The Plant Thread

[BlackCurtains]

Nice plants! I love the jungle

The right stem on Ben is brown and leaning today. Left stem still seems good. I found some nice pots on Amazon and cat seeds! Oat grass and catnip. I was going to get a live catnip plant from PetSmart but planting seeds sound more fun. It has good reviews that they grow well. Oat grass will grow on a sponge, so I'm not concerned with those

I've always wanted a snake plant. They are safe for cats too. My downstairs neighbor has a huge snake plant on her patio as well as other nice looking plants.

[Ponyfan]

I hope Ben's healthy stem continues to grow.

I bought a mint plant at Walmart.  I tried to pick a healthy looking one.  I bought the pot also, but the plant is still inside the little container it came in and not actually planted yet in the pot.

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Ponyfan

[Artemesia's Garden]

Whenever I try to grow catnip our cat just mows it off. I need to put it out of reach next time. I planted out the brassicas, sowed the root veg. Our tomatoes are tiny still and the squashes haven't germinated.  But the runner beans and green chard are doing ok.

[Taffeta]

Hello little mint plant!

I gave my poinsettia a branch trim this afternoon, since I've decided I'm going to have to repot it *aaargh*.

These really don't like their roots being messed with, and they're also not very forgiving. And cutting them back is always a big deal thing because they have white milk sap and they bleed. Even if you catch a leaf and tear it slightly. So cutting a branch always requires something to clean up afterwards.

My poinsettia is quite old, as I mentioned before. So I don't really want to mess with it too much. But it is definitely in need of repotting, so...I guess we're just going to have to do it.

Also, my Mum had a tub last year which I cleared out a couple of months ago. I rescued the living plants and the rest went to compost. Except that now we keep discovering little begonia shoots growing up in the pots of the rescued plants. We think, by accident, we've rescued all of them. But that was unexpected o.O.  I certainly didn't see anything that looked like a begonia tuber when I cleared the pot, but they were apparently hiding in the roots of the other plants.

[Ponyfan]

Has anyone had any trouble with Miracle Grow?  My mom suggested it for the mint plant and after I got a bag of it, I read a lot of negative reviews.  I talked to my mom about it and she said that she never had a problem with it, but that she always repotted her plants outside and left them out there for a couple of hours before brining them back in.  The mint will be out in the sun room and not inside the house. 

The mint perked up a bit after I watered it yesterday.  I hope it's getting enough sun.  The plant tag said to plant it in partial shade but I also looked online and read that most mint plants can also thrive in full sun.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

I have had hit and miss over here with Miracle Grow (bearing in mind that our climate may be different). I had some during lockdown as it was all we could get. A lot of plants did fine but a few just didn't like it at all.

So yeah, I'm not sure.

Our mint plants live out in the garden and winter out there too, so I guess they're frost hardy. We have a mildish climate but it can go over 30 degrees celsius in the summer. Thinking about it, our mint is probably a bit shielded by the huge rosemary bush that is on the corner of the herb garden. And maybe a little bit by the gooseberries and the rhubarb as well. So partial shade may be right. But so long as you keep an eye on it and don't let it dry out...

The biggest problem with inside plants in sunny rooms is that they can dry out to the point the leaves shrivel up beyond repair. I would maybe not put it in the direct light of the window, but somewhere where it can get light.

[BlackCurtains]

I got Miracle Grow indoor potting mix for my plants. I haven't used it yet. I didn't look at the reviews on Amazon when I bought it, I thought it was good to use. Now I see it has some bad ones. I'm still going to use it.

eta: Ben's left stem is looking good. Lots of new leaves. The other stem is dead. I'm kind of reluctant to repot him since I know plants don't like that. Do you think, since it's just the one stem now, that he'll be fine in the plastic container for a while?

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[Taffeta]

There's a possibility that those were 2 separate plants, honestly. But the surviving one looks good

Plants are all right being repotted if you do it carefully. I had to teach my mother yesterday how to get a plant out of the pot safely without damaging it...but honestly, most plants like having fresh soil.

