🪴This Week In Houseplants🪴
This one's for everyone with a cold house
My house is cold. Like, cold cold. It’s badly insulated and has old radiators. It does have new windows and a new boiler, but the draughts are…draughty. On the plus side, it’s well-ventilated! Small wins! It’s not draughts, it’s ventilation!
My plants are not fine. They’re not growing and some of them are looking a little droopy, but they’re alive. A few weeks of warmer weather will perk them right up. Just hang on another three months guys 😂.
Could I run my heating all day? Sure. Could I put them all under grow lights? Of course.
Unfortunately, that’s not an option atm. My website (and primary source of income) took a massive hit in September (freaking HCU ruining everything for everyone).
I ran out and got a job (luckily I have hospitality experience so I picked up a restaurant job quickly - at least it happened right before Christmas). And then another job working in an office. I enquired there about retraining as an accountant because I CANNOT deal with the up-and-down nature of websites. As a chronic overthinker and worrier, I need security.
Anyway, they said they can get me started training when the busy season is over, and meanwhile would I like some office experience? Yes, I would. Also, they have a lot of houseplants and the people seem nice. Literally all I’m after in a job.
Oh, and I also need a new bathroom (the previous owners of this house didn’t install the shower properly, so it’s been leaking for literal years). And whilst demolishing the bathroom we found a leak in the roof. Bye, remaining savings 💸💸💸.
Running extra heating and lights is really, really, not in my budget right now.
My plants will be ok. Will it be a case of survival of the fittest? No. It’ll be a case of me being SUPER vigilant about pests.
The cold is unlikely to kill your plants unless they actually freeze. 14ËšC/57ËšF will just send them to situational dormancy.
The issue is that it will make them vulnerable to attack from root rot and pests.
I have had to make sacrifices. Thrips came back on Anthurium clarinerveum* and I don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with them, so I chopped all the leaves off.
They’ll grow back. Same with my smaller Monstera. I’m keeping a very close eye on everyone else.
*It was my own fault. I put my jade plant in the bathroom to overwinter - it usually lives outside - and it had thrips. I therefore reintroduced them to my entire collection when I had to move the plants into the bedroom to demo the bathroom.
Never mind.
Onto happier things
Ok, not happier, just more interesting.
I was updating my article on Syngonium care, and I came across a translation for the word ‘podophyllum’ which is the most common Syngonium species. Most Syngonium cultivars are podophyllum.
Podophyllum means ‘foot-like leaves’ (pod means feet, hence podiatrist) which is ridiculous because they don’t look like feet.
But then when you think that the common name for Syngonium is ‘goose-foot plant’ it kinda makes sense IF you know what ‘proper’ Syngonium leaves look like.
(And no, I don’t actually know anyone that calls it a goose-foot plant, but apparently people do).
The vast majority of the Syngonium leaves we see are juvenile. They do pretty well in medium light and don’t grow much faster in super bright light like Monstera, so it can be a struggle to convince Syngonium to produce mature leaves unless you live in the tropics.
But they do look kinda like feet!
Specifically goose feet. They don’t look like human feet.
Kinda? Nah?
Anyway, if you want to read the article it’s here:
I have a load of articles on Syngoniums here:
I took yesterday off entirely. Wrapped myself up in a blanket on the sofa and watched the entire first season the (original) Frasier. It was glorious, and the perfect prep for working two jobs from next week.
I also, in a bid to make myself feel better, actually put up my Christmas tree whilst watching A Muppet Christmas Carol.
I’ve worked in hospitality for over 20 years, and this time of year is BUSY. I rarely had the time or inclination to put up a Christmas tree.
Presents were bought in September, wrapped in October and then I worked my butt off until 11 pm on Christmas Eve, downed a bottle of prosecco and slept for 48 hours, waking only to eat and watch Call the Midwife.
I freaking loved it, but it was TOUGH.
Anyway, a Christmas tree seemed like a good idea this year. Here she is:
How cute are my niece’s homemade baubles?
The flowers on my Thanksgiving cactus aren’t enjoying the cold, but I’m sure she’ll manage.
I apologise for the melancholy nature of this email, but such is life. I just saw an Instagram post admonishing people for not using grow lights and it made me, not angry, just a bit…put out. It’s not an option for a lot of people. Even if people can afford to run extra lights, it may not be a priority.
Recommend lights, sure, but don’t shame people for not being in the position to run them.
If anyone has managed to grow a mature Syngonium outside of the tropics, I’d love to hear about it! I assume it takes a lot of time and chopping and propping?
Have an awesome weekend
Caroline
Very helpful article, I've been toying with a few off grid solar panels and a literal car battery to power grow lights. Suddenly I seem like a mad scientist.