I love money plant as my home plant...It is beautiful looking and have great pleasant effects on the environment..

Whats your favorite house plant?
Thanks

Ive added about 4 ZZplants as well. They are growing very very slowly for they look so healthy I really cant complain. I keep them in a bright window surrounded by other plants and so far so good. They are a long term plant for sure, and progress will have to measured over the course of several seasons.

Im pretty sure I will have new favorites before springs sets in :)

The current star at my house is a new Chlorophytum "Fire Flash" - a spider plant relative - that is just stunning. I noticed 2 flower spikes coming up, which is VERY exciting! It's supposed to be very easy to care for, but I've only had it for a few weeks, so I can't comment on that yet.

Brad, which direction is your FF in? Toni

botanical_drifter

:-)

Yeah. I'm weird.

That's my favorite houseplant because I can put it where I want, no pest issues, it always looks great, requires no humidity, I can spray it with perfume, in fact that one requires no work at all.
Many people compliment me on it when they come over.....It's plastic.lol

Seriously though, I am still trying to come up with one, for this day, since my favorite houseplant changes day to day..It depends which one is not giving me a problem, in bloom, and fragrant which can be any of 60 at any time of the month.

Mike

Take care Greenchic.:-)

Mike

I agree about people getting along..it's so much nicer, coming here, feeling relaxed. Life is too short, and we all have our own personal demons to fight. Coming to GW is an escape, a place where people discuss one of their favorite hobbies, and get to know a little about each other. Toni

Another favorite (not commonly seen)

Ludisia discolor aka jewel Orchid:

This orchid is unusual in that it's grown for foliage, not bloom. I need better pix of it, but the leaves are a dark foresty green which looks like velvet shot through w/ threads of gold, & pink, so pretty!

It sort of makes me feel a little like an 8-year old & I think of it as a fairy princess plant, 'cause I just want to stroke its beautiful, velvety & gold threaded leaves.

Both your plants are doing great. Your Var Balfour in its cup/saucer pot is so very cute. Nice blue, too.
I kill Aralias..for one reason or another.

How tall is your Ludisia? Does it bloom in winter? I know they're mini orchids, but mine stands 8+" tall, though spindly. Any suggestions? Should I cut back? If so, is now a good time or should I wait?
A stem broke off several years ago. I place in water, it rooted! It was hanging on some waste-of-money hanging tube, 3+ yrs. I forgot to water, so it kicked the bucket, but the point is it rooted and even bloomed in this little tube. Didn't know orchids rooted from stem cuttings?

Karen, you need to post more pics..Do you have a larger pic of your Ludisia? Toni

Today my favorite plants are E. Crown of Thorns, Pachypodiums, and Scheffleras. lol

It looks more like a philodendron bipinnatifidum to me than a philo. selloum, but I read that the latter only reaches a mature height of 4 ft. The tallest leaf on mine is about 7 ft.

BTW, 'eyes are getting bad,' what's the tall plant next to the house?

Next to the door is a hanging pothos, a spider and then one of my many dracaena warneckii.

Today, my fav plant is Aglaonemas and Crown of Thorns.

I would love to start adding some pet friendly plants back in to my decor. It has been years for some reason.

There are many many places to find plants. 'Stay away from Florists,' talk about expensive!!

Before the net, I'd shop for plants at local green houses/nurseries, 'found in the phone book,' grocery stores, drug stores, pet stores, a limited mail order nurseries, and big box stores such as Home Depot, Ace, Meynard's, KMart, Walmart..Many here on GW shop at Lowe's.

Since the net, I found numerous plant shops..some that specialize in certain plants. For instance, let's say you want an orchid. There are orchid nurseries that sell rare types, many that are hard to find.
Ebay and Amazon sellers sell real beautys.'
If you'd like a list of online nurseries, email me. I will jot down names w/a brief description plus prices.
However, if you're searching for tall, 5'+ trees, you'd do better off shopping locally. Shipping is terribly costly. Same applies to common plants such as Ficus, Dracaena 'Corn Plants, Yuccas, etc.

Starting out, choosing plants can be fun.
In case you decide to email my addy is hopefulauthor@sbcglobal.net or across from my screen name, it says, (My Page.). Click, you should should see, 'Email Me.' That's all it takes, I hope. lol.

Paul...Ludisia is called mini but you're right, small is more accurate. Yep, Jewel Orchid. Dark puple leaves w/pink stripes. There's a second Ludisia w/silvery leaves, supposed to be tiny. I'd call the latter a mini/dwarf.
My Ludisia is before a north window, a few feet from west, and under artificial light..Ironically, 4+ yrs ago, I rearranged the room. The shelf was further from windows. It did fine, bloomed every winter. Now that it's getting more light, it stopped blooming. It could be cooler than it's previous location. That's a guess.

