House/greenhouse plants thread

Bought 2 fittonia at Wally World

Photo might help

Wow - some great-looking plants, ladies! Now that I have a pretty reliable temperature control in my porch, I would like to get ore plants. You guys have favorite online sources for tropicals??

Here's Epiphyllum 'Petey Kelly' which is growing in my bedroom plant window. We had this built into our bedroom addition to take advantage of the south facing light. I had two giant jade plants in terra cotta pots at the time and hauled them out to the contractor who was beginning the frame work for the room. I told him to lift the plants each one. I said: " make sure that the frame under the windows in strong enough to hold these two plants at least!" and that's what he did. You can do a polka on the floor of my bedroom garden window. we have fluorescent pot lights in the ceiling of it but rarely have to use them.
Martha

The jades are gone now but I have a giant pony tail palm in there now.
Martha

Nice looking fittonia plants, Allison! I have not tried growing those.

Victor, I like looking at Logee's Stokes Tropicals catalogs, but have not bought from either one of them. I usually buy from local places that sell greenhouse plants and sometimes HD and Lowe's also.

Nice epi, Martha. I have a ponytail palm. Didn't know what it was when I bought it, just knew I had to have it when I saw it. I got it at either Lowe's or HD.

I just recently bought a philodendron called 'Prince Of Orange' http://stokestropicals.plants.com/Philodendron-Prince-of-Orange-P446.aspx . Got it at a local garden center that sells many wonderful houseplants. Many are not labeled with the cultivar name, though, but this one I recognized.

Karen

I was at a stop and a woman there brought them to my attention.. The stems look like good rooters.. Had to give em a whirl

I have a bunch of ivies that I have distributed amongst my south windows and in my terrarium. I did two dish garden workshops this past November with my garden club and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. I collected small houseplants in anticipation of this and one of my friends brought some ivy cuttings she had rooted. I have about 9-10 planted up as we all had more plants that we could use. I made up some cute dish gardens in planters. I will take some pictures. We had a great time.
Martha

Sounds really nice, Martha. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

Karen

Nice activity for a winter's day! I like that Prince of Orange, Karen....

Thanks, Marilyn.

Karen

This is my "Friendship" dish garden. I received the three labeled succulents from my friend who helped me with the kids dish garden workshop. The small gasteria on the bottom right is a division from a larger plant that was given to me by one of my Flower Show friends. The aloe from the bottom left is a division that came from a plant given to me by a neighbor who has since passed on but used to have the enormous mother plant in her bay window in her dining room. She gave me the original division 24 years ago. This is one of its babies. I can't wait for them all to grow and fill this dish in.
Martha

This is my pony tail palm that looks like a camel. I rooted the caudex myself. It won a blue ribbon in 2010 at the Boston Flower Show. It still lives in my kitchen. It has blue ribbons from my local garden club flower shows also. One visitor to the flower show said it looked like a whale spouting, but I think of it as a camel sitting in the oasis.
Martha

How exciting!!! Blue Ribbons are rare.

Very unusual plant.....

Nice dish garden and PT palm, Martha! You know, I never thought of putting my plants in shows. That's a fun idea.

Karen

Dear Karen,

If you have a likely subject go to here: http://www.masshort.org/Amateur-Horticulture-Competition
which is the Flower Show Schedule for the Amateur Horticulture Competition for this year's show in March. This describes all the plant classes that an individual may enter and what the rules are. There is most likely a class that will suit you down to the ground. Then, bring in your plant to the Seaport World Trade Center and enter it {with me! I am the chair off Amateur Horticulture this year} on March 11th between 12 pm and 8pm and the rest will be history. Then you can come down to the show to see how you did between March 13th and March 17th and pick up your plant Sunday, March 17th. that's it! Any questions? Ask me here. Thank for inquiring.
Martha

Go for it.

That's how I got started. My DH took me to the Boston Flower Show for the first time back in 1984 and I noticed that a prize winning jade plant didn't quite match up to the two that I had. Mine were better! so, I found out how to enter and the rest is history. It's easy, no fee and we'd love to have you!
Martha

That sounds like fun Martha. I think I'll go for it. I have two really beautiful elephant ears that I could enter. I can't say my other plants are show quality, except for maybe my begonia. The rest of my plants are nice, but not exceptional. Would I get free admission to the show if I enter (hoping)?

