LOL!!1 I needed that. Very good council, but it just won't work for me. I am hopeless..

Fantastic! Although hits a little too close to home for me…

superb ...

back in the day... i used to collect mini african violets ... you cant believe how many you can get under one light set up ....

ken

great post!! I needed a laugh too. I know it is my income that keeps me from getting all the plants I want to have. LOL!!!! Maybe one day...

Funny, Bill, very funny. Could apply to others who collect coins, ceramics, stamps,etc. I rein myself in pretty well altho’ Home Depot and Trader Joes are my weak spots. But I can get in trouble at Mountain Crest Gardens without leaving home.

I can say +1..can’t stop..they grow.. i prune and root..they grow..and fill all nooks. i expand to balcony.. after a decade i expand to ’winters in FL’ with balcony in due time…

now i travel between 2 locales with car full of plants: safegarding with cuttings for favorites..(lost a few!, reaquired)..

here’s how i manage the growth rate: small pots all on wicks when i am not resident.

they consume much less water with subirrigation and grow compact. wicks are not as good for larger pots: i set up those on top wicks with water jugs.

i try not to buy monsters 🤣, but some slip in (like my philo subinsisum: i cut the vines and reroot tops duscarding the base or letting it grow much smaller leaves).

eventually some do get very big and luscious and then they collapse when i am away ..

but i am prepared with doubles 😁…

eventually i hope for more space …and a greenhouse .. and outdoor garden..and maintaing strong back! and knees! i need to start to tai-chi soon..i am exercising of course: step ladder with water jugs is handy.

i repotted all biggies into plastic with ceramic holding pot outside ( easier to lift out).

i am adjusting as i go…repot as i can..there’s always more to buy to try new more challenging things..🙄😏..

i am still somewhat in control, as i manage several other hobbies and i won’t give up travel!

but yes, ‘small-er plants‘is key! ( i trimmed my 8’ ficus lyrata over 7 years back to 6-ish ’ and grew 5-6 new ones 🤣 to 5’ , but that’s managable! )..

unfortunately most of people we know are not interested in plants (city slickers! family people, workaholics..the usual ).. but on occasion i managed to give away the biggest and handsomest (to save them from near demise) 😁👍.

life is good!

Love this thread, i don't feel so alone :-) My kitchen sink almost always has plants in it. My family gave up on complaining long ago. On trips to Florida I have been known to come home with plants packed in suitcases along with the dirty laundry.

My mother was an indoor plant fanatic, my father was an outdoor plant fanatic, so, you see, I was doomed from the start. I like both. Since we've been in the same house for 40 years now, I have slowed down on planting outside. It's weird seeing trees and shrubs that were really small when I planted them and are now huge. 10' (or more) Rhodies, a God knows how tall dawn redwood, a 25' lacebark pine, the list goes on and on.

How amusing, Bill, thank you!

Very few plants can't be trimmed and kept to a maximum size determined by the human. Consider bonsai trees that are hundreds of years old of species that are big trees when not mechanically manipulated and constricted into a small pot. I try to avoid gathering any more entities that fit in the can't-be-trimmed category, like palms, or simply unavoidably large plants like Monstera and fiddle leaf fig.

If something truly outgrows my house, I should be able to find somebody who wants it. Somebody gave me some GIGANTIC plants yesterday and they won't even fit through a doorway. Some surgery will be required to enable them to escape frost by coming inside.

IME, small pots are not easier to tend or water. They dry every 5 mins, and it's so easy to dribble way too much water on them. They are usually dangerously top-heavy too. Little plants end up tumbling around often when I'm around them.

But I LOVE minuscule plants, so I usually group them together in bigger pots that are more stable, don't dry so fast, and allow more plants to gather closer to a window.

Hanging pots also help expose more plants to the great rays of sun near a window, using the space above where table-top or floor plants are occupying.

Let’s see new aquisitions, purple! preferrably against the door that they can’t get thru!

invasion of green matter🤣😱!

OK, here's a Yucca. It's at least 7 ft. tall.

Snake plants (Sansevieria).

Rubber tree plant (Ficus elastica)

My kitchen sink almost always has plants in it.

==>>>

here is the ultimate ...

you garbage pick a kitchen sink ... drag it home.. build a structure for it.. and have a kitchen sink in the garden ..

and dont laugh to hard.. ive seen it multiple times.. usually attached to the hose ... you dont really need to plumb it ...

you cant believe how wonderful it is.. to stand upright when bare rooting or potting a plant ...

what was the topic??? ... lol...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=kitchen+sink+in+the+garden&iax=images&ia=images

Wow! , @Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL

yucca is hardy, you prolly can dig it in! no need to drag it in..

