House plants/gardening

Tight_N_Juicy

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I'm all happy about the fact that I finally get to have house plants. For the longest time my cat just thought I was providing him with extra litter boxes, the little fucker.

So far I have a Mother-in-Law's Tongue, a Boston Fern, a Devils Ivy, a Coffee Plant, and recently got a new potted flower from some people at work. I can't find it online, but it's a big ass orange flower with big leaves. So Pretty!!

This spring I plan on doing plenty of yard-work too... I want a nice herb/veggie garden and few more trees :D

Anyone else have a green thumb going on?
 
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pachuco2

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I do,..love all pants,..the best on is a Basil plant that is very handy when You need some fresh,..and easy to keep indoors with light,...all Ivies are easy to grow indoors too...
 

pdxjoe

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I'm all happy about the fact that I finally get to have house plants. For the longest time my cat just thought I was providing him with extra litter boxes, the little fucker.

So far I have a Mother-in-Law's Tongue, a Boston Fern, a Devils Ivy, a Coffee Plant, and recently got a new potted flower from some people at work. I can't find it online, but it's a big ass orange flower with big leaves. So Pretty!!

This spring I plan on doing plenty of yard-work too... I want a nice herb/veggie garden and few more trees :D

Anyone else have a green thumb going on?
I enjoy houseplants and outdoor gardening, I have for years. Your flower you got from work might be a hibiscus. A little black pepper on the soil of your house plants will help make the cat look elsewhere to do his thing. Best of luck with your gardening.
 

kcrown1967

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Wondering if the plant you got from your friend might be an amaryllis? They come in all sorts of colors and are given a lot of times at Christmas :) I have a Petunia that is hanging on from summer and is blooming like crazy right now. I love having a flowering plant this time of year to remind me of what's to look forward to again once we thaw out, lol.

Enjoy your plants :)
 

Tight_N_Juicy

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I have a brown thumb. My gardens are the setting for mass herbicide every year. My peach tree is still alive and fruiting. And no matter how hard I try I cannot kill my crab grass. So that's two things I can grow.

It can be difficult to get a garden going or keep house-plants alive.. I think the only reason I picked up on it is the fact that my mother worked her whole life to get her garden going. I remember when it was just a dirt lot. And when I say dirt, I mean completely dry, dusty, desert Dirt. It took quite a few years, but she always wanted her garden... and now there are 6 flower beds, a green yard full of grass and about a dozen trees in and surrounding the yard. It's absolutely beautiful in spring.

She's the one who gave me my first couple of house plants and helped me plant my apple, juniper, and peach trees. Sadly my peachy got some sort of fungus this year and died before we even had a chance to try and save it. If it weren't for her I doubt I'd have been able to keep any of them alive.
 

alcor972

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cool thread!...
I like watching plants and trees... seeing how they stand and organize their trunks and branches in order to adapt to their environment...
I particularly like observing the influence of winds on their structure... I like how they progressively curve to better stand the aerial streams...
At home... there are... orange and mandarin trees... an avocado tree which give his fruits from may to september... a mango tree in which maracuja lianas have grown ... bananas... sugar canes...a tamarind tree which will normally soon give his fruits...a caïmite tree... a cinnamon tree... an apple cinnamon tree... a tall bread fruit tree... and at last corossol and papaya trees...
Well... my list strongly suggests that... I am finally more interested in what the plants give me to eat than what they offer me to admire... lol
thanks...
 

AlteredEgo

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There are a few more things I haven't killed. I have hydrangeas that were too shocked from being moved from a spot where they were getting too much sun, and possibly are now not getting enough sun to bloom for me all last year. Alive, but not thriving. Maybe this summer they'll perform.

I have two three-season interest gardens. Fall is dead. Gonna have to start over. But spring is alive, I think. Tulips, hyacinths, daffodils. Jonquils too, I think. Maybe this summer my posies will bloom.

My wisteria is actually awesome, and bloomed for me three times because of the El Niño effect. My jasmine didn't bloom until two weeks ago. Same reason. I hope it blooms again in spring.

I didn't force bloom my grandmother's Christmas cactus because it didn't get cold enough to do it. I could do it now, but then it would bloom in the spring, and I don't want to confuse my grandmother. She's really old. The other houseplants are paperwhites and hyacinths I forced in my kitchen window. I let the hyacinths rest all summer through fall, and began encouraging them again a few weeks ago. I hope they'll bloom for my birthday. When I was growing up, my mother gave me a potted purple hyacinth every year to add to my garden. Every spring there was a hyacinth for every year I'd been alive, plus the new one in my bedroom.

Last year, I also successfully grew mint on my perimeter, and in a vertical garden I grew hot peppers, sage, oregano, and in front of my vines I grew way more Thai basil than I planted.

