The Rest of the Houseplants

Here are the rest of my houseplants. I know I said I'd share these yesterday, but it got really hairy and I didn't get to it. This first plant is another Impatien:

This is a Finger Jade:

This belongs to a co-worker. It's a Bougainvillea. It's supposed to grow red bracts, but it hasn't yet. Where it was before, I think it wasn't getting enough sun, so we moved it here:

This is an arrangement I got just the other day. It's got an Umbrella Plant and an Arrowhead Plant in it:

This is an African Violet which I also got just the other day. I've seen, bought, and grown much better specimens than this before, but this was the last one they had so I took it:

This is a Hummingbird Vine which I started from seed about this time last year. It grows very very slowly. There were 4 plants in there, but one of them died:

This is an Ornamental Pepper Plant. You can see that it has red fruit on it. That's from last year. I let them dry and remain as decorations on the plant. It's also growing some more:

This is a Spring Cactus. If it were to flower again I'd be very glad. It grows very pretty flowers, but it's hard to get it to flower and I haven't felt like it would be worth the effort yet. You have to keep it at a certain temperature for so long, then a different temperature for so long, then in darkness for so long...anyway, I'm not that ambitious quite yet. It makes a lovely green plant in the meantime:

This is a Swedish Ivy:

This is a Cyclamen. I've really enjoyed this plant. It grows beautiful pink flowers in cooler weather. You can see that there are a few on it right now, but in the cooler weather it grows scads of them:

This is where all those hanging baskets are hanging. Isn't this lovely? I really like hanging baskets:

This plant I also got just the other day. It's a Corn Plant with Pathos vine growing around it. I've never spent as much on a plant as I did on this one, but it was truly love at first sight when I saw it:

Last, but not least, this is a Mother-in-Law's Tongue. It's a great plant because it almost never needs watered and doesn't really care if it get any direct sunlight. It does just fine with fluorescent lighting:

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my house plant collection. These are all the ones I have at my office. There are some more at home, but that will have to be for a later article. ;) For those who wonder, that's 35 pots of plants. :O We better have lots of oxygen in this office!

Spiffing-Up the Plant Shelf

When you walk in your bedroom and see something as beautiful as this lovely African Violet...

...on your lovely plant shelf...

...you probably won't notice that it's incomplete. This "Papaya Grove" as I like to call it, needs repotted:

I grew that from seed. We got a papaya and I planted all the seeds from it thinking maybe a few would come up. I think they all came up...it just took about 4 months for them to sprout! This Impatiens plant also needs re-potted:

But I think the last thing you're going to notice is how dirty the shelf is:

It's amazing how much dust we collect in our homes without noticing. Well, I went ahead and re-potted the Papaya Grove:

And I re-potted the Impatiens:

I really like Black Gold brand Water Hold Cocoblend Potting Soil. If I buy it, that's what I get and nothing else. I have used other kinds that people have given me, but I never like them as well. I taped the bag shut after I got through potting up those plants. I don't want to imagine what my "Hermanita" (Pronounced like air-mon-eat-ah - It's the Spanish version of "Sis") would do when she found a whole big bag of dirt here nice and handy in my bedroom!

Next I piled all my plants around the room while I cleaned the shelf:

This on the wall is where the tomato seed package got wet and stuck to the wall when I was sprouting them this spring:

It was really stuck on there good too:

Look how nice the shelf looks now:

Isn't this most lovely now?

That plant on the left hand side is a few of the Papaya seedlings I re-potted for one of my co-workers who asked me for some. I think you'll agree that this shelf looks much more appealing to the eye than it's sister shelf across the room:

One of these days I'm going to come up with some fancy way to make those dark black cords not stand out so much against the bright white of the rest of the room. Feel free to drop me some ideas on that one!