Ficus will need good light though..but it’s in great shape! worth taking careof.. if you pull the trunks together a bit with twine (not too tight, you can tighten later), it’ll look better and take less real estate. i do it with mine to keep them narrower next to the windows.

now sansi..you can stick into any dark corner and forget about it until spring..just keep it dry..

i would tie it up all around with like lng shoelaces..to keep it from falling sideways.

nice haul!👍

+1. There is so much to lament about my plant addiction. The latest is me bringing a box packed with 4 inch pots with at least 2/3 different plants/cuttings of my fave plants (that I had started well in advance) in my checked in luggage to my mother in India so I can share the goodies with her. She is recovering very painfully slowly from an angioplasty/stent placement procedure for the last couple of months and could not muster up enough excitement despite us hitherto sharing the plant mania. She is telling all and sundry about it.......Guess what - I forgot to bring my laptop and my electrical toothbrush....I was too busy making sure the plant left out in the balcony are ones that would take at least a light frost and are reasonably protected and the ones indoors have wicked reservoirs or are well watered to last 33 days or more that I plan to be away. Let's face it, it's like any other addiction, just like reading or watching TV/browsing the net is, even if these are not as destructive as say alcohol or stronger stuff. And I agree, smaller isn't better. They dry out faster, will die when you are away or just lazy with watering, will fall or even fly away in the wind (I have lost a few to winds taking them with them to lands unknown).

Thank you, Petruska! I'm not finding anywhere that says the Yucca is hardy below Z9.

I guess it depends which Yucca 😏. we have it here in landscaping in JC (Nyc). can you ID

yours? or was it grown as a houseplant locally in AL?

It's Y. elephantipes/gigantea. The person who gave it to me lives nearby and said she has always taken it inside for winter.

I don't know that smaller is better or that bigger is better, they are just different. I've never felt overwhelmed by a small plant and wondering what in the world I'm going to do with it over winter.

Oh, well..you took it in..now what to do?! 😏

will the friendly people be visiting it too?

you coulld chop off couple of feet and root it to reduce size! it’s kinda tall 🙄 and needs sun indoors: how many of yr plants will need to move then? it’s a good size for 2 story atrium 🤣..

it says it can take light frost: but yr temps are lower then that , right? unheated greenhouse would do, but you dont have one?

may be you can house it elsewhere? or build a protection shed like for palms?

i see a problem…

quote:

You can grow spineless Yucca outdoors if you live in USDA zones 9–11. Although it is a desert plant, it can tolerate temperatures as low as 30 °F (-1 °C), so a light frost won’t damage it.

Thank you so much for your feedback and trying to help! I do have a tiny GH with heat but the ceiling of it is not as high as that tree. You're right, each winter blesses this location with just enough nights that are just cold enough to damage tropical plants. Kind of a tease because the incidents are so spread out over a few months and most of winter is so pleasant and not frosty, most nights of most winters.

DH offered to construct something but w/o a source of heat, I'm not sure it would be enough. I need to figure something out soon. A frosty night is not yet specifically scheduled yet, but will happen sometime soon.

Well, not to sidetrack this light-hearted thread..but the haloween looms..and lots of straw bricks will be discarded and/or available cheap : you can stack them around the pot (perhaps cut them in two?) or cut them loose: straw is an excellent insulator so long as it’s dry. so just need a plastic tarp to cover. i’ve seen people use beach umbrellas to cover the top (secured if course 😁). so long as neighbors do not object.. may be make it look like a scarecrow? haloween witch …?

just having fun ,sorry, can’t resist..

witch under umbrella?! with a pile of punkins..and then leave it be ..as if forgotten..

the tips can freeze, of course, but then cut a few off for rooting!

Looked up weather ahead on wunderground : dec-jan-feb. listed for Dothan AL, but that’s approx as south as Opp? similar?

very handy site! Recommend!

i see 38f in dec, 39f in jan and goin on 40f in feb for nightlies: that is all doable , no frost at all. not sure why are you woried then?

palm zone pushers will have the best tips.

search palmtalk.org

in So FL they wrap old-fashioned xmas lights ovet pot and trunks and mist the plants if it drops below 32f.

easiest is to set up rebar cage , wrap with chicken wire and fill with straw/ leaves.

but that presumes all Palm leaves will be covered..

of course for fruit trees they are worried about trunks and branches mostly, not tips.

you might want to spray the leaves with dessicator : helps with wind / frost damage .