The Plant Thread

[Artemesia's Garden]

@Beth have you thought about succulents maybe like Kalanchoe daigremontiana, Crassula ovata or Sedum morganianum? I haven't known them have any bugs in my Mum's house and she never takes any precautions. Many of my houseplants are aroids like Peace Lily and Swiss cheese plant. They seem to be fairly pest resistant for growing indoors too.

@BC I never looked at a magnified picture of wooly aphids before! Oh no they are really cute aren't they 

@Taffeta I love your grumpy old lady, she looks like a really interesting plant when grown like that. I much prefer her wandering stems to a PGR supermarket version.

@Ponyfan I don't know what the climate is like where you live but the mint might be happier outside. They like moisture on the whole so I wouldn't worry about overwatering too much, but the compost might go stale. When did you last re-pot? I'm sure I've had trouble growing mint indoors before. It definitely can get white fly if it's unhappy. But outdoors there's no stopping it!

[Ponyfan]

Thanks Artemesia's Garden.   

I made some dish soap spray today and used it on the mint. It killed the bugs. I've also decided to grow the mint in the backyard instead of indoors.  I haven't repotted it yet.  I'll see how it does outside for a few days and then repot it if it's doing well.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

@Ponyfan, so glad to hear you managed to get a handle on the bugs!

@Artie - it is more like pictures I've seen of them in the wild, minus bracts, although of course she started out life in the way you describe. I don't remember where she came from - the garden centre or somewhere else - because she was bought for me by my parents after I lost the previous one. But I've basically let her do as she likes since then. I cut her back a little bit sometimes because otherwise it gets mad, but she knows what she wants and whenever I remove a stem in a place there's a lot more light, she'll immediately throw out a bunch of new leaves to take its place. Whereas if a leaf isn't getting light, she'll discard it. You can kind of understand how they live out in the real world from that

In fairness, a lot of bugs are cute. I'm very bad at killing anything, although sometimes it's unavoidable to protect the plant. :/

[BlackCurtains]

I'll be keeping bugs as pets soon Roly-polies aka pill bugs aka isopods.

My cat grass is bad. I don't know how old it is. I found the kit in the oddest place - under the sink with cleaning supplies. It germinated, grew about an inch but now it's wilting. I have fresh seeds and soil so hopefully I'll have better luck next time.

Ben is still doing well!

[Taffeta]

@BC, those are basically woodlice, right?

I don't keep them as pets, but we have such a thriving community of them in our garden. The babies are super cute and tiny.

The only bugs I really dislike - aside dead ones - are wasps and flying ants, and the former I am no longer scared of since living in London and having to get them out of my room without anyone to call for help.

Dead wasps are terrifying, however. Earlier in the spring I repotted some plants that had sat out over the winter. I removed by hand slugs, snails, millipedes, centipedes, four earwigs, a worm, and bunch of woodlice.

...And then I saw the mummified wasp on the top of the plant, nearly chucked it across the patio and had to get Dad to deal with it.

I realise how ridiculous that is. But there we are.

I've been watching my gooseberry lately, as around this time of year it's usually attacked by sawflies. Since there are harvest spiders and such that live on the plant and eat the larvae, I don't like to spray it...which means removing the little squishies by hand and trying NOT to kill them (because, see above, dead bugs O.O).

They then get deposited in the nettles in the forest. My neighbours probably think I'm odd, given that I go chuck random pots of nothing into the nettles regularly over the summer.

In other news, I think my oriental poppy is about to flower. My Dad's flowered already and got battered by the rain last night. Mine has waited, and started to open its one bud after the rain finished. I feel like it did that on purpose.

The rescued calibrachoa and petunia on my windowsill are both doing well, and poinsettia seems fine in her new pot so far.

[Ponyfan]

I'm starting to think I'm not good with plants.  I checked on the mint this morning when I watered it and it looked okay.  A few hours later I found bugs on it again but this time it wasn't the green aphids.  I sprayed the plant with the dish soap spray again, went back out later and rinsed it off and tried to remove leaves that were turning brown/had bugs.  I'm thinking I might have removed too many leaves though.   Poor mint.  I'm sorry mint that I'm not being a good plant parent.  I'm going to leave the mint alone for a few days and hope it does better.


