Rooms with plants

[taskeinc]

Want to show some beautiful setups for indoor plants and indoor gardening .. this one is really nice .. (not mine) I don't have a room in my house that gets as much sun as the room pictured below .. wish I did .. maybe one day ..

I really like the tall palm plant (or tree) .. I had one like that, about 14 years ago.. I rescued it from a nursery, they were about to throw it away because it was infested with Mealy Bugs.. I bought a new large pot for it, fresh potting soil, spray to kill the bugs, and nursed it back to health. The plant had grown to about 7 feet tall, was beautiful, doing quite well.

A year passed, my wife filed for divorce (a blessing), ran off with the kids and all the furniture in the house, along with that one plant, she didn't take the other 50 or so houseplants, just my largest one.

When the divorce was final, I got my kids back (awarded full custody), but never got my beautiful tree back, and she was not into plants at all.. I never asked for it back (at the time, I was just glad to be out of the marriage, glad to have my kids). I do realize this may be TMI (too much info), but it adds a little intrigue to the story.

I never saw the plant again, I'm sure it didn't live past 6 months or so, unless she gave it to someone..

There's no doubt I would still have the plant today and probably would have rooted several new plants from that one. When I got the plant from the nursery, it was probably around 12 years old, so today it would be about 26 years old. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a "casualty of divorce." If I ever re-marry (and it's not looking like I will), my 2nd wife will have to be a plant-lover..

This image below are some of the plants in my den. It's not a clear image and I could not get the full view, there is a large tri-color dracaena to the left that can't be seen.. I have 13 plants in the den, 4 in the foyer, and 12 in my office, directly across from the den.. Needless to say, I spend the majority of my days in my office and den...

 

[ChanellG]

Task, that first image makes me wistful. Not to carry on any drama, but I'm betting the ex took that plant just to stick it to you. Glad you were able to get your kids back; plants are replaceable.

I wish I had the space for more indoor plants, but I have a really long window in one room that I had installed closer to the ceiling so it would let in light but no one would be able to see in. I am going to put up a long shelf just under the ledge so I can have another row of plants there.

The sun's trajectory sort of brings it across that window from left to right so the plants will get a good amount of light through the course of the day.

 

[taskeinc]

You can always find space for indoor plants/indoor gardening .. 20 years ago I lived in a 1-bedroom efficiency apartment in the San Fran Bay Area and I had one plant, a philodendron or pothos, that grew all over my apartment. I had the pot sitting on a 4 foot stand, the plant started climbing the wall, and grew all over that tiny apartment (it even turned the corner and started to grow toward my bedroom). It was very easy to re-pot because all I had to do was slide the soil out of the pot, insert a larger pot below it, fill in the empty spaces with fresh soil, and 5 minutes later, done..

Here's a nice looking image of lots of plants (not mine) in a pretty small space .. (the white container plant is really pretty) ..

 

[ChanellG]

Yes, the bromeliads are gorgeous! When I look at this photo I find that amount of plants a bit overwhelming. For me, that is just too many plants. I need my surfaces available for other use. I have very little space, with very little storage and a lot of books, CDs and art supplies.

 

[ACSAPA]

What a gorgeous thread! These pictures have inspired me to get some indoor plants when I move to a new apartment this year. I haven't had indoor plants in years because my ex had a phobia of houseplants. He thought they were filthy and that if you bought a plant at, say Home Depot, and put it in your living room, the plant was probably full of bugs and earthworms and you would infest the house with ickyness. Whatever, now that I'm single, I can do what I want in my own space. Now I just have to move out and get my own space.

 

[ChanellG]

..I haven't had indoor plants in years because my ex had a phobia of houseplants...

Wow, congratulations on your emancipation. I can't even imagine... I guess the plant phobia wasn't the only "issue" your ex had. It's amazing how some people even manage to navigate through life.

 

[blueiris]

Normally, I have cut flowers in spring and summer but I most of my plants are on my porch and patio. Indoors, I prefer a few plants on my window sills similar to this picture, which is not mine:

(thanks to cisc1970 for the photo)

I have cats indoors and they will attack potted plants so I can't have many in my house.

