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AIBU?

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Original poster

To want a houseplants that just bloody lives

246 replies

Purplerayhan · 22/02/2021 22:41

That's all. No matter how much I read the instructions and follow them, source from proper garden centres, read up on the best plants for the room THEY JUST KEEP ON DYING. Even a sodding cactus went to the great compost heapnin the sky. I see other people's rooms with lush plants and I'm jealous.
And yes, I do have other things to be thinking about. No, I don't have much of a life. Yes, I talk to them but th singing might have finished them off.
Grrrrrrr!
YABU - clearly you're the Harold Shipman of horticulture, suck it up
YANBU - they are bottomless pits of promise and money, get over your hatred of plastic flowers

OP posts:
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24
Bluenightowl · 28/02/2021 21:32

Thisisworsethananticpated
I’d love to know. They are my favourite plants. I’ve bought them from everywhere - IKEA to boutique houseplants shops. They have always got crispy even though I must them, they usually lose their leaves and get woody near the bottom. I cut off the dead leaves and remove the denser inner leafless branches. Nothing has worked. I’m on fern number fourteen now!

Thisisworsethananticpated · 28/02/2021 21:15

Does anyone have Fern tips
I bought one from Tesco so maybe it’s just crap
But whatever I do leaves turn brown and crispy
Maybe just get a better fern ?

NotPaloma · 28/02/2021 14:27

That Planta app is a revelation! I've used the light metre in my house today and as a result every bloody plant is now in the sole room with part sun!

Whitney168 · 28/02/2021 10:41

Victory this morning, my hospital case maidenhair fern is sending up lovely little fresh green shoots. Will let it re-establish, then re-pot. I think it’s soil is too heavy for it.

Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 19:49

DYAC ... Clivia!!

Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 19:49

Ooh not familiar with Clovis, just Googled - very nice. How big is it at that age?

halfmoonbay · 27/02/2021 19:42

I love houseplants, my oldest is a clivia which is around 25 years old, I'm so proud of it!

Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 19:39

Trim the really dead leaves off yours tomorrow, @NotPaloma, then stand it in a sink of tepid water for an hour - then let it drain off before you put it back in its pot.

Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 19:37

@NotPaloma

Doing its best to die.
Mine happy after his Saturday soak!
To want a houseplants that just bloody lives
MrsBotibolsCruise · 27/02/2021 18:48

I think I had a Calathea just like this one! I had to send mine to the plant graveyard 😂

NotPaloma · 27/02/2021 18:39

Doing its best to die.

To want a houseplants that just bloody lives
NotPaloma · 27/02/2021 18:38

Just downloaded Planta and immediately sent my Calathea to plant hospital!

boredinthouse · 27/02/2021 18:11

I've got an elephant bush that grows like something possessed. You definitely couldn't kill it, I've tried!

ShinyMe · 27/02/2021 18:06

I just scrolled back, and here is the same plant on 21st August, the day I planted it. I would have cut it off a week or two before, rooted it in a glass of water and then planted it.

To want a houseplants that just bloody lives
Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 17:56

Oh decent rate of growth then!

ShinyMe · 27/02/2021 17:48

@Whitney168

How fast do the babies grow, *@ShinyMe*? I'm another who's never liked the traditional old droopy variegated spider plants, but love yours.
This one is the biggest - I cut that off the main plant in August. I have another that's about half the size which I cut off the main plant in I think September.
Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 17:32

PS, love the pineapple pretender LOL.

Whitney168 · 27/02/2021 17:31

How fast do the babies grow, @ShinyMe? I'm another who's never liked the traditional old droopy variegated spider plants, but love yours.

ShinyMe · 27/02/2021 16:37

I have to show you the fabulous pot I got in Dobbies just now for half price! It was supposed to have a plant in it, but someone had stolen the plant and there was just this one pot left. My spider plant is going to the next fancy dress party as a pineapple!

To want a houseplants that just bloody lives
MrsBotibolsCruise · 27/02/2021 11:37

Oh it looks nice! I’ll put it on the list 😂

I think my dislike stems from childhood as well, I had a terrible fear of spiders and the plant used to hang brown and stringy and yuk in the corner of the bathroom. Nothing redeeming about it really. Yours is a world apart.

ShinyMe · 27/02/2021 11:36

Oh, and the bottom shelf is death row. Where all sad plants go to spend 3 weeks before going to the great compost heap in the sky.

ShinyMe · 27/02/2021 11:34

Here's my big spider plant (on top of the shelves) and one of her babies below, plus my favourite baby on the second pic. You can also see a baby from my mum's spider plant on the 3rd shelf down. So far it's not too messy....

To want a houseplants that just bloody lives
To want a houseplants that just bloody lives
ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 27/02/2021 11:26

Whenever l buy a houseplant l just refer to it as a ‘planttokill’

I don’t like to get my hopes up😁

I’ve killed so many ivies

MrsBotibolsCruise · 27/02/2021 11:19

Shiny me I’ll have a look! Thanks

ShinyMe · 27/02/2021 11:17

@MrsBotibolsCruise

Does anyone else find spider plants revolting and creepy? I don’t care if they can survive a nuclear bombing, I hate the bloody things. They’re the only plant that gives me the complete heebie-jeebies 😂
I used to hate them as a child. I hated the messiness and the droopiness.

Then I saw one recently in a garden centre that I really liked, and realised it was that particular one I'd disliked. My mum always had a standard typical variegated one, which was very droopy in shape and which she left with lots of babies hanging off, which I found messy. I got an dark-green one (variety is called 'lemon') which is very upright and looks like a fountain. I've been snipping off the babies and putting on, and now I have several which I really like.

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