My New Monstera

 

 

A friend gave me a Monstera Deliciosa! Isn't she beautiful! I just put a four foot 2" x 2" ,dark brown post in the pot for it to start growing on. I may need to replace it with a heavier and taller one at some point. I hope so! That's ok as I have a several pieces of lumber I can use for that in my wood stash outside. I can spare a bigger board for the Monstera, when it gets there.

A message to the Lord and my friend: Thank you for the great gift! "All good and perfect gifts come from above." - James 1:17.

The leaves have gotten even bigger since she gave it to me less than two weeks ago. It must like that location, right in front of a south window with blinds ever so partly open. It's winter, so most of my houseplants sit in front of or to the side of that window. In the summer they will move to cooler areas. I have other big windows with wide sills for plants, but they are cool in the winter with curtains that get closed at night. 

I also have a Monstera Adansonii. It's still quite small. I have big hopes that both of them will get huge! 

Monstera plants like some direct sunlight and don't like to be soaking wet all the time. 

I have a mix of plants with varying water requirements. I know what all my plants are and their needs but it's still hard for me not to over water the ones that like it a bit dry. 

I plan to be very careful with both the monstera plants! They are special! All my plants are special...

 

 

Growing Houseplants

 

I have left the Farmer's Market, at least for the winter. I'm officially a retired "home-body" now. I will have more time for the things that I enjoy doing, like painting and gardening. In the middle of winter, I have to dig in the dirt. It's a mood uplifting thing, I think. The soil is good for you, so I grow a lot of houseplants. 

 

Christmas cactus

I like all of my plants, but my favourites are the philodendrons and the little bright pink Christmas cactus, of course. Who doesn't like a blooming Christmas cactus? It was blooming a month ago. I grew it from rooted cuttings from a friend.

p. black cherry

 

I collect philodendrons and have several different varieties. Most have come from cuttings from friends and a friend who gave me a "black cherry" philodendron.  

 

 

p. hederacium

 

 I have the common p. hederaceum with heart shaped dark green leaves, in the same pot with a p. hederaceum ‘Brasil’ (variegated) . 

I also have a small p. micans, and another small one with longer green leaves. I'm not sure of the exact variety of that one. 

 None of my philodendrons are pothos plants, the so-called "devil's ivy". I have one of those too. It's an entirely different plant, so please stop calling it a philodendron.  :)

 

m. adansonii

I have a Monstera adansonii that looks like a philodendron with holes in the leaves, but it's a small monstera type. I'd absolutely LOVE a big monstera! A rooted cutting from a friend would be marvelous! I like living in a jungle. :) 

 

 

 

Syngoniums: red, green, red centers

 

 

I have lots of other plants, many are special to me, I'm just partial to the philodendrons. I have a small coffee plant that's interesting. Maybe I'll get some beans from it in a few years. I have three different varieties of syngonium arrow leaf plants in matching pots, in a three pot hanger I made just for them (above). 

Lipstick plant

I have a small lipstick plant that I grew from one tiny cutting. I have always wanted a lipstick plant so I babied it and it's growing very well now! It's one of my favourites. I am excitedly looking forward to blooms! It's a gesneriad, like African violets. Once upon a time, bk (before kids), I had 40 African violets in various sizes. I was trying to collect as many different variations as I could fine. Some of them grew to tremendous widths and had to go in large 1 ft tall pots. Then sweet little Sarah came along. lol. She discovered backing up to sit on things just the right height for her. She sat on all of the ones on the floor. I kept them going until she started chewing on the leaves, then they had to go. I traded a friends 40 earrings for the 40 plants. I would like to have some African violets again and can root plants from leaves, which is how i got 40 in the first place. If only a friends would give me some leaves...

 

f. fiddle leaf

I have a little fiddle leaf fig tree. It's little but it's growing. It's a ficus, like the benjamina but with larger leaves. I take really good care of it too. I want it to get six feet tall! It's only about 6" tall right now, but it'll grow. I'm hoping it won't drop it's leaves everywhere, like the f. benjamina does.

 

I have an anthurium, and a variegated ti. Both in the photo at the top. I love the anthurium. It will grow well in a pond in the warm summer weather in the shade. I might make a small water garden outside this summer. I have saved a little water pump to make a small fountain. Something else that loves to grow bareroot in water are impatiens. They do well in a pond, in the shade. Another good and unexpected pond plant is a canna, in a pot of soil in the pond. I don't have cannas now, but I have had in the past, in the pond. 

 

Sugar vine

I have a sugar vine. It is doing well and I like the light, feathery foliage. I got cuttings for it from the same friend who gave me the lipstick plant cuttings and the p. black cherry plant. It was a lot longer, but I took some cuttings from it a couple of weeks ago. 

 

 

And, of course, I have a large spider plant. Who doesn't? I couldn't have one when I had cats previously. They ate the spider plants back all the way to the dirt. They liked those!

 

I have a large jar of cuttings taken from various things. I change the water and replace with warm water every 1-2 days. I hope they root. I know it's the wrong time of year for that and warmth is important, but I used rooting hormone. Here's hoping! 

 

Cuttings

These are the cuttings I am rooting. There are two avocado pits rooting in a small glass there, as well. I have the purple striped "wandering jew" and an angelwing begonia. You can see the  cuttings, taken from my own plants. The plants are both kind of sparse now, with the cuttings taken. I like the angelwing begonia. I had one previously that bloomed well when kept outside. It has large pendulous beautiful blooms! I will be moving some of these outside in the shade, when the very warm weather comes. 

I have a "china doll" that I have always liked because of the name and also the fineness of the foliage, but it's not doing very well. It's still alive, but some of it has died back. It continuously dies and regrows and dies and regrows. Disappointing.  

Another disappointment is the umbrella plant that keeps dropping it's leaves. I have moved it to non-drafty warm locations several times and it still just keeps dropping it's leaves. I have just about lost hope for it. Even the new growth it put out awhile ago is dropping. 

One more disappointment is my grape leaf plant. It's in a big bucket with no holes in the bottom and I think I over watered it. It's wilted and not doing well at all. I might be able to save it if I repotted it in dry new soil in a pot with holes in it, but it's winter here. It's too cold to do this outside, so it's probably a loss. I'm not that thrilled with it or the umbrella tree, so if I lose those, it won't bother me. I'll be more disappointed if I eventually lose the china doll, but that's life with plants. It happens. 

My lipstick plant and sugar plant are planted directly in pots with no drainage. I'm very careful watering, but I think I will repot them soon indoors, anyway.

I keep my tender herbs on a south windowsill all winter too. They seem to do very well there. I have successfully overwintered rosemary, lavender, oregano and several others in the past. I'm trying lemon balm this year and it seems to be doing well. 

I'm looking forward to spring. I have plans to add an herb garden this year and more flower space.  

Bringing In Your Plants

Autumn is just around the corner! It's September now. The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler. It's time to bring the houseplants back inside.

Trays for the plants have always been a concern for me. I bring in a lot of geraniums and so forth from the garden and start many plants indoors early in the spring. This year I am going to use boot trays under the plants! It's an idea that just came to me while shopping at Home Depot today. It's the only thing I could find that is big enough for this pot but it works perfectly. I can add other pots to the tray as well and use them in front of the patio doors too! I love the idea!

I planted most of my plants directly into the garden in June this year, so will have those to dig up and plant into pots with fresh soil shortly. I will have to look carefully to make sure there are no earthworms, earwigs or other insects coming in with them.

I'm buying more boot trays today!