 

[ChanellG]

My mother's cats have taken to attacking her indoor plants recently. I've never seen cats turn a plant into a plaything outdoors, or a plant that seemed to have been disturbed by something attacking it. This peculiarity is strictly limited to indoor cats of a certain age, but it would drive me nuts.

 

[blueiris]

It's funny that the cats don't attack cut flowers, just the live plants. My cats are all over five years old, but they have had this tendency all their lives. They especially love to attack any vining plant, so I have moved my beloved Pothos plant that I inherited from my mother, to a location on my patio, although it does better inside. It gets too hot for it outside in the Florida heat, but it's surviving the summers outside with lots of extra water and a generally shady spot.

 

[ChanellG]

I think it probably has something to do with movement. If something blows a leaf, or if the leaves move when you brush past, the cat probably sees it as something to play with. I read something though that suggested you could use citrus peels to deter animals from your plants. Here's a link to the article: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-orange-peels-repel-animals-plants-58783.html.

 

[maddie]

I think it probably has something to do with movement. If something blows a leaf, or if the leaves move when you brush past, the cat probably sees it as something to play with. I read something though that suggested you could use citrus peels to deter animals from your plants. Here's a link to the article: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/use-orange-peels-repel-animals-plants-58783.html.

Yup, they are always attracted to vines and moving plants.. my neighbors cats used to jump on my pothos and made a mess of it.. he would also pee on my grow lights... I had to keep spraying him with water from a spray gun until he stopped troubling my plants. now he neither plays here or messes around with lights.

 

[ChanellG]

Maddie, my mom has a spray bottle to chase the cats away from areas they should be in/on such as the kitchen counters. She recently got a second bottle so we'd have one in the front and one in the back of the house at all times. Within maybe a day of filling the second bottle she found it with a bunch of tiny little holes, lol.

 

[taskeinc]

What a gorgeous thread! These pictures have inspired me to get some indoor plants when I move to a new apartment this year. I haven't had indoor plants in years because my ex had a phobia of houseplants. He thought they were filthy and that if you bought a plant at, say Home Depot, and put it in your living room, the plant was probably full of bugs and earthworms and you would infest the house with ickyness. Whatever, now that I'm single, I can do what I want in my own space. Now I just have to move out and get my own space.

Thanks ACSAPA ... In my 20+ years of dealing with plants and my love of horticulture, I have never heard of plants being referred to as "filthy." What amazes me is that, here we are in the 21st century, 2013, Information Technology is no longer a buzz phrase or term, it's been a part of our lives for the past 15-20 years, but there are still those people who refuse to take advantage of it. What I mean is that, there's no need for anyone to be ill-informed because anything you want to know, or need to know, can be researched on the Internet. Certainly, most of what you see on the web cannot and should not be taken at face value, but when you have access to thousands of reputable sites on myriad subjects, there really is no excuse for blatant ignorance (no offense to your ex).

 

[taskeinc]

Yes, the bromeliads are gorgeous! When I look at this photo I find that amount of plants a bit overwhelming. For me, that is just too many plants. I need my surfaces available for other use. I have very little space, with very little storage and a lot of books, CDs and art supplies.

That particular image of all the plants in such a small space is a bit of overkill, but as much as I love plants, I'd have those same plants (and I do) but I'd spread those plants over 2-3 rooms instead of sticking them all in one small room. I counted about 18 plants from the picture, I'd remove at least half and situate them elsewhere.

 

[blueiris]

Maddie, my mom has a spray bottle to chase the cats away from areas they should be in/on such as the kitchen counters. She recently got a second bottle so we'd have one in the front and one in the back of the house at all times. Within maybe a day of filling the second bottle she found it with a bunch of tiny little holes, lol.

Maddie and ChanellG, that works with two of my cats but the third cat LOVES water! She treats it like a game and comes back for more! I have never seen anything like her. When I turn on a faucet she comes and begs to play in the water. When I take a shower she opens the curtain and peers in, but that's too much water for her and she will swat at the stray drops but never gets in the shower with me. How 'bout that!