Even though Ludisia flowers are small, they're highly fragrant..One reason I like this orchid, not to mention leaf colors. None of my other Orchids emit fragrance, guess that's the reason I appreciate Ludisia. :)

There's a slight chance it might bloom this winter..should I wait to take cuttings or go ahead and get it over..pruning frightens me, lol.
Wonder why Ludisia roots from cuttings, but no other, or few' orchids will. Vanilla might? Sorry, only know orchid basics.
Paul, btw, what type of medium is your Ludisia in? Thanks much, Toni

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Hey Toni,

I'm not the one to advise on Ludisia, this is the first one I've been able to keep alive for a while. Mine's just that little bit & it just separated from the stem at a node, so I'll have to root it.

I think the bloom on these is sweet & charming, maybe no great shakes to Orchid People, but lovely nonetheless.

I sometimes lose these Aralias too, just lost 3 small ones, bought a replacement & have one growing Hydro. I think I'm going to try several others Hydro. These Balfour Aralias sometimes vanish for years at a time, seem to cycle in & out of favor.

Brad, Hoyas are lovely plants. Dorry about your friend..very sad.
Every so often, our grocery store, 'Jewel,' has 3-4" potted house plants for 1.00. A couple wks ago, there was one green Carnosa on the display stand. Don't think I've ever had green, so it jumped in my cart. :)

Susan. Although snow is very pretty, month after month of winter bring many people down. I too have been working on plants, showering/hosing, cleaning felled leaves, and tables/shelves plants live. I don't know how this happens, but I'm always finding soil on shelves and floors. Every so often my female bird takes off like a jet plane, lands on a plant in a neighboring room, and down it goes..lol..it's so much fun picking up soil.

Favorate plants today: Pachypodium, Euphorbias, COT's and Aglaonemas.

Rhizo, you tell them!!! lol

Karen..How will you root your Ludisia? Water or soil?
Perhaps some orchid enthusiasts aren't fond of Ludisias, but their white flowers during winter months brightens a room. Leaf color is beautiful, too. 'There's a Ludisia w/nearly-black foliage and silver stripes.'

HD usually has Aralias, including Ming, Dinner Plant, and Variegated. They're gorgeous plants, but most difficcult.
Was it you who had a large Aralia, a year or two back?

Do you think Aralia's will thrive in water? Toni

I think one of my other favorites is Ledebouria sociallis. Mine is blooming right now. Or getting ready too, at least. Two flower spikes. Not the most interesting flowers, but flowers nonetheless.

I also really like Platyceriums except since I've started growing more succulentish plants than non-succulentish plants, I've SORT OF gotten rather lax about watering stuff on time, which my non-succulents mostly tolerate except for the ferns, which don't really like it at all.

How old is your Ledebouria? Is it planted in a shallow pot? How often do you repot?

You're talking about Scilla, right? lol..hope so. Mine has been in the same, no-drainage saucer, 20+ yrs..
I was sent two different color Scillas as bonus plants. One bulb each, different colors/types.

Today's Favorite plant/s is/are: Aglaos, Adeniums, and COT's. Toni

Yeah, I guess. No idea what the correct taxonomy is nowadays. Mine is relatively young, honestly. Only had it for a few winters. It' not really in a shallow pot. Just a standard terra cotta thing with a fairly fast-draining potting mix. A wide, shallow pot would probably be better in terms of giving the offsets space to... well, offset.

I got it at a gift shop at a local conservatory actually. Never really seen them for sale elsewhere.

Since their roots are shallow, I figured a shallow pot is best. The grow like weeds. lol.
I never knew there was so many species. Some leaves are nearly black. Beautiful.

With regards to why most orchids can't be grown from cuttings, that has to do with the location of the meristematic tissues. These are the undifferentiated tissues that give rise to roots, leaves, and such. If the cutting taken lacks such tissues then it will be virtual impossible to propagate a new plant from a cutting. For example, you will find nothing but disappointment if you try and propagate an orchid, tulip or even grass from a leaf cutting. That is because the cells in the leaf have already differentiated -- "decided" what they are to become -- and so there is no meristematic tissue present to differentiate into root or other plant tissues. In the case of tulips, the meristematic tissue is located inside the bulb near the base. In many grasses, some orchids, and other plants there are meristemtic cells located in the stems. Even then there seems to be some varience in just how "flexible" such cells are in making such a transformation. For example, while a vandaceous orchid can be "topped off" to obtain more than one plant, it is generally unwise to do so unless the upper section has already formed roots. If the upper section has not done so before getting lopped off the cutting typically dies before roots ever form. In many other orchids such cells are confined to the rhizome.

Posted by SCPearson 5 NE CT
I am very fond of my Norfork Island Pine as well. Mine is supposed to be a dwarf but no one told it.

Susan, do keep in mind that NIPs reach heights of 50-65m [164-213ft] in the wild. So a 'dwarf' could very well constitute a plant that will reach a height of "only" 20m [65ft].

