New Babe! Laceleaf (Anthurium)

Ok so this babe is not exactly *new* in the sense that I received it as a gift back in May of last year.  However, realizing I had not made a post a.) in quite some time and b.) about this plant ever, now is as good a time as ever to release it to the blog-o-sphere!

I can't find any photos of this plant over the summer when it had quite a few blooms in progress.  I anticipate that in spring the blooms will return.  You can see one is already shaping here:

A developing spathe and flower in morning daylight. 

With some artificial light.

 Most of what I have learned about this plant thus far comes from thefloweringexpert and ourhouseplants.  In general, my approach is to keep it on my west-facing window sill in the winter months, then move it back to the kitchen table in the summer months.  I water all of my plants to some degree at least once a week, which seems to be working out fine for this one.  There is only some damage to it, which you can see in the second image, some browning of a leaf.  All of the other leaves seem fine, though.  I'm not sure when the browning occurred, maybe it was getting too much direct sunlight in the summer, or perhaps I missed it in some of my weekly waterings.

The base of the plant appears similar to an orchid.

One leaf with some brown damage.

I'm looking forward to this blooming again at which point I will post some photos of the lovely waxy, bright red spathes!

New Babe! Leatherleaf Sedge Red Rooster

This post is loooonnnng overdue.  Frankly, I have many posts yet to be typed that are lonnng overdue.  The summer went by in a whirl and I've been caught up in so many things.  But I'm hoping this winter to dial my obligations back a bit so I can get back to enjoying my hobbies and getting into positive habits.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog.  I picked up this perennial at the Plant and See nursery in Winterville, NC back around Labor Day weekend.  Its pot conveniently fit in this nearby white basket, so I naturally had to combo the two.  I was drawn to this grass-like perennial because I don't have anything like it yet and I thought it would lend itself quite nicely to some upcoming fall decor.

Perched on the bakers rack in my foyer.

Cute "rustic" square basket-like container.

Hanging onto the care instructions for this one!

I'll have to take a photo of the autumn decorations on the bakers rack - I think this leatherleaf sedge complements the whole look perfectly.

Perishables

There comes a time in a house plant's life when it simply just must... well, die!  This money tree had a rough start and I thought I had nurtured it well enough, but I wonder if the soil it came in was too terrible for it to make much of a go.  I had it from about end of February to end of September.

It started with 5 trunks, down to 1!

I thought this one trunk might make it through.

But sure enough it yellowed and rotted just like the others.

I had received this orchid when it was in bloom probably close to 2 years ago.  I was never able to get it to bloom myself, and in fact it never had any tremendous growth.  The leaves slowly withered more and more and finally the new growth it DID have was so insubstantial I decided to just toss it.

On the plus side, I've freed up some cool pots and am clearing out some room for new babes!

Splitting Up

With the start of Halloween season, I had to relocate some of my babes because of the decorations that obstructed their sunlight.  In doing so, I noticed my larger snake plant had quite a few pups started.  I decided to take the opportunity to split them off and pot them in their own individual containers.

Snake plant ready for splits.

All the pups lined up in a row.

Shook off the loose dirt and separated the pups.

Tiny pot for this pup.

More room to grow for this pup.

Keeping the window sill symmetrical.

I took the opportunity to throw some fresh soil in the original snake plant's mix.  I used a cactus/succulent mix, which has some sand and a little perlite.  I used some of the old soil in the pups' containers.  I read somewhere that all fresh soil can shock new plants, so I gave them a good mix of old and new.

Latest Arrangements

As I am repotting my babes this year, I'm trying to consolidate their displays... that is, I'm being more selective about pots I acquire and attempting to compose arrangements.

One of my favorite pots was this yardsale find, currently housing my Chinese evergreen.  Since this plant doesn't need tremendous amounts of bright light, I have it on my buffet in the center of the room, approximately 10' from the nearest window, but surrounded by 6 windows on 3 sides.

Love this plant and love this pot.

The next arrangement I'm looking at is on my over-the-couch shelf.  Previously, I only had fake flowers on this shelf (pictured in the white vase on the left half).  Since I have a couple spider plants doing well, I put them in stainless or chrome pots and set them on this shelf.  We'll see how they do away from windows.

A muted color scheme for this wall.

My plant shelf wall, next to some east and north windows, is being freed up.  I used to stack tons and tons of plant in front of this, in an attempt to hide the pipes and to capitalize on the morning sun in this corner of the room.  Instead, I've remove all but one side table, which now hosts a minimally loaded plant stand.  I'd like to use all the same pot size on that stand, but for now my begonia is going to continue to live on the bottom shelf on the left.  Also, I'm not sure where to put the black pot with my succulent grouping, since it's wide and shallow, it doesn't quite work on any shelves.

An extra side chair now breaks up the previously plant-packed corner.

On the other side of my buffet, I have an arrangement of some small house plants and some floor sized plants.  It's nice to group them together sometimes and have them feed off of each other's microclimate.

The braided umbrella tree is officially large enough to sit on the floor, fronted by a dragon tree.

A better shot of a small grouping on my new buffet table.

New Babe! Rattlesnake Plant (Calathea lancifolia)

I didn't want to wait to post this, since I love posting about New Babes, but I cannot for the life of me remember what this one was called.  I don't know the common name for it - usually knowing that helps me find the scientific name.  Anyway, I got this from the Plant and See Nursery in Winterville, NC when I was down visiting my sister.  As I recall, it likes a good watering and some bright light (how generic, don't all plants?).

Close up of the dark spotted leaves. 

I placed some mosaic tiles in the base of the pot for drainage.

The nursery's sleeve fit right into my decorative pot.

Looks less expansive in this photo, but maybe it's just me.

I noticed tonight when I got home that the leaves had lifted up almost completely vertical.  This remind me of the prayer plant.  Perhaps it is some distant cousin of that plant?

Repotting

My little thanksgiving cactus was doing terribly. I'm not sure if it was some shoddy soil or maybe it sat in some bad rain water for too long.  The main trunk started to whither and had blackened at the base. The smaller trunk still looked lush so I decided to swap out the soil and repot it in something fresh.

Also, my palm was starting to lose some shape. I didn't like that I had it in a non-draining pot so I opted to go ahead and switch that out.

Old pot without any real drainage.

Lastly, I had an aloe in a baby food jar, which it was starting to outgrow, so I swapped it out for a small self-draining pot.  I added a single layer of stones in the bottom of the pot. Hopefully this pot will last for a little while!

New pot with small layer of stones inside for the aloe.