Is that a Christmas cactus? Looks familiar, but I have never seen one that shape!

Its Euphorbia Candelabrum and I just recently discovered (not the hard way fortunately) that it's sap is poisonous. Had I known that earlier I might not have kept it all these years!

My home resembles a greenhouse in the winter months...............cactus, hoyas, etc. Great winter hobby in the north :)

its very lovely

Not exactly a haven, but I have managed not to kill this Tillandsia in over two years! My kind of plant.

I have plants in my house that are 40 years old! I mainly stick with ones that I know I can grow ( from past failures! ) i like philodendron, beef steak begonia, and rope plant. They are very pest resistant and don't need much attention. ( Very little water)

I have a succulent and a ZZ that surprise me. You see, I am bane to any plant life. I even killed our lawn a couple of times before. My poor fiddle leaf fig suffered the same fate. I tried but really, but poor thing didn't agree with me... I blame it on the the limited bright light in the Pacific Northwest. My succulent and the ZZ plant had given me hope, seriously, just water and they'll manage to thrive. I love them!

We have multiple bonsai, which is a bit of an addiction, and I'm always trying out something new. Since I find that alstromaria last so long as cut flowers, I was curious to try one as a house plant when I saw them at the garden center this summer. Once I brought it in to a sunny window, no flowers! :( I picked up an arithurium to try this week with waxy red flowers; wish me luck. Most of my other orchids/herbs/houseplants are at least five years along.

Back when my siblings and I were in college, my mom always sent houseplants from our summer place off to the dorm or apartment. Sophomore year, I had the pot-smoking roommate who never left the room. She and her stoner friends were constantly there, watching "Caddy Shack" over and over and over. (To each their own, it's just that they never left!) Guess what they did with their pot seeds.

Once that year was finally over and I was back working and living at our summer place, I sat talking with my mom and noticed something growing in her houseplant...and the other houseplants...Yikes!
I was "nipping them in the bud" for months, LOL!

This Peace Lily is currently in one of our living rooms. I love the size of the leaves and how easy it is to care for. If it wilts, I give it a drink, if it's dull I know it's time to dust!

I have several Christmas (actually Thanksgiving I'm told) cactus plants. All are from shoots from my mother whose plant dates back to the early 50s. These are really easy to grow. To get them to bloom about this time of year I put them in the back bedroom in the dark and water sparingly. When I see buds I water more. Then bring them out to enjoy. After blooming is finished I cut the leaves back to make room for growth and next year's blooms. These leaves can be rooted to make even more plants. When I am organized I start these in nice pots and put them in the dark in the fall and so have nice gift plants for the holidays.

One year my mother was in a nursing home from April until July and her poor cactus looked really sad. I watered it and that Christmas it had the most blooms I have ever seen.

In our previous house my garden was mostly shade so I put the cactus outside for the summer and brought it in as frost was expected--late October. I always got blooms with that treatment also.

My home is FULL of houseplants! All kinds. The hutch in my sewing room for example...

I haven't had a plant in my house in YEARS - I do NOT have a green thumb; however, I'm hearing a lot these days about how plants are good for the air in your house; that you should have at least five plants per person . . . my boss recently gave me a fern he had outside in his yard (he is an avid gardener) so we'll see how that "suffers" through the winter and maybe I'll plant it outside in the spring!

Yvonnecmartin.....that looks like a true Christmas Cactus to me - not as easy to come by as the thanksgiving ones......if you google them you will see the difference. Beautiful plant. I have one myself that is over 30 years old and I love it

Alstromaria update, LOL. The one I mention above blossomed just in time for company this week. Company also meant wine bottles all over the kitchen counter. Well, I'd been watering the Christmas tree with a wine bottle, since the narrow neck was perfect for getting the water into the base and not on the floor.

So...grabbing my wine bottle to water the tree, on the way I watered a shamrock, basil and the newly flowering alstromaria -- with a Reisling instead of water! By the third plant I could smell the alcohol and realized what I was doing, and flushed them with water in the sink as much as possible.

I expected immediate wilting and dying, but would you believe they're thriving, and the alstromaria has sent up a new shoot?! Guess we're not the only ones who like a party!

(So far this thread, I've somehow gotten my plants drunk AND stoned. Time for a plantervention!)

I have a house FULL of plants. Too many, in fact, since we've downsized. I currently have five residing in my garage waiting for a friend who claims she wants them. The remaining ones may not make it - simply because this town home doesn't receive as much light as the old house. :-(

Well I love house plants but I kill them. A friend of mine is about to sell his house and it looks barren so I will buy some ferns for the open for inspections. Hopefully they will last a month or so before he kills them. I will get Boston Ferns as they are hardier than maidenhair ferns. I love maidenhair but it always dies at my hands.

