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cowgurl160

My Newest Rescues!

cowgurl160
11 years ago

So my latest finds from Lowe's. Clearance plants that I think just need a drink of water and will hopefully perk up. I already have a bigger Croton, but I will take any advice for the Rex Begonia or Fittonia. I'm going to let everything stablize for a while before I do any repotting, but that is definitely in the cards for these poor plants.

Comments (16)

  • birdsnblooms
    11 years ago

    How Cowgurl. The Croton and Fittonia looks okay, but Begonia needs a drink...Desperately.

    If they were my plants, I'd fill up the sink, then place plants inside until water soaks entire rootballs.

    Your Begonia is very pretty, or will be once it perks up.

    Fittonia/Nerve Plants like semi-moist soil and humidity. Bright light is sufficient.

    Very nice collection. Toni

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Nice! The leaves on that Fittonia are huge! So pretty, like stained glass.

  • rachelthepoet
    11 years ago

    Great find with that fittonia! This is a plant I have been looking for , and I haven't seen one as nice as yours--- definitely not in the clearance rack! Fun!

    This post was edited by rachelthepoet on Tue, Nov 27, 12 at 11:48

  • wendync
    11 years ago

    I bought a sad rex like that a few weeks ago. It was so dry and crispy. Watered and repotted it and now it is the perkiest plant I have! It's put out like 10 new leaves in 3 weeks! Good luck!

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Last night I wanted to talk about the plants I rescued yesterday too, but DH was laying on the couch and I didn't want him to look over here and read about them since I don't think he noticed the new plants when he got home. Not that I'm hiding them, but no sane person could agree we need MORE plants in here right now so I'm not bringing it up.

    Cowgurl, I think it's cool that there were even any plants to buy at this time of year where you are. I've never lived any place that cold, but in OH (Z5) it was hard to find house plants during the coldest months.

    Rachel, I found Fittonia at WM (from EA) a few weeks ago. But when I went yesterday, the garden section was almost entirely devoted to Christmas trees and decorations. The house plant display was down-sized, and not all on clearance but marked down about 25% for the ones that weren't clearance (new low price for the "plants of steel" display.)

    On clearance, they did have T'giving or Christmas cactus (I know, if I'd been paying attention the the recent discussions I'd know which these are) for half-off ($1.50 and $3.50.) In a fit of complete denial about not having anywhere to put them, I got 3 small ones and 3 big ones, an Aglaonema that's different from my other one, and a Sans I've had my eye on. I usually stop by every week but missed last week, so somehow in the past 2 weeks these holiday cactus plants arrived at the store and got clearanced. They weren't there at all on my visit 2 weeks ago. Strange.

    Although the Sans and Aglaonema were at the lower but new "regular" price, I felt like I was rescuing everything because they were drippy wet. I spent about 15 minutes tilting water out of as many pots as I could. After picking out the Sans and Agl., I had them laying sideways on the ground to drip as much as they could. The manager walked by and bent down to pick them up and I explained what I was doing with them. Don't know if he "got it" about the excess moisture or not even though I told him that in addition to making a potential mess in my car, plants don't like to be dripping wet. I can't understand why the plants at this store are always drippy wet. Rain has been extremely rare the past weeks so I suspect they've got a serial overwaterer working there. But at least somebody's paying some kind of attention.

    When I buy plants at these kinds of stores, I always have the plants separated on a separate receipt if I'm buying non-plant items too. I want purchases of nothing but plants to show up in their sales stats.

  • cowgurl160
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for all the input! The Fittonia and Croton are both looking pretty good and the begonia perked up awesomely! The croton and fittonia were both really dry but the begonia was the one showing it the worst. I wouldn't have been able to get the fittonia at clearance but (assuming multiple plants in the pot) one plant is dead and crispy, its not really visible in my picture. And my Lowe's store has houseplants year round. Right now they are pretty heavy on Christmas plants, but they keep a few tropicals all the time.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Awesome to hear!! In a couple days, I would remove any still-not-perky leaves.

    Does this Fittonia have a tag? Not sure if I'm seeing one or not. Is it from EA?

  • flowerpottipper
    11 years ago

    I'm still so surprised when I hear about 'any' clearance houseplants at Lowes and Home Depot....there's 2 lowes and 2 Home Depots by me, and neither ever have anything on clearance..Just a week ago I saw a huge dying bromeliad (the flower was long gone and cut off and the leaves where turning brown) and they where still tying to sell it at $40...the plant can be beyond saving and they still try to sell it at full price, it makes no sense to me. You would think that when the plant is starting to look sad and isnt gonna sell at full price, they would try to sell it at discount, but not the stores by me.

    And talking about stores overwatering, I hate it when you reach and lift a hanging plant and cold water comes leaking out of the pot and runs down your arm getting yourself all wet...it always makes me really mad...

    Anyways, cowgurl160, those are really pretty plants you got, I hope they grow well for you.

    -FPT

  • cowgurl160
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Purple, yes it did have a tag. Its an EA plant and its Fittonia 'Pink Wave' or Fittonia argyroneura.

    FPT, my Lowe's store is pretty good about marking down plants, sometimes it comes in waves where they have a lot marked down, but they usually have at least a few plants marked down all the time. Right now I think they have a problem with a poor waterer. Some plants seem stay really wet and a lot of other ones look similar to what I brought home. I'd love to bring more home but I just don't have room!

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    I thought so, that's the same as one I got recently. We both have great taste! Occasionally a little flower will poke out of the stalks at top. So cute!

  • cowgurl160
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Your Fittonia looks awesome! I can't wait until mine looks like that! How much light is your plant getting Purple?

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    I think so too, these didn't last a whole week at WM, snatched up instantly. There's 2 plants in the pot, the same one you got and a red one but they are only slightly different colors.

    It was getting a little sunburned outside. The was no room at the shadier end for it so I tried to keep it in dappled light of taller plants and moved it around a lot. When I brought it in a few days ago, I put it in a south window but it only gets direct light in the morning because of the porch roof. If if starts fading, I'll try to find it a brighter spot.

  • cowgurl160
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Here are my plants 10 days later! I can definitely see some improvement in the rex begonia. I'm a little hesitant to take off all of the bad leaves because I don't want to stress it too much so I've just been letting them go naturally. I've just moved the begonia and fittonia to the plant stand by the window. They will be a little crowded until after Christmas and the poinsettia gets moved. This is a west facing window and I hoping at this point the 2 bigger plants will provide some shade to allow the 2 littler plants time to adjust. I also have a tray with water underneath the begonia and fittonia. Croton has been doing good since day 1 and was moved to the window a couple of days after I picked that one up. So all in all we're still doing ok here.

  • cowgurl160
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Here's another picture that I think gives a little better view of the fittonia.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Good update, looking great! What difference on the Begonia especially!

    I was about to freak out over your unusual and pretty purple Poinsettia until I realized it's painted. Sure is pretty though!!

  • pirate_girl
    11 years ago

    Hi CG,

    Nice plants there.

    Fittonias are lower light plants, pls. don't give 'em direct sun, it may not like it & will likely burn.

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