Everything else died. Probably 5 times as many plants failed as grew. I lost every single seedling I had started except for one purple basil. But I'd planted several dozen purple basil and hundreds of other seedlings. I made a tiny greenhouse for them and everything. Dahlias drooped almost as soon as they went in. No matter what I did everything was too wet, or too dry. My blueberry twig made no attempts to become a bush. My strawberries didn't even show leaves. My hostas didn't get enough sun. Some full shade plant they are. Brown thumb. Unless I want something to die, like my landlord's hedge. I'd love to replace it with holly or roses for better security by the windows there.

Every spring is a chance to try again.
 

MickeyLee

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this thread has my green thumbs tingling. i'm planning for a blooming spring, all veggie and herbs and flowers galore.

I've got a nice yard with heaps sun. broad trees for shade friendly creepers. one very long run of fence I want to vine out.

formal beds or raised bed are always an option for me veggie garden. free foam for flowers. maybe even opt for a sugar garden to attract butterflies.
 

EllieP

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Gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. That's one good thing about living in Florida - I have plants year round in and out of the house. It seems like anything I drop in the ground is going to go crazy, so most of my gardening is keeping things in check.

I had some parrot tulips on my lanai for a while, but I lost one and gave the other to a friend.

Cap fancies himself a gentleman farmer, but truth is he puts it in the ground and I tend to it. His tomatoes went crazy last year, and we literally lost cucumbers among the vines.

The scariest plants I have are split lead rhododendrons. Those things are everywhere around here and they're huge! What's scary are the tendrils! They look alien and will grab on to anything. The even grabbed Cap's hammock!

I've hacked those things back to the ground and I think it just pisses them off!

We move our stuff in and out, so house plants will have some time on the lanai, and since it's covered and screened they're pretty safe.

My cat could care less about the plants except for when the odd gecko finds itself inside.
 

EllieP

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This is what I'm talking about with the rhododendrons:

0514091232.jpg
 

AlteredEgo

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The scariest plants I have are split lead rhododendrons. Those things are everywhere around here and they're huge! What's scary are the tendrils! They look alien and will grab on to anything. The even grabbed Cap's hammock!
I'm worried my wisteria is going to do that. It is growing a lot faster than I expected, and it strangles all it touches.
 
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EllieP

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I'm worried my wisteria is going to do that. It is growing a lot faster than I expected, and it strangles all it touches.

OMG, Cap said if I don't take down the Wisteria that he will remove the whole pergola!!! It's totally covered! I guess I should while it's dead and dry. But I hate climbing up there and he does too!
 
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AlteredEgo

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OMG, Cap said if I don't take down the Wisteria that he will remove the whole pergola!!! It's totally covered! I guess I should while it's dead and dry. But I hate climbing up there and he does too!
Wisteria will eat whatever structure you let it grow on, and it has to be pushed back hard to be controlled. Kind of what I love about it. When we first moved to this house it was a rental. The landlord's brothers used to live in it. They had dreadful taste. My original plan was to let the wisteria kill their ugly hedges. NOW I just need it to stay on the little support I grew it on for a couple of years until I can afford to renovate. I want to pull out the hedges, expand the stoop to a full front porch. I never did build the Tori gate by my kitchen door. I should do it this year while the wisteria is young enough to be moved. We'll see. Depends on how grandma is doing. I'm going to have her start my seedlings for me in a few weeks. She's a plant master. I bet she could grow whole crops by just pointing at dust.
 

EllieP

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AE, we saw three big trunks going up the wall to the pergola. Cap chopped two of them and let them die. Took us forever to pull the dead vines out. We were so puzzled why there was so much left. We didn't even see the trunk by the downspout! It was so big it looked like a downspout! Even with that gone it's still taking over. Now we're thinking of taking the pergola down!!!
 

marhaban

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Great thread. Professional horticulturist here. My main crops are hemerocallis/daylilies and hosta. Currently grow over 1000 cultivars of daylilies and am a hybridizer. Hosta only amount to about 100 cultvars. Have a veggie garden and a collection of over a dozen European beech trees (Fagus sylvatica cultivars). Plenty of room for growth on my property in Northeast USA. Love....just love horticulture.
This is what I'm talking about with the rhododendrons:

0514091232.jpg
"Seymore" is Philodendron and not a Rhododendron. I don't think you can grow rhodo's down there, can you?
 

marhaban

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This is what I'm talking about with the rhododendrons:

0514091232.jpg
But WOW Ellie!!!! That is something to contend with. We can only grow them as house plants up here. Amazing. Gardening is extremely therapeutic, a hobby good for the soul. Keep up the great growing.
 

Tight_N_Juicy

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I wasn't sure this thread would get much attention... nice to see some replies :)

It's not too likely I'll ever have the funds to do it, but one day I'd love to have a garden like one of these...
beautiful gardens - Google Search