That said, if he's doing ok in what he has, you don't need to rush it just for the sake of it. Maybe see how he goes for a bit and make that judgement later. His good stem sure looks happy right now.

Suggest removing the dead stem and the dead leaves from the pot, as they can encourage rot and mould.

[Ponyfan]

Thanks Taffeta and BC.    I'll try the Miracle Grow when I repot the mint. 

Here's a better picture of the mint in the container it came in.

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I think it looks pretty healthy so far.  I noticed earlier when I was watering it that I could smell the mint fragrance.  I couldn't smell it at all when I bought it.

I think it's getting mostly indirect light in the sunroom.

I'm happy to see that Ben is still alive and healthy. 

Ponyfan

[invaderhorizongreen]

I have a very happy wild catnip that came form seeds, from a wild plant I found. IT is very happy in the planter, and so is a wisteria, and a very happy rose of Sharon that is almost eight feet tall now.

[BlackCurtains]

Thanks Taffeta I'll clean up the container and leave him as is for now. I'll wait for the leaves at the top to get a little bigger before I repot him.

[Taffeta]

My windowsill has become the plant rescue centre again

I have a calibrachoa from last year's basket and a baby petunia who got damaged in transit this year, currently taking up windowsill space. The calibrachoa was doing all right outside, but Dad managed to break two of its branches, including one it was flowering on, and they are very slug susceptible. So I brought it in to give it a chance to grow on. It's still a bit woody but it's doing all right.

The other petunia had almost all of its leaves scythed off in transit, as it was from a mail ordered set. The remaining two leaves have since fallen off, and even though I rescue plants a lot, I wasn't convinced this one would survive. BUT it does at the moment seem to be putting out some new shoots. So I brought that in as well to watch it.

In less good news, the slugs are getting at my planted delphiniums. It's so frustrating because further up the garden there are some I grew from seed who are doing fine. But even though I can't find the little horrors, there are definitely still too many slugs in my garden. Sigh. I am now trying to figure out how to (and if I can) protect them.

I was going to repot Poinsettia today but it rained, and I don't really want to take her outside in uncertain weather. So she got a reprieve.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I heard someone on the Chelsea coverage saying that most plants sold as annuals are actually tender perennials, which made me think of you saving them indoors, Taffeta. I re-potted a big arum lilly into an old aluminim cauldron I found. I had to jam sticks into it to cover the hole in the bottom but I think it will be OK for a year or two. I don't know if there's still time for it to flower this year.

[Taffeta]

I heard someone on the Chelsea coverage saying that most plants sold as annuals are actually tender perennials, which made me think of you saving them indoors, Taffeta.

Yep, a lot of 'annuals' are just not meant for our winter climate. There are a bunch, like bacopa and osteospermum, which are from South Africa, and thus can't cope with the frosts. But that said, we've had some plants which are not meant to survive the winter...surviving the winter...outside. SO. Yes.

The fuchsia and bell vine from last year's basket were not hardy, but survived outside without any problems. I've also a 3 or 4 year old nemesia who survived two lots of winter frosts already...

Even things like petunia or calibrachoa which seem to be obvious annuals aren't.

It's kind of sad how, as a nation, we just kind of leave so many plants out there to freeze when it's not necessarily time up for them.

The most disturbing ones to me are the begonia. The type with the reddish leaves and small coloured flowers. One frost and their stems basically explode. I have one such begonia plant which I think is about 5 years old now, and winters inside. I have to be so careful when putting it out because unlike some plants that *might* survive one frost, this one...there are no second chances :/

[Ponyfan]

I watered the mint yesterday but when I checked it this afternoon the soil felt dry again.  It's been extra hot today, so I don't know if that's a factor or if I didn't give it enough water.  I don't want to overwater it though.


Ponyfan