Wednesday, December 8, 2010

On the Inside

Lately I've been spending a lot of time indoors and my attention has turned to my house plants.  Oh these poor poor plants.  I neglect them so.  I watered them this week for the first time in months.  Amazing really that they're even alive.  Even more amazing that the aloe is absolutely thriving.


The soil is hard as a rock but those stems are arching out and away growing ever taller.  I should probably add more succulents to my shopping list.

The dracaena has not faired as well.


I gave it some water and we'll see if it perks up.  If not I think I'll pull the whole thing out of the pot and take a look at the roots to see if anything is surviving down there.  If there's a good root ball it'll be worth trying to save but my recollection is that when I bought this plant there was next to no roots on it to start with.  So it may not be worth it.

My african violets are alive and well though their flowers have dried and withered. 


A trim was in order and a new fancy purple pot for my kitchen violet.  I even purchased a bag of fancy african violet potting soil.  My guilt has me pulling out all the stops.

Trimmed and at home in a nice new pot!
The spider plant is alive but looking a little dehydrated and limp. Little wonder. But guess what I discovered when I took a closer look. I knew my spider plant had blossoms in the summer but as usual I ignored it and didn't realize that not only did it blossom, it also produced seeds! Has anyone out there ever grown a spider plant from seed? I'm a bit curious to try. Not that it's necessary because my plant has produced a half dozen or so 'babies'.

Baby plants have grown at the ends of the stalks and seeds have dropped all over the counter.
I'm considering placing the babies in some small pots and rooting them.  Since spider plants are so obviously easy to grow (I haven't killed one yet!) I'm thinking it might be useful to have a few more of them in the house.  That would make up for killing the dracaena wouldn't it?

4 comments:

Laurrie said...

Oh my, those poor plants. The aloe obviously loves the neglect, but the others need some help. I hope you can redeem them!

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, how sad. I can not bare to look any longer. Please get them to the ER. LOL

One said...

The aloe is doing well despite not being watered for months. Thank goodness it has ample supply within its leaves. As for the dracaena, it actually looks like a bamboo plant to me.

Marguerite said...

Laurrie - I definitely need houseplants that can stand a lot of neglect. I think I need to stick with cactus and succulents from here on in.

GardenWalk - ya, let's just say the draecena went to the ER where he's enjoying a nice peaceful rest....

One - Wasting away like that it's no wonder you're having a hard time identifying it.