Karen

Unfortunately, no free admission. However, I would certainly report back to you on the status of your entries. I can't do it for everybody {we had nearly 300 entries in Amateur Horticulture last year} but I do it for my friends and can take a picture of your exhibit on the bench and DMail it to you once you have been judged. But, it's worth it if you can make it down there. It's at the Seaport World Trade Center. which is a stop on the silver line bus.
Let me know what you decide. We always like new exhibitors.
Martha

Thanks for this thread, Karen. I've decided to grow more varied indoor plants, so this thread is getting me inspired. I've ordered some books from the library, including Byron and Laurelynn Martin's book "Growing tasty tropical plants in any home...." It has been nice so far to have a few Meyer lemons and Persian limes while the cold is blustery outside. Everyone wants to handle my coffee plants so they always end up dying. I wonder why they are such a magnet for being touched? I may grow a small leaved camilla sinensis outdoors for tea (the small leaf variety is supposed to be more cold hardy), but it would be easier to pick the tips indoors.

Who has a favorite indoor food crop?

I wonder is anyone is growing any tree ferns in their home or GH? Looks like I could get away with a dwarf for a few years but they're supposed to be spiky. It's that dinosaur thing, though. Who wouldn't want to remember them?

My indoor garden is a mess....I forget to water, or they come down with scale....lost 2 lemons because of scale...

Yeah, the Meyer Lemon is vulnerable, especially if I don't wash the leaves of the clivia regularly or if I don't do soil treatment after summer on the deck. For reasons I don't understand the Persian Lime hasn't gotten it yet. The more I mist them, the happier they get. I have to learn exactly when to fertilize too because I really don't like the way it smells, so that's an antidote for overdoing it. I do citrus tone twice a year if they're lucky and then stick fresh Spanish moss in the pot. I'll photograph once I find a home for all the stuff I'm wading in from my mother's family home and the new bench arrives.

oops forgive my MA geography which is not steady when it comes to the South Shore/Brockton area. I mean come up to the Flower Show. Thanks.
Martha

To continue with the ideal greenhouses, I hope these pics capture some of what inspires me to keep trying. First the Lyman Estate Greenhouse open to the public in Waltham MA.

These are still pics from the hot greenhouse area...

I skipped the orchid and epythites, which are in the second house. Now straight to the camellia house. They even sell them there. Many aren't named because they are old. The fourth one looks like C.W.Wilson but i wasn't sure. They also sold that one

Plenty of Nuccio cultivars there too. The two toned ones have names like Nuccio's Pearl or Nuccio's Cameo

First one is a classic from Japan, I think it is Tama-No-Ura. It was found growing in the wild by a charcoal burner in 1947 on an island by that name in Nagasaki Prefecture. Nuccio's introduced it to the US trade in 1975.

All it takes is one fragrant variety to make the whole greenhouse smell wonderful. They had 'Fragrant Pink' on sale. I like it that camellias don't seem to bother my allergies, so that's probably true for other people too. White doubles are considered to be classics. I took a lot of shots of CW Wilson on several plants.

This message was edited Mar 3, 2013 4:57 PM

Finally, a few shots from the Orangerie at Tower Hill, Boylston, MA. I'd love to try a plant wall sometime.

very pretty

Beauties!

I was at Tower Hill also. I loved that bromeliad/fern tower. Here's a pic of it and the Meyer Lemon among others. I would love a greenhouse with as tall a ceiling as the Orangerie at Tower hill. Don't you love the bromeliad Christmas tree?
Martha

doesn't need much water

;)

Actually, the bromeliad tree had been watered recently as all the cups on them had water in them. wouldn't want my kitty cat or dog to knock it over though. This one I think could stand it since it weighed a ton with all the plants in place.
Martha

Very hard to choose a favorite bloom, loved so many of them.....

Where's Karen???

I know she was having computer problems, but I expected her to be back with us by now.....

Dang, missed the Tower Hill show. Love that place. Thanks for all the great shots to make up for me not getting there. Here are some shots taken today at the Smith College Bulb Show. Patti