Ponyfan

[Artemesia's Garden]

I'm starting to think I'm not good with plants.  I checked on the mint this morning when I watered it and it looked okay.  A few hours later I found bugs on it again but this time it wasn't the green aphids.  I sprayed the plant with the dish soap spray again, went back out later and rinsed it off and tried to remove leaves that were turning brown/had bugs.  I'm thinking I might have removed too many leaves though.   Poor mint.  I'm sorry mint that I'm not being a good plant parent.  I'm going to leave the mint alone for a few days and hope it does better.


Ponyfan

Here's an idea, if you removed leaves it will need less water. Maybe try letting the compost go dry before you water again. Some plants only like being watered when they really need it. I'm sure different types of mint vary a lot with how much water they need. Don't think you're bad with plants! I have problems and I'm supposed to be an expert!

[Taffeta]

There are also some plants that are harder than others for some reason with particular people. It's like a fated bad match or something. I am generally pretty good with plants, even rescuing ones that have been mangled, but there are some individual varieties that just don't like me for some reason.

I agree with Artie, let it dry out a bit and then water it as it needs it. It will probably produce new leaves if you let it. Most plants only need attention once a day or every 2 days to water if necessary, and they generally fight to survive if they can, so sometimes it's a good idea to watch and wait.

But on the removing too many leaves thing - obviously that's not idea, but plants are pretty resourceful. The petunia on my windowsill right now had basically no leaves left when I brought it up. Now it has about seven little ones at the base that are growing quite nicely...so.

Repotting still a priority imo. But when you do it, be careful not to disturb the roots too much from the soil unless you see something in there that's causing problems.

[Ponyfan]

Thanks Artemesia's Garden and Taffeta.  I'm a bit worried that I might have killed the mint accidently in my efforts to help it.   


I looked at the store today and saw much healthier mint plants that are ready to be repotted as the roots are growing outside the containers.  When I bought my mint plant I tried to choose the one that looked the healthiest out of ones that were available but now that I've seen those mint plants I'm wondering if Mint 1 (current plant) wasn't that healthy to begin with.  There's one stem that hasn't shown any growth at all.  I'll be buying one of the more healthy mint plants soon but will still try to save Mint 1 also.  Maybe I won't be such a bad plant parent to Mint 2.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

I usually have the opposite habit; I tend to buy the most deperate and sickly one on the shelf and then try to rescue it xD.

I am sure that Mint 1 will be all right if you give it a little time. Some plants grow more slowly than others, especially since mint is a perennial and thus doesn't grow as quickly as an annual plant would.

Also, plants are sometimes surprising. Of my morning glory seedlings, it's the one that I put in the tub last - the slowest grower originally - who is currently the one who has grown the furthest up the tower they're growing around (and in fact is now growing around the top of the tower because it's too tall xD)

[BlackCurtains]

I thought for sure I had killed my basil plant but after the last stem (might have been a separate plant) died, the one left is doing really well. You never know, it might bounce back

@BC, those are basically woodlice, right?

I don't keep them as pets, but we have such a thriving community of them in our garden. The babies are super cute and tiny.

Yes, they are also known as woodlice There are so many different species and colors, including orange!

They're great for the soil.

Back on topic (sorry, I'm really excited about my little buggies) I planted more cat grass. I'm going to keep this one out of the sun. I think maybe that's what happened to the other one. I said I was going to repot Ben too but haven't gotten around to that yet. He has exploded with leaves though! They are mainly on one side because of the sun.

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[Taffeta]

Wow, look at Ben go!!

I have a photo too...of the decapitated petunia that came in my mail order plant package...

As mentioned before, when it arrived, its entire upper growth had been sliced off by the packaging and it had two leaves that were wilted and hanging off at the stem. So basically it was just a stem...

And this is it as it is right now:

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I have some hopes for it

[Ponyfan]

My mom had an aloe plant that was the unhealthiest looking one at the store, but she brought home, planted it and it grew huge and had many baby aloe plants..


Thanks for the encouragement everyone.  I'm hoping Mint 1 will survive my attempts to help it.  It does have some new leaf buds on a stem. 

I hope the petunia grows.

[MoonstoneMew]

I love all the plant photos I moved and downsized to a jade plant, a snake plant, and a little Boston fern. The 2 windows face north/west but still get some good desert sun. Won't be long before I collect more

[Ponyfan]

Mint 1 lives.  I checked it today and the stems have several new leaves starting to form.  The roots are also starting to grow outside the container.  I will be repotting Mint 1 this week.


Ponyfan