Anyone up for a house plant chat?

[PinkPrincessPhilo]

I couldn’t find one by searching.

Is anyone else a lover of house plants? I’ve built up a nice collection including some rarer finds like a Pink Princess Philodendron and a variegated monstera. Plus plenty of monstera in general.

My current hobby is house plant propagation- having most success with monstera, various tradescantia, dieffenbachia, and maranta. Going to try a snake plant and the pink philodendron next.

Houseplants, are all down to position, trial and error. I move mine around until they thrive in the right spot. I have a particular windowsill that most love. Overwatering is often the killer with houseplants in my experience.

I thought i was quite green fingered and I have a nice wee collection. My husband got a lovely succulent planter for Christmas from one of his pupils. I've watered it for 6 months until I realised last week it's plastic. Maybe not the plant expert I thought....

I can’t keep houseplants alive, but I have a two-foot avocado which I grew from a stone, and a cactus Implanted as a seed at the start of the first Covid lockdown.

I want to grow an avocado. Do you have to skin the seed?

Hello, can I join you too? I've had houseplants since I was a child (the first plant I remember killing was a weeping fig that - er - wept all its leaves off!

I don't know how many houseplants I've got. I'm trying hard not to buy any more as I feel I'm at the right number - but some do keep generating new plants (tradescantia I'm looking at you).

My usual favourite and biggest/oldest is a huge Kentia palm that lives in our living room but it's been pushed to one side this week by a Hoya in our bedroom that has just started flowering - they have astonishingly odd flowers that smell amazing and drip sweet nectar!

No. The toothpick method worked for me but I didn't realise how much water the plants needed and I killed it :(

Wow @WobblyLondoner those flowers look amazing 🤩

I am fairly new to house plants. And didn’t realise ( I mean how stupid is this ) that when the sun got hotter they wouldn’t like being on the window sill and all slowly start to fade away.

left my bonsai on the window ledge. Only realised one day that the heat had taken all the leaves. But as they hadn’t actually fallen off I was watering a leafless plant really.

so have moved them around the house. But not sure where to put my string of hearts or pearls. Wondering if they will love the heat of the window sill.

have given away my spider plant and my two ferns. They didn’t really bring me any joy when I looked at them and they were getting bigger and needed re potting. But just couldn’t bring myself to spend all that money on plants I didn’t really like.

I didn’t. I wrapped the stone in wet kitchen roll till it sprouted (took about 8 weeks) then put it in one of those glass flasks you use for hyacinth bulbs at Christmas and kept it in a cupboard for a long time. Then when it had a proper stem and roots, I put it into ordinary potting compost.

I didn't have toothpicks so I tried growing one in the top of a Costa takeaway (those plastic domed things with the hole). It was just the right size, but after several months nothing happened so I binned it. I must have got a duff seed. I'll try again.

That’s what I’m using!

I pulled the avocado seed, wrapped it in damp kitchen towel and stored in a dark cupboard in a warm part of the kitchen in a ziploc bag.

After about 5 weeks I now have two little roots but the seed has split so there’s a root on each side. It’s now held together with a small elastic bank and I have the roots just over water using an iced coffee cup with the lid inverted but not sure if I’ll see any growth.

Might start again with a new seed.

I am crazy houseplant lady. I collect philodendrojs, including the pink princess. About to get her on a moss pole today. I make my own soil mix too. I'm going for an indoor jungle.

Oh and will be sorting a plant cabinet when we move. Maybe then my calathea will avoid brown tips!

So many interesting posts. Re the dark hallway, I think that aspidistras were a staple of Victorian and Edwardian homes because of their ability to tolerate gloom? But they are ugly little bleeders. I have lots of plants that can tolerate lower light levels (many of them philodendrons of various sorts) but I don't have any plants at all in my gloomy Victorian hall.

Re avocados, we usually have one or two babies on the go because of their habit of germinating very happily on their own once they get into our compost bin. I suppose if you tried to replicate that, you would just want conditions that were damp and dark.

