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Posts tonen met het label Houseplant jungle. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label Houseplant jungle. Alle posts tonen

donderdag 23 januari 2025

2025-4 My indoor houseplant jungle

 Most people who struggle past the coats and shoes (the hall is tiny) to enter my sitting room stop, and often gasp. And next they exclaim. The top 3 is: 3. "Oh my, you have a lot of plants", 2. "Plants always die on me" and 1. "You live in an indoor jungle." And yes, I aim to.

Cycas, Orchid and Caladium
   Before I moved to my current appartment I struggled to keep my houseplants alive as well. Central heating and not enough sunlight were the culprits. Because my garden thrived, I was (almost) certain it could not be due to my skills.
   But then I did move, and my floor to ceiling (4m high!) SW facing windows meant my room is flooded with light. In fact so much light that the three orchids I brought with me soon told me they'd had enough of that glare, and would I move them to the tiny darker bedroom, please?
   So I did. And they died anyway. This time I blamed myself, and now know I overwatered them. You live and learn, don't you?


But it is this plant I really want to show you. It is called Medinilla magnifica, or rose grape, and it is from the Melastomataceae family, and comes from the Philippines.
I have never had one, it is quite pricey and I tend to buy my plants when they are still babies or half dead, thus cheap. But this one was a gift. I found out it was bloody difficult to put down somewhere in my already over-full room, as it needs to be able to let those gorgeous bracts hang freely. So in the end I bought it its own plant stairs, which it shares with a coffee plant, a ficus and an amarylis.
It is an epiphyte...oh dear...so...will not like my direct sunlight, right? I think it will be fine by now though, as the sun does not reach my room in midwinter. But I fear I will have to move it to the bedroom by May at the latest.
This is one of my 'bought it as a baby' plants, which has grown and grown, and is by now partially blocking my TV screen. It is called Phlebodium pseudoaureum. Those names! It is a blue fern, just remember that, from tropical South-America. This is an epiphyte as well, but it tolerates my bright room in winter. I have to move it in the summer months as well though...
Mind you, I think plants rather enjoy to be moved from time to time, almost as if they get bored with the same view after a while.
I have already told you about the Chlorophytum comosum a while ago, so I'll skip it for now.
No the one I do want to tell you about, is my Senecio.
Some years ago I bought a small Senecio radicans, or String of Bananas. Except I had no idea what I'd bought, and had to look it up. A succulent, well, that much I knew from its thick stem and waxy thick leaves. So I treated it as my other succulents: right in front of that window, not too much water. It did well and grew and grew. But three repottings later it was not happy any longer. In order to try and please it, I changed its plastic pot for a terracotta one. And then put it outside on the balcony by the end of May.
And will you look at it now😁 Actually, it needs repotting again, but I will wait until May. My plantbook tells me it can produce off-white cinnamon-scented flowers in late spring, gosh, I do hope so! This is a plant my friend from Malaysia shouts about every time she sees it, she says it looks like an alien.
Philodendron and Primula

Alien-looking or not, I adore it.
The last photo is of my promise of spring, the primula.  It reminds me that winter will end, that I will be able to have my early morning walkies with Puck in daylight in a couple of months, that those endless grey skies will clear, that I will be working in my garden again and plant that primula there.

I hope you've enjoyed a peep into my indoor jungle and that you will have a lovely weekend.
Renée 






2025-4 My indoor houseplant jungle

  Most people who struggle past the coats and shoes (the hall is tiny) to enter my sitting room stop, and often gasp. And next they exclaim....