I used to have a porch full of plants but killed them all including a large Jade tree. Now I have a small Jade plant in my kitchen window and just killed a cactus my son gave me for Mother's day. He said no one can kill a cactus. Yep I did.

You watered it, didn't you?

making sure you have the right plant for the right lighting makes a big difference. If the plant isn't doing well where you originally put, you may need more or less light. I also find that using plant food every couple of months helps along with cutting things back to make them thicker, if they're viney or gangly. Check the dampness before watering by pressing your finder into the dirt. Too much water is just as bad as not enough.

I love plants/flowers, anything green really:) I have a few orchids (used to have a lot more, but I managed to kill them when we moved..didn't see the sun hit a certain spot outside). I need to keep plants that do not require a lot of sun because we have UV film on the windows. I have Calathea 'Lancifolia' , which seems to do well and a Calathea makoyana, which seems to be more finicky. The lemon seems to survive:)
A plant really easy to maintain is the snake plant.

mkmort, I meant that water comment another way...that the cactus was probably over-watered and died. My husband had a great idea for when to water cacti: when it rained in Arizona.

Our clivia blooms do not shoot up, but stay at the bottom of the plants among the leaves. Eventually each bloom withers and dies. What are we doing wrong?

I used to have house plants but currently share a house with someone with bad allergies so I'm not sure how to manage plants because of the risk of allergens in the soil, like possible tiny bits of mold or whatever. :(

Yvonnnecmartin.......here is my Thanksgiving cactus (in bloom right now).

I have gardened for 47 years, 2014 will make my 48th season. I have had numerous kinds of houseplants over the years... it totally depends on your light available (how much, how strong) your relative humidity (and that can vary a lot) and your average day and night temperatures!

Now then, I have had my hubby go drastically allergic to potmix and houseplants so I have been forced to build and maintain greenhouse space if I want plants over the cold time of the year. That costs too, but.

Those of you with cactus problems, it sounds like water issues; not enough or too much.

I do suggest for hard to kill: pothos (philodendron) and 'mother in law tongue'. Both of them can take low light and a lot of abuse (not in the dark but they usually do well in office environments so...).

I've been through six grow zones, three at altitude; and I can say that what may grow in one place doesn't in others! I have a few "planty" friends here and we each seem to have our specialty on what we can grow 'the best' or care to grow... I plant sit for the others and can keep their babies alive when they vacation so there's hope for me yet with begonias and cyclamens... and I will teach that one gal how to keep a taro alive yet.

I prefer to have a kitchen windowsill full of plants and them all over the house, but I don't have that luxury anymore. I can start cuttings in recycled soda bottles turned into 'isolation units' while they make roots; so I can still have my growing in the house.

Last picture was just before Halloween and before I had all the shelving built and installed. My shop got a greenhouse insert; and I finished it before starting on the house stuff.... that is half of it. The other half contains fish "tank", water seasoning tank, and my collection of 'taro' (colocasia and alocasia)

Oh, found more pictures. :)

Picture one is the deck over the wet toes tub, Picture two is the 'wet toes' that are mostly all tropical and like to be wet most all the time. Not submerged but an inch or two and nice and soggy (bog and marginal plants for water gardening). It also shows one of the 'milk house heaters' that keep the place at 50-70f on the floor and 70 to 'don't ask' at 5 feet between day and night. Picture three shows the bouganvillas living in the window and four shows one of my Christmas cactus and two of the 'isolation starters' ... if I have a disease problem I will try to harvest 'clean' cuttings and toss the plant, and can keep them isolated from the other plants while the root or just to keep the cutting in a high humidity environment while it tries to root. I usually water root with these but I can put a small pot inside one with mix... Again this shows only half. The other half is waiting to be finished as I have 32' of shelf planned for spring starting with lights. My house would not hold my plants....

pseudodec....

http://www.cliviausa.com/pages/Clivia-Care-and-Culture.html

I looked up, on amazon.com you may find a copy of an out of print book that might help you. By using 'look inside' I lucked out on part of a page that may help:

http://www.amazon.com/Clivias-Harold-Koopowitz/dp/1604691786

(Paraphrased by me): The flower stalk (peduncle) length is determined by biology (genetics) and environment. Some plants will never make a long bloom stalk and the blooms will be amongst the leaves. The plant needs a rest season, a cool 'fall' and a cool 'winter', and if they're too warm that can contribute to a shorter flower stalk. Some plants will make good stems no matter what. To aid with trying to get a long stem, give two months where the temperatures are kept below 65f (18c) and preferably below 50f (10c) during day and no cooler than 40f (4.4c) at night.