Re the weeping fig that cried itself to death, I can't be doing with this fussy variety of ficus. It drops its leaves at the drop of a hat. Attention-seeking and passive aggressive. It can get in the bin.

Lovely hoya flowers wobblylondoner. I used to have a hoya that was the great grand daughter of a cutting that my nana had sneakily taken from a hoya in a pub. She was as light fingered as she was green fingered. She even pinched snippets from plants at Kew Garden when my parents took her there. I ditched my hoya eventually. It got so huge and the flowers are so sticky. And mealy bug was a real problem. I HATE mealy bug <holds out crucifix drenched in pesticide>

Re the carefully nurtured plastic plant, my mum once took a 'cutting' from a plant at her workplace and watered it for weeks before realising. I'd blame middle-aged eyes rather than lack of green fingers.

I love house plants, particularly succulents and hoyas. Since we moved a couple of years ago I've lost a few of my leafier plants to thrips from the garden below.

I find I really struggle with aloe vera and spider plants which are both supposedly really easy to keep. I'd welcome any advice please!

Got a pleasant surprise today. My eldest has a small Calathea Freddie that's been attending university with her. He's home for the summer break and been keeping me company while I wash the pots. I've just noticed he has a flower 😍

I was a little worried but, according to Google, this isn't unknown and it's not a stress reaction. Daughter is thrilled and has taken him back to her room 😔

The plant cabinet so far.

Ooooh, that looks lovely.

I've just been reading about philodendron Birkin and I have learnt something v interesting about the offsets from my own Birkin. When I bought it a couple of years ago, it had a tiny sprout of very dark green leaves at the bottom - an independent plantlet. This grew very strongly and a year or so ago I divided it and potted it up alone. It is now a gorgeous, lush Congo Rojo, much larger than its mother.
For a while I wondered if whoever created the Birkin had accidentally dropped a seed of another philodendron in the mix. But then I learnt that Birkin is in fact a mutation of Congo Rojo, and that it produces offsets readily. So I guess that one of its offsets simply reverted to the original.
Anyway, despite Birkin being a much vaunted variety, the Rojo is actually a way more beautiful plant (I would only say this out of Birkin's earshot). Isn't it funny how fashion and social media have come to drive such strong trends in the popularity of various philodendrons, with some of them being esteemed way above what their objective characteristics would seem to merit?

I absolutely love my Congo Rojo, and it was freeeeee!

One of my hoyas has been in flower for a while. I love the way they open up.

I seem to have success with monsteras and some rubber plants but my poor umbrella tree has fallen victim to scale (according to the lady in the plant shop) and I don't think it's responding to spraying. It's dropping leaves and the little brown flecks will NOT be moved on. Any tips?

Also, my crassulas are fine, until they're suddenly not. Is that just me? I try not to overwater...

If the flecks aren't too numerous you can scrape them with a fingernail. When my plants have got scale, the flecks have been quite few and the plants haven't seemed to mind overmuch. Could there be other things going wrong for the plant too (which may have made it less able to fight off the scale)? Eg strong direct light, overwatering or too little humidity?

Crassulas withstand dry soil very well so overwatering might be the prob there? Or perhaps too little light?

My variegated monstera adansonii is giving me loads of completely white leaves at the moment.

My bog standard M adansonii has a few leaves yellowing. I think he's getting a little pot bound.

Your's is lovely.

Oo hello everyone.. am excited to see this thread, thank you @PinkPrincessPhilo

As I mentioned on another thread houseplants have become a hobby thanks to lockdown. My latest thing is trailing ones.. string of hearts, pearls and more recently dolphins being my thing. I've successfully propagated and foisted onto friends.

After MANY months of hinting and persuasion DH is putting ceiling hooks in for me tomorrow so I can expand... so excited.
Partly dreading a catastrophe and them crashing down but hey ho...

Hiya @morelippy , welcome aboard.

I have mixed luck with Strings. Successful with hearts- regular and variegated. Currently propagating pearls and it’s slow going.

Must keep an eye out for dolphins. They always look so sweet.