This Week In Houseplants

A New Home For The Thai Constellation!

I’m now deep into preparing for the upcoming growing season. I might have actually gone a bit far - it was beautiful and sunny last weekend and my brain immediately went into spring mode - I even got my prop box filled. Imagine my surprise when I awoke this morning to a pretty substantial frost 😂

Our living room was plenty warm enough to move the Thai though. I’ve been meaning to get her something to attach to for a while so I procured an old aquarium and some glue from Dave and voila:

Ok, ok, I know it’s hardly the most aesthetically pleasing setup you’ve ever seen BUT once she’s crawled up that plank it’ll look better. I can get rid of those zip ties for a start.

As you can see, there’s already an aerial root eyeing up the wood.

The plank, by the way, used to be the windowsill, but the new radiator is taller than the old one and no longer fits. Waste not, want not.

Once she’s a bit more established I’m going to fill the tank with props - I can FINALLY try the pool noodle trick for holding cuttings. Much excite.

The blue thing is a thrips trap. I’d always dismissed them as a bit of a gimmick but thought I needed to try them on the off chance (off chance is two words, no hyphen - I checked) they were the answer to all my dreams.

So far I have caught, alas, 0 thrips, but as Hannah pointed out in the comments last week, they’re only little! It’s quite a trek for them!

Peace Lily

I converted a portion of one of my peace lilies to water last week and it’s doing really well. I do intend to keep it in water only once it’s more established but for now I’m using some gravel to anchor the roots and keep it in place.

The vase was £2.50 from Tesco and I love it. I asked my boyfriend to grab me another for my orchid but he brought back the larger size (£6) which will be perfect for this peace lily in the future but is currently cartoonishly oversized for the orchid.

Long story short, I went from having 0 of these at the start of the week to having three in two sizes.

I will do a video on this once she’s grown a bit but I literally just ripped a few plantlets off the mother, ran the roots under the tap and dislodged as much soil as I could, added half the gravel, added the plants, used the rest of the gravel to anchor the roots, and added tap water, being sure not to submerge any part of the plant that isn’t root.

Prop box

She’s looking, er, full:

I put a layer of pon on the bottom because, er, I had some and it has some nutrients, then layered rehydrated moss on top. Then I took cuttings of about four plants (I forget which ones - I like the surprise! but you can see a verrucosum leaf in the top right) that were incredibly leggy and leafless so a TONNE of nodes. The I popped the lid on and put it in a south-facing window - more for the warmth than the light, but both encourage fast rooting.

Unfortunately, the moss was a bit *too* damp and after about three days I noticed this:

MOULD

Gross. But also fairly inevitable in a warm, wet unventilated environment.

I took the lid off to reduce the humidity and dry out the moss AND THEN Dave came home with some springtails. Most have gone in the prop box but I put about a quarter in the terrarium. I know they creep some people out but I think they’re super cute and they do a great job at cleanup.

Once the moss is a bit drier I’ll poke some tiny holes in the prop box and let the springtails get to work.

(Currently sat at my desk with the lid and a pin - it’s gonna be slow going)

Speaking of the terrarium, it’s doing really well! The fittonia is absolutely LOVING it in there and all the plants have put out new growth apart from the fern.

I’m going back to the plant shop tomorrow 😳 I got a plant stand that I want to style and I’m fancying one of those over toilet shelving units.

Our bathroom is south-facing but the light is super diffused because of the frosted glass.

Long hours of light + cool temps (bathrooms are often cold) is saying ferns to me.

And maybe hoya if I’m not too bothered about flowers.

Oh, did anyone see this article on how houseplants can help your microbiome?

I think the current research into the microbiome and all that gut health stuff is fascinating, but this article is…not it. Too much talk of plants cleaning the air and absorbing moisture, two things plants can do, but in such miniscule amounts it makes no difference to the environment at all. In fact, any moisture your plant absorbs from the air is never gonna negate the moisture that evaporates from the soil constantly.

And do we like these planters?

I do like them, but I don’t like them enough to pay €750. I didn’t even look up what that equates to in pounds (I lie - I did and it’s £618 - I believe USD is pretty similar to Euros) - I ain’t paying it. That’s for ONE planter, not even one of the troughs, which don’t seem to be available yet.

I’m sure it’s worth it, but I won’t be dropping significant amounts of cash on planters until I’ve paid off my mortgage.

Right, I’m off to poke more holes in the lid of my prop box with a pin, then I’m settling down to watch this video with a glass of wine. By the way - I watched Claire’s plant tour (all three hours of it) last Sunday afternoon and it was GLORIOUS. Highly recommend.

Have an awesome week!