(I referred to the chapter 'Biology of a Clivia plant', page 74, "Clivias" by Harold Koopowitz, 1992 printing)

I would strongly suggest you get a copy of the book; Amazon has a used copy for $32, not bad considering out of print; or try Alibris.com or abebooks.com

(if someone thinks this is an infringement I will remove it, but it was up for public 'preview' on amazon.com. And I do VERY strongly suggest that a copy of the book be purchased!)

Here's my trick. We get very low sunshine thru our small windows. So i figured during our nature hikes during the summer in where the tree's block the sunshine from reaching the ground, whatever plant we find growing there and we like, we dig it up and bring home

Thanks for your research, okdokegal!

Wow okdokegal; we have a true botanist amongst us. Good to know!

thanks, I do try. I have killed my share of plants over the years and sometimes it seems that it just isn't going to be with Plant X of variety Z, but Plant Y of variety Z, whups keysters and takes names.

(just checked back here finally; heh)

why isn't my mother in law s tongue plant blooming?

@curtd'onofrio, hope you are walking your own property. Our public lands are protected, if our 400,000+ county residents each took home one sample, there would be nothing to admire there, and i don't think i would appreciate it if i found someone walking my own 5 acres of woods and removing plants growing, just saying......local nurseries, garden clubs and arboretums offer homeowners lovely species suited for your landscaping :)

Nessiew, i don't know the law line by line, so i have to sometimes follow my conscience :
The samples we take are like seedlings, that is, it's not like we are digging up bushes. And i appreciate those homeowners who legally allow hikers to trespass their backyards. This happens, because some trails were already established, then homeowner buys some of that land. The owners of that land allow hikers to legally trespass because Connecticut, USA for example limits their liability in case i trip and fall and break a bone. I'm not able to sue the homeowner and THAT MAKES PERFECTSENSE TO ME FOR I hold myself responsible for ALL my actions. At these backyard locales my hands are completely off touch for i respect their property.

For larger plants we like Yes, the idea is this, tear off a leaf and take to local nursery so she can identify. I did this for a ivy plant we found in a shaded wood area in our hike

Tips:

* Never let your plants sit in the effluent that collects in cache pots or collection saucers after you water. There should be no pathway by which the effluent can make it's way back into the pot. Raise your pots well above the maximum ht of the effluent. The reason we water copiously is so we can flush accumulating salts from the soil.

* If you know your soil is overly water-retentive and your pot is small enough to handle easily. Water to the point of saturation and allow the soil to drain. When it's no longer draining, hold the pot over the sink and move it down, then sharply upward. At the change in direction from downward to upward, the excess water in the pot will adhere to Newton's First Law of Motion and continue downward and out the drain hole. You can remove ALL excess water from water-retentive soils with this wick.

* You can also rid larger pots of excess water by simply tipping them after you water. The shaded area in the images below represents excess water that robs the roots of air. Compare B to A to see what happens when you tip a pot at a 45* angle. C shows how a pot's shape can affect how much excess water a soil can hold. D illustrates one way of using ballast to limit excess water retention. E, often used in concert with B, shows how to use a wick to rid pots of excess water.

How to set up a wick with a rayon mop strand

:

* Fertilizers do not need to be confusing. Most plants use about 6X as much N as P, and about 3/5 as much K as N. After calculations are done for how P and K are reported on the package, fertilizers with 3:1:2 ratios provide nutrients in almost exactly the ratio at which the average plant uses them. There significant advantages in employment of this strategy. A fertilizer's RATIO is different than its NPK %S. Common 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers are 24-8-16, 12-4-8, and 9-3-6. Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 has ALL nutrients essential to normal growth in a 3:1:2 ratio. It does not derive it's from urea, which results in a finer and more compact plant. I grow more than 100 species of plants in pots and I use it for all of them with superlative results.

* Water gauges don't measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean your probe and dip it in a cup of distilled water and note that it reads DRY. Add some soluble fertilizer or table salt to the water, and suddenly it's wet. Better than fingers or gauges/meters are wooden "tells" made from a 75 cent, 1/4 or 5/16" X 48" (long) dowel rod (any hardware or home improvement outlet). Cut it in half and sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener. Stick it deep into your pots (it won't damage roots). If it comes out wet or stained dark, it's usually best to withhold water. If it comes out dry, or nearly so - time to water.

Fun stuff:

My pals:

Japanese maple in the mother-daughter style:

What trees look like at the very beginning of their journey toward becoming an evocative bonsai:

Baby bonsai:

Baby cactus:

Drunk on fermented berries:

Ricinus (castor bean). 14' tall, leaves 4' across

Thanks for lookin'

Al