The Plant Thread

[Taffeta]

I had a mini crisis with my Streptocarpus the other day. It's been -5 outside. So of course, my plant...overheated.

To explain, it is currently on the windowsill with my spider plants, where it seems fairly happy. They don't like very cold temperatures, and part of the reason I've not turned my heating off completely this winter is to keep the room at an ok temperature for that and the poinsettia. So my room is usually around 19-20ish.

But my radiator is the kind that pumps out hot air. And it's underneath the window. And while it was cold, it was also sunny...so I had to close the curtains to keep the sun from dazzling me while I was working.

So the plants were stuck between the sunny window and the hot radiator. The spider plants have been outside in 36 degree temperatures so they don't care. The Streptocarpus cared. It went very limp and the leaves felt very warm.

Thankfully I caught it in time. A lot of water, a shift down the windowsill to a bit less radiator-centric and more air circulation and it's perked up fine. I'm going to take the bigger old leaves off when it's not so cold outside, so that it can focus on its new central growth.

[Beldarna]

My UFO plant is definitly dying, one leaf at a time. It was so big and lush so it's really disheartening. One of my coleus is still living. I hope she'll survive. All the leaves of the fikus has dried up now. But I'm gonna keep it to see if new ones are coming, there is always hope. The silver vine seem to be alright. It's half it's size now but at least it's alive.
The vine in my christmas group has died. But I guess that's what one get when they mix plants needing water with succulents and I had to decide to water often or not at all. The succulent is alive and so is the pine. I'm thinking of moving them to different pots when it gets warmer as this one is a bit big for just the two of them.

[BlackCurtains]

Sorry everyone's plants are succumbing to the weather

There are two Jade plants still holding on in the succulents planter. The bottoms of them are moldy so they won't make it. My snake plant developed a new brown spot. The soil is still moist so I don't think it's from lack of water. Maybe it's from the sun? But it hasn't been sunny in almost 3 weeks.  The parlor palm doesn't look well. I think Aster monched it too many times. I will keep watering it and hope for the best.

So, asking in advance, does anyone know anything about aquarium plants?

[Ponyfan]

Here's my poor mint plants.


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Ponyfan

[Beth3346]

the weather is getting to my plants too. between the drought we had over the summer and the cold almost everything is dead my mints came back last year so i have some hope there. I was able to bring the cacti inside so hopefully they'll make it. one of them has a big gash though. i'm not sure what happened.

my biggest concern are the trees in the front. they were planted by the builder in May 2022 and i don't think they ever got established before we had a drought. they came back some over last winter but the drought in 2023 almost killed them. i'm really worried that if we get an ice storm it may do them in.

[BlackCurtains]

Oh no! I hope the mints bounce back.

I threw away the dead and dying succulents only to find that ants were living in the soil! It was the same tiny ones that are always annoying me. I didn't see a queen and there weren't a large number on them, but it was enough.

[Ponyfan]

Has anyone used an app to help with their plants?  I keep seeing ads for one when I'm using another app that says you can just take a picture of the plant and the app will tell you what's wrong.  It sounds good on the surface, but I know it's probably not as easy as the app makes it seem and just looking at reviews for it, there's a huge paywall involved that's very expensive.


Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

I looked up that same app, Ponyfan. I didn't end up getting it because of the reviews. I joined a Facebook group instead for plants, actually I joined two, one for local plants and one for houseplants. The second one is called Houseplant Central.

[Lady Frostbite]

My Mama Gasteraloe is making abother baby!! She's made about 7-9 babies, I've got most of them and one of her babies I gave to a colleague who said she always kill plants ... Well, Mama Gasteraloe doesn't offbud weaklings! She was quiet for a long time but I spotted a new little sprout to the side recently. I'm going to let it get bigger before I snip it off and give it a pot. There are at least 4 offsprouts that need bigger pots as they are doing so well. I bought the original Mama for 10p and she was a sad, ratty little thing with three leaves. Now she is a big, proud mama with LOTS of leaves!

I ordered some seeds online for future growing; black corn, dark purple-black carrots, pink carrots and wild daisies! I was looking for daisy seeds for a while casually, as most I see are for giant daisies when I wanted the common small wild daises you see on lawns.

[Ponyfan]

I hadn't thought about Facebook groups for plants before.  I might look in to that.

Here's pics of the plants. I didn't take any of the mints, because they still look terrible.


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aloe

I really think it's starting to run out of room in the pot. I noticed there was part of a leaf that's yellow.

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Ficus


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lavender


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sage


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strawberry plant

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poinsettia


Ponyfan

[Beldarna]

Wow, the aloe is certainly taking off!

[Taffeta]

LOL, Strawberry's like, "I know it's Winter but I want to flower NAO."

...I'm showing the pic of the bracting Poinsettia to mine to see if it convinces her to give it a shot. Doubtful...

My cherry blossom is starting to bud up. I'll probably take her frost jacket off tomorrow. She usually is in flower by my birthday at the end of the month, which is cool because she was a birthday present from my uncle a few years ago

[BlackCurtains]

The ants had started moving into one of the African violet pots but I got some diatomaceous earth and sprinkled that around. They're gone now. I'm going to put that stuff around everything.

My peacock plant is getting brown spots but there are new leaves as well, so I don't know what's going on.

[Beldarna]

My ficus lost all its leaves but new ones are sprouting! I'm glad I kept it. My Ufo plant only has two leaves left but they're hanging in there. My emerald palm is having babies! I'm so happy!

[BlackCurtains]

Little spider plant bounced back after the Attack of Cat Chomp. It looks great!

I was looking at the seller's etsy shop, where I got all of my plants from, and the polka dot plant starters are on sale. In the sale picture it showed a small, but established plant with about 10 leaves in different colors. When I bought mine, I got a long stem with like 3 tiny leaves and they're all green with off white speckles. I don't know if they turn pink and red as they mature or what. I feel a little ripped off though. But it's healthy and growing so far, so... we'll see what happens with it.