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.

New Babe! Button Fern (Pellaea Rotundifolia)

I picked up this cutie at the Plant and See Nursery in Winterville, NC while visiting my family.  Its tag says it should be kept in bright, indirect sunlight, so I placed it near an east-facing window on my new french maple solid wood buffet.

I love that buffet so I am dressing it up nicely with some sweet plant arrangements.  Moving forward, I'm trying to keep all my plants in plastic sleeves that can be easily switched out into new pots.  I don't like doing the whole putting stones on the bottom and then infilling with soil concept.  It makes repotting more challenging because the stones don't always separate cleanly.  Anyway, back to the fern...

The tag says to keep the soil on the dry side, but don't let the plant wilt (duh!) - repot annually.  Typical temperature range 40º-70º.  We'll see how this little rascal grows!  It was between this one and a lemon button fern.  I thought this one looked a little more unique (less fern-like) so I went with it!

Potted in a small Ikea pot.  With flash!

In its new home.  No flash!

A close up of the leaves.

I'll have to take a better glamour shot in the morning when there's some sunshine.

Summer Blooms

Most of my outdoor perennial blooms are long since gone now, so it's probably a good time to showcase some of them here.  Also, this year I opted to try out an annual arrangement in my north flower bed.  Enjoy some visuals below:

My half barrel container in its full glory!

One of my deluxe lilies.

A surprise mammoth sunflower bloom!

There were 4 of these that came up in total.

Stargazers in the ground.

Stargazer up close.

Some alyssum and ageratum.

Another stargazer variety in my kitchen.