Senecio rowleyanus – String of Beads / String of Peas
This is a really cool plant but seems rather rare. My step-grandmother gave me cuttings and they’ve grown into a nice plant. I have never seen it for sale.
I saw similar plants at Lowe’s, but the beads were slightly pointed. Mine are perfectly round.
It roots easily but grows slowly and takes a lot to look full.
Syngonium angustatum – Tri-leaf Wonder
I’ve had this for three years. It never did very well and for a while was barely hanging on.
Over a year ago I hung it in front of the sliding glass door and it took off! Two months ago it started looking ill again so I tore it apart, replaced the soil, and hung it back up. Now it’s doing well again with new baby leaves.
I also have two cuttings growing in water.
Zebrina pendula – Wandering Jew
I got cuttings of this about two years ago. I currently have one pot that is way too crowded and three jars of water with cuttings growing in them.
One of these days I’m going to repot it and make it look good again—for now it’s just surviving…
(This was the first plant I ever killed. My mother gave me one at about age thirteen and told me it was very easy to keep alive… it was dead in mere weeks! Very discouraging!)
Since this is all I have for my plant pages as of yet, go to GardenWeb: http://web.archive.org/web/19981205124711/http://www.gardenweb.com/
Houseplants are just a small section of what they discuss…
If you would rather, you can go back to my main page or you can send me e-mail.