Indoor plants.

I've given up on indoor plants. Too many have died and become victim to playful cats, the last one inexplicably falling down every single stair. So I concentrate on the garden instead.
 


becs said:
I've got a peace lily and an aloe vera in my bedroom. I read somewhere that they take bad things out of the air and aid restful sleep. They have them on the space station to improve the air quality for astronauts. I thought if it's good enough for NASA, then it's good enough for me.
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Yeah I like my Aloe Vera. Had a Venus fly trap for yonks but sadly passed away this month:(
 
Just counted them.

One in the kitchen (pots of herb don't count as house plants).
Four in bedchamber.
Eight in bathroom.
And twenty-five in livingroom.

The smallest is about five centimetres tall. The tallest reach the cealing. The rest are a mix of inbetweens.

Always have a bunch of flowers in a vase on the dining table, too but they don't count as house plants either. And new ones are bought for the vase each week.
 
Kevj said:
I’m in the process of growing an oak bonsai, struggling to get the seeds to germinate. Maybe if I maintain the correct soil conditions, they will naturally sprout in the new year.
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Growing conditions
Acorns need cool conditions in order to be able to begin to grow (germinate). Follow the instructions below to plant your acorns and then place the pots outside where they can be watered by the rain.
When to grow
Collect some acorns from mid-September to December. Don’t let the acorns dry out. Make sure you collect acorns in good condition, they should be green or brown in colour with no holes where insects may have burrowed inside, the caps should come off easily.
What you need
  • Gardening gloves
  • 15cm (6in) pots with drainage holes
  • Multi-purpose compost
  • Trowel
  • Acorns
  • Plant label
How to grow
  1. Loosely fill the pot with compost leaving around a 2.5cm (1in) gap between the compost and the top of the pot.
  2. Make four spaced holes at the edge of the pot with your finger and put an acorn in to each hole. Gently cover over the acorns with the compost.
  3. Water the pot and place it outside, you may need to protect the acorns from animals and birds.
  4. The seedlings can be kept in this pot until the roots begin to emerge out of the drainage holes, when it can be potted on to a slightly larger pot. Tall pots are better than squat ones, to allow the roots to elongate. Repeat this as often as necessary.
  5. The saplings may be kept in pots for two or three years, but if you find that it becomes too much to keep putting them in bigger pots, you can then think about a place to plant them in the ground.
I found this on the RHS website, it was in the kids section, so apologies if it is too simplified.
 
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Churchlanelad said:
Growing conditions
Acorns need cool conditions in order to be able to begin to grow (germinate). Follow the instructions below to plant your acorns and then place the pots outside where they can be watered by the rain.
When to grow
Collect some acorns from mid-September to December. Don’t let the acorns dry out. Make sure you collect acorns in good condition, they should be green or brown in colour with no holes where insects may have burrowed inside, the caps should come off easily.
What you need
  • Gardening gloves
  • 15cm (6in) pots with drainage holes
  • Multi-purpose compost
  • Trowel
  • Acorns
  • Plant label
How to grow
  1. Loosely fill the pot with compost leaving around a 2.5cm (1in) gap between the compost and the top of the pot.
  2. Make four spaced holes at the edge of the pot with your finger and put an acorn in to each hole. Gently cover over the acorns with the compost.
  3. Water the pot and place it outside, you may need to protect the acorns from animals and birds.
  4. The seedlings can be kept in this pot until the roots begin to emerge out of the drainage holes, when it can be potted on to a slightly larger pot. Tall pots are better than squat ones, to allow the roots to elongate. Repeat this as often as necessary.
  5. The saplings may be kept in pots for two or three years, but if you find that it becomes too much to keep putting them in bigger pots, you can then think about a place to plant them in the ground.
I found this on the RHS website, it was in the kids section, so apologies if it is too simplified.
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Ive followed steps one, two and three to the letter. They haven’t germinated. But thank you for making it easy for me to understand.
 
alexander said:
Just counted them.

One in the kitchen (pots of herb don't count as house plants).
Four in bedchamber.
Eight in bathroom.
And twenty-five in livingroom.

The smallest is about five centimetres tall. The tallest reach the cealing. The rest are a mix of inbetweens.

Always have a bunch of flowers in a vase on the dining table, too but they don't count as house plants either. And new ones are bought for the vase each week.
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How do you dry them before enjoying them?
 
Kevj said:
I picked the seeds up from a cultural park in Madeira which had recently fell to the ground. I wanted the whole natural thing with exotic plants that I’d picked.
I also picked up several seeds from a stinkwood tree which has very pink blossom and I like the idea of a sekura type bonsai. I have checked and both species I have can be successfully bonsai’d.
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Ah well good luck. Hope they come up.
 
OOOSH YEAH said:
Do you have many? Think I’m getting a bit obsessed. It can be quite addictive.

I have loads at the minute. Got a couple of bonsai trees I’ve had for years, White cheese plant, fiddle leaf fig, a white orchid, a huge peace lily and a weeping fig tree.

What do you have at home?
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Nothing.
 
Bit obsessed with cacti & succiulents when I was teenager.
40 years later at lot of them still alive though maybe not as thriving as they could be, one or two die each year. Just hoping they can hold on til I retire so I can start looking after them properly again, some haven't been repotted since the first few years.

Plants include one who's initial bud I got from school, found out since that the leaves are poisonous and have killed loads of cattle. Pretty sure I tried the taste of one back in the day, explains my "anorexia, depression, ruminal atony, diarrhoea, heart rate and rhythm abnormalities, dyspnoea and death", I suppose. Thought I was just being a typical teenager.
 
Fred Basset said:
That is a fair comment mate. Shop over the road from me gave it to me. Potted it up, watered it and the main one went away. Burst into life and then, well, burst The smaller one left has become a mission in life to see it flourish.
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Can’t say I’ve ever had any. Don’t they burst if you over feed and water them?
mad maxim said:
Bit obsessed with cacti & succiulents when I was teenager.
40 years later at lot of them still alive though maybe not as thriving as they could be, one or two die each year. Just hoping they can hold on til I retire so I can start looking after them properly again, some haven't been repotted since the first few years.

Plants include one who's initial bud I got from school, found out since that the leaves are poisonous and have killed loads of cattle. Pretty sure I tried the taste of one back in the day, explains my "anorexia, depression, ruminal atony, diarrhoea, heart rate and rhythm abnormalities, dyspnoea and death", I suppose. Thought I was just being a typical teenager.
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Some of them are over 40 years old?
 
OOOSH YEAH said:
Some of them are over 40 years old?
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Quite a few are, 40 or around there. First plant ever Aloe Ferox, maybe 42 ish, still happy but hasn't flowered for a few years now. Only a few are any size cos I just haven't repotted them for so long. Lithops I grew from seed from round then now starting to die off, they're still tiny but flower most years.
 
OOOSH YEAH said:
Do you have many? Think I’m getting a bit obsessed. It can be quite addictive.

I have loads at the minute. Got a couple of bonsai trees I’ve had for years, White cheese plant, fiddle leaf fig, a white orchid, a huge peace lily and a weeping fig tree.

What do you have at home?
Click to expand...

Probably shouldn't mention that on the internet
 
mad maxim said:
Quite a few are, 40 or around there. First plant ever Aloe Ferox, maybe 42 ish, still happy but hasn't flowered for a few years now. Only a few are any size cos I just haven't repotted them for so long. Lithops I grew from seed from round then now starting to die off, they're still tiny but flower most years.
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Class that like. Oldest one I’ve got is probably about ten year old my bonsai. Might not even be that. A baby compared to yours
 

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