Phal. equestris var. orange

Oncidium 'Twinkle'

Jane

Paul, I didn't think a Ludisia leaf would root. If I said that, sorry, I meant stem cuttings. Yes, it would be similar to trying to root a Tulip leaf. lol. I can't think of any bulb/corm plants that would root via leaf cuttings. Can you?

My dilemma is whether or not to take Ludisia 'stem cuttings,' root, then pot them up w/mom or wait to see if the plant blooms. My Ludisia is a tad spindly. Wish it was compact. What's the worse that can happen???

Jane, your Orchids are absolutely beautiful. How much light do they get, an how often do you fertilize? Toni

Nope, you in no way shape or form implied that leaf cuttings would work, Toni. Mentioning that was just my attempt to ensure that I was being clear. Didn't want to mislead anyone.

Well you could wait til spring to chop it up. You might get better rooting action once temps warm up anyway if you keep your thermostat lower in the winter.

As far as potting with mom, if you decide to repot mom anyway, I would probably just stick the cuttings right back in with mom and let them root there. If there is still a great deal of open space in mom's pot you could just make a hole with your finger and stick a cutting in each the hole. Or you could, of course, start another pot of Ludisia by sticking all the cuttings in there and, leaving mom alone, see how much that one resprouts.

The nice thing about growing orchids is they make most growth over summer. If you can get them outdoors and give them good light, you'll get flowers in winter. Light is not as important over winter as summer.

I don't have good light indoors. My orchids need to make their growth over summer. I fertilize with a standard orchid fertilizer and regular Miracle Gro. Whatever is at hand. I don't believe it is necessary to use a lot of fertilizer. I find, orchids do better with minimal.

Thanks for the complements,
Jane

I am basically new to plants. I have had a few over the years that my dad has given me (he has an amazing solarium filled with plants some that were my grandparents!), but I have not done well with them. I feel like I am ready to give a go again though. Maybe because I finally hit 40 ;)

Most of the time my cats eat any flowers I bring in the house and in my last house my DR had doors so I used to lock them out of the room and had a bunch of plants in there. Out of sight out of mind though. They didnt do too well. I have a much more reasonable sized house now and older cats. So time to go for it. If I had my way I would have all my rooms back to the look of my old DR:

Anyway. Early and I am going on. I am going to print the list of cat safe plants I found and go plant shopping next week. My goal is to find some for the new DR to start. It does get pretty good light during the day, maybe what you would call filtered light? so plants that will do in filtered light and not kill the cats (or a toddler) :)

Then I will be on my way. I grew up with lots of plants in the house and my own home just doesn't feel like home - I think it is just the thing.

Paul.. If I decide to prune the Ludisia, I might as well cut a section off each stem. For one, it'll be even, compact..second, I'll have multiple cuttings to work with. A couple in water, soil, and mom.

I'm hoping it'll bloom, we'll see. While my computer was down, I viewed old plant journals. Starting from the late 80's into early 90's..When I started these journals, I didn't enter much about plants..'they're actually diaries.' The last 10 or so years I changed the format. The problem now is, since the puter's running, finding time to go through each diary. lol

Jane..You summer orchids outside?? In sun or shade? One year I brought out orchids..they were placed on a shelf, third down from the top, before tall bushes. Every single orchid burned..the leaves were as red as ripe tomatoes. lol.
I still don't know how it happened since they were low on the shelf, facing north, oh and under a huge tree. Most plants don't grow in the area, including grass.
How do you manage?

Boop, I hope you're feeling better and NY warms up. You aren't the first person who mentioned ice and snow in the Big Apple.

Did your dad give you all the plants in his solarium? BTW, he's one lucky man..God, I'd love a solarium.
Do you know which plants he has that were given to him from his parents?

Boop, your DR is gorgeous. So cozy. I love everything from the carpet to chandelier. Beautiful.

There are several sites regarding poisonous plants. Cat Fancy lists quite a few.
One problem I noticed while browsing toxic plants, 'we have birds and dogs,' is they list plants that 'might' be poisonous. Finding a plant 'according to some sites,' would be impossible. lol.
Dieffenbachia is one plant I'd never have around children/pets. When our son was 2-yrs-old, he bit into the trunk..Not once but twice! Thank God he was okay, but to this day, I wonder why he chose to chew a plant that was poisonous. At the time I had about 75 plants, one Dieff.
There are others as or more toxic than Dieff, but I mention Dieff because of the experience. This happened in 1982..it was many many years before another Dieff entered my house.

However, don't give up growing. Everyone kills plants in the beginning. Mostly by over-watering. Over-watering is the Number 1 plant killer.
There are books, online articles and GW to learn. Most here can offer great advice.

You said your cats are older, but what about the toddler? Is he/she still a todler? lol

One more thing. You said the cats ate 'flowers' from outside? Did they munch on flowers or stems?
What type of plants were they? Toni