A lady that I did garden work for over the summer used to raise lots of bedding plants in her basement, but has'nt done so in several years, so she gifted me with her light set up! One of my guest rooms is now my plant room, and now I have no idea how I ever lived without it. Having been snowed in for the better part of the last 3 weeks, my indoor jungle (and DG of course) has helped preserve what little sanity I still have, lol. Just wanted to share some of my madness :)
There's a light hanging from the ceiling for the top shelf plants here. The little callas in the center are Z.albomaculata that JamesCO started from seed.
Even getting some blooms! This is one of the Abutillon I started from seed last year.
Things have been moved around a bit. These are my "trans continental" callas from wallaby1 in the UK; they're Z.aethiopica 'Pink Mist' started from seed.
Rox, see the Alocasia you sent me? Its very happy :)
Through fall and winter our local Lowes marked lots of fertilizers and ammendments way down, so I stocked up.
Pure chaos, lol.
I love all of your plants. Thanks for posting. We're not having snow but I've been inside way too long.
Jeri
The light stand and my work counter behind it. The counter tops came from a kitchen a friend was remodeling.
Thanks Jeri!
Looking out now, its hard to believe spring is just over a month away. We got a few more inches of snow last night.
Everything has that pasty film where I've been spraying neem to control the darn spider mites. Thanks for sharing in my madness!
Try to keep your humidity higher in the Winter (not easy). The plants will be happier and the Spider mites won't like it.
Dave.
That room does tend to stay somewhat humid (I used to see mold growing along the baseboards), but the warmth from the lights has lessened it. Should I keep pans of water out to evaporate?
Neal, everybody should have a room like that to play in when it's snowing. I don't know what you can do about the high humidity. Good for the plants but not for the walls & woodwork. I'd be careful about the mold. not good for people either. I use a small fan to circulate the air for my orchids. I don't know if moving the air would help keep the mold from forming.
This year its not happening, but has the previous 3 winters. I think the extra warmth is helping. This is my last winter here, so the next plant room will be much bigger!
Great setup, gemini! I to have to keep my plants overwintered now because of our winters. Because I have so many and my collection seems to grow more every year, I have to be careful with watering. Warm moist air in house meets extremely cold temps outside can create mould on walls. This is a big issue with DH. So what I have to do is limit my watering and sometimes depending how I do it I do lose some plants. The good thing is that I might only find one or two little spots very mould will show up, so I than clean it very careful with javex. With some of my plants like brugmansias I've been experimenting. This will be my second winter doing it this way. What I've found that has worked for me is that I take the soil root ball and place it in a big ziplock type of bag. The soil is moist but not wet when I do this. I than close it up around the soil ball even with tape or twist ties but not tight so that air can get in and if I also need to water it.
:) Donna
I just love Abutilons.....
Thanks, Donna!
Knowing I need another plant to find space for like a hole in the head, I still "rescue" the marked down stuff I find interesting. Came home with this pretty succulent a few weeks ago. It was in a hanging basket and I just got it repotted.
I used to have to crowd everything into the dining room by the sliding glass doors. Its so nice to be able to walk in there again. I do keep some things in there still. I so appreciate the Clerodendron vine blooms in winter.
The lot of them:
