indoor jungles

[rainbowgardener]

Just thought I'd show a couple pictures of my watered twice a month only, hardly ever fertilized house plants:

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/houseplants.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/houseplants2.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/houseplants3.jpg[/img]

[PunkRotten]

Really nice.

[jlpanecki]

Your plants look marvelous! They obviously like having windows on two sides - and the humidity from the clustering works well too.

Tell us what you have there, please!

janet

[rainbowgardener]

All very common stuff. The tall one in the top picture is corn plant. It's been cut back a couple times and is grazing the ceiling again. The slightly ferny looking small plant to its left is parlor palm. The colorful one is coleus that I started from seed. The tree in the bottom picture is a ficus. There's dieffenbachia, schefflera, and pothos (devil's ivy). I also have an angel trumpet tree that is usually behind the ficus, but didn't seem to make it in to the picture. The small potted thing behind the ficus, with the candles propping it up is a green pepper plant that I overwintered last year and the pale green terrible looking one behind that was a tomato plant that I tried overwintering. (These pictures are from Feb this year.) This season I did not repeat those experiments.

[prettygurl]

Amazing.

[Green Mantis]

Gorgeous plants. Congrats on them. They obviously like the care they are getting, plus the nice sunny spot theyr'e in.

Lucky plants, Lucky you.

[pinksand]

They're quite the healthy bunch RBG! That coleus is beautiful! Did it overwinter well?

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, overwintered, was out on the deck all through spring and summer and is now back indoors for its second winter...

[Burz]

I searched the forum looking for house plant tips and didn't really find what I was looking for. Maybe you or someone else could assist me.

In the same pot I have two peace lilies,what I think is in the bottom left of your first picture, the fern looking plant that you named and some other common vine that I didn't see in your photos from my grandfathers funeral. When I brought it home it was in an arrangement with small root structures(I don't think they meant for it to last longer than the funeral) I potted the arrangement in half Fox Farm Happy Frog and half peat mix. Now the plants are banging almost 2 years later. Not being familiar with house plants I'm a little intimidated to separate and re-pot them.

I'm used to potted roses and vegetables which are heavy feeders and somewhat durable to over/under feeding and transplanting. I noticed you said barely fertilized for yours. Would a high nutrient potting soil be to much for house plants? Do house plants transplant well?

[rainbowgardener]

The coleus I started from seed. Almost all the regular houseplants I have originally came from "sick baskets" -- baskets full of little plants that were sent to me when I was in the hospital a couple of times, years ago, probably very similar to the funeral ones you mention. They transplant easily. That corn plant with the two stalks brushing the ceiling was originally one plant a few inches high.

I don't know what you mean by "high nutrient" potting soil. I have all mine in regular potting soil with Miracle Grow. Every year or two I renew it by taking everything (except the big trees) out of their pots, putting all the soil into a wheelbarrow, adding about that much fresh potting soil, mixing it all together and stuffing the soil and all the plants back in pots. I rarely fertilize other than that, some years I put a few of the little plant spikes in the pots one time in a year and some years I don't.

I'm big on benign neglect! I do mist them though and they seem to really appreciate that.

[Burz]

Thank you. I think I over thought it.lol. What I meant by high nutrient soil was, when I put veggie seedlings or just rooted rose clippings in Premium potting soil they look like they have been burned and never really come back around. I wait for a larger root mass before they go in to straight potting soil and they do much better. When you said hardly fertilized I got nervous because I was going to re-pot this weekend and didn't want to screw it up.

They look nice all together in the same pot right now, but I'm guessing they will have more potential in there own pots judging by yours.