Monday, July 26, 2010

Houseplants That I've Managed to Keep Alive!

I am one of those gardeners who is very challenged when it comes to keeping a plant alive in the house.  If something comes into my house, you can assume it will die a pretty fast death.  The only thing I have any luck with are forced branches of forsythia or quince living in a vase of water in the dining room, and I believe that's because they are the first signs of spring, and I actually give them some attention.  I don't even want to think about how many orchids, begonias, ferns, and other poor things that I've killed.

I am quite proud of the fact that I have actual living things in the dining room now, though, and they've been there since before Christmas!.....and they're thriving!
I took this from Sean Conway's book, Cultivating Life,  and so far have had two different spike mosses and one fern doing quite well for several months.  This literally is three glass "terrariums" of a sort from Homegoods, with an inch of charcoal in the bottom, and then the plants stuck in.  It's important that they be in the shade (the first round got "steamed" from light coming in the dining room window).  Once they're planted, they get about a teaspoon of water each, about once a month.  Even I can manage that!

4 comments:

  1. Wow, I am impressed... I will have to try growing mosses in jars... Is there anything u can't grow? lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do OK with house plants (well, except the ones I killed) I just don't tend to like them. I dunno why. Mostly I keep delicates (like my elephant ears) that can't survive our winter in the house over the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Really cool! I can give this to guys who need some sort of greenery in their bachelor's pad!

    ReplyDelete