Houseplant Queries

[andy]

Selaginellas are really mosses not ferns and should be kept in warm, damp, very humid conditions. Because of this, they seem to fare well in bottle gardens, terrariums and paludariums.

Not one of the easier plants to keep in normal domestic conditions although making sure the soil NEVER dries out and a daily spray of tepid water will increase your chances.

Sorry....but hope this helps a bit.

Andy

[chickadeedeedee]

Thanks sooooo much, Andy!

It didn't look ~ferny~ to me but what do I know?

Hmmmmmm. Maybe I'll try a bottle garden for him or put him close to the Masdi. orchid that need tons of humidity too.

Again, thanks for your help!

Oh. Forgot to ask. Should the plant be fed? I can give him some freshwater aquarium fish sludge (yum!) or weakly feed as I do with the orchids.

Thanks again.

[andy]

I feed as per orchids....save the fish sludge for outside stuff.

[Biggles]

I have never been very successful with house plants but since Viewing this thread I have had quite alot of help especially in keeping Poinsettia alive and healthy. I am 'dead chuffed' with mine now--My Cyclamen were not so good indoors so I left them outside thinking I had lost them Even with this Frosty weather they have picked up a treat. I thought they were not Frost Hardy but they seem to be thriving outside.

[Missredhead]

missredhead said:

Thanks Tig....I do get quite attached to some of my plants but rather than have them all infested I'll try anything...if they are meant to survive they will. ;D

I tried the sand and 'touch wood' no more flies.....


And to add to the thread earlier when I said that I can't keep poinsettias alive........guess what the teachers at school bought me?
And it's a huge one

[Missredhead]

missredhead said:

Thanks Tig, have tried the sand method, but if it doesn't work I might just toss them out and start afresh.

meant to use this quote not the previous one

[Tig]

mrh - did you manage to eradicate the little beasties? x Tig

[Dutchy]

Poinsettias are grown to die are they not?
You buy them for Christmas and dump them in January.
They are too fickle to try too hard. I either drown them or give them too little either way. They only last one month. If I am lucky

[Biggles]

First time mine have lasted about a month! Showing signs of departing now--but for how much longer?

[andy]

Ok, if you want to have a go at keeping poinsettias, here's the way i found best.

They need to be kept warm, bright and humid. Cold dry air is one of the biggest killers so if you can't provide this, forget it really.

Keep the soil moist at all times. Drying out is another killer.

After xmas, cut the plant back by half....even if it still looks good. Be careful of the sap...poinsettias are Euphorbias and the milky white sap can irritate skin or stain carpets.

Start feeding weekly with a liquid feed such as miracle grow. Because the plant will have few leaves now after cutting back, don't over water. You might only need to water once a month just keep the compost moist and feed when you can...it's not really critical.

After the plant starts to show signs of growth, pot it on. Don't go too bit as you'll over pot it but if your plant is in a 5" (13cm) pot, just go up to 6" (15cm). Any general purpose compost will do.

Carry on keeping it humid and bright throughout the spring and summer and feed weekly...do not let it dry out.
You may need to check the roots to see if needs potting again in summer....again, don't over pot it !!!

I've seen poinsettias growing like weeds in Barbados....they get to about 6 feet tall and look most out of place growing in a warm country.

Good luck

[Chuckles]

Not one of my fave plants but I've seen Poinsettias growing like small trees in Portugal, they look really wierd when we know them as houseplants

[chickadeedeedee]

What Andy said! Cold is the kiss of death for them even something like being too near the front door during winter and guests sort of linger near the door as they come in or out and that cold air comes in.

The Poinsettia is weedy in some parts of the world. We had them as bushes at our home in St. Kitts. Many little ones were in the flower beds or lawn too. Other fun plants were in the lawn too ... so were the centipedes!

*VERY* easy to take cuttings of the Poinsettia and just stick them in some soil, making sure you have enough of the stem buried that there's two or three nodes to form roots. Our plants go outside in the late spring and have extraordinary growth still in their pots. Then they are brought inside with the other plants in September.

The longest we've kept a Poinsettia is five years. Usually we have them for about two years and they get tossed, not because they die but because they seem to be mealybug magnets! Haven't been able to solve their problem once that happens other than to take a cutting or two, wash it thoroughly in warm water and pot in new soil.

Here, to get them to form the characteristic red bracts (flowers) they need 12 hours of darkness for 30 days in a row. We cover the plant(s) with a black plastic bag starting the end of October. If that 12 hour darkness cycle is broken ever so slightly, you have to start all over as though it is day one. Otherwise the plant will form a variable number of red coloured leaves. Kinda cool but not quite the Christmassy look.

[Biggles]

Thanks Andy and Chick--dee.
Your replies are really very helpful. My Poinsettia usually start dying after the first couple of days but this year (we moved to a downstairs flat with good central heating) and the only place for it was 'tucked' in a corner of the Living Room with no draughts. The plant has survived for much longer than it usually does-and with your advice which I will follow hopefully I wont kill it. Thanks once again--Bigs

[chickadeedeedee]

Glad that your Poinsettia is doing well so far, Biggles. Fingers crossed it continues to do well.

On the other hand, I have managed to kill two Cyclamen plants since I last asked about them. And my Frosty Fern (Selaginella krauslanna variegatus) was planted as in a bottle garden to increase the humidity. ... The tips of the plant are starting to turn brown. Suggestions please? Plant Heaven is gettin' kinda crowded here.

[Missredhead]

tigridia said:

mrh - did you manage to eradicate the little beasties? x Tig

Well since covering the soil with sand, I haven't seen any more beasties (touch wood) I think that they might have all gone....got the dettol on hand though just to be on the safe side

[chickadeedeedee]

This is how I "potted" my Frosty Fern (Selaginella krauslanna variegatus).



Think that will work?

[chickadeedeedee]

One more lump of questions? I have this clump of mini Pineapples:



When do I harvest them? Can I divide the clump? The pineapples are an inch to an inch and a half long. ;D Watch out Dole Pineapple Corporation! Ya got competition!

[Biggles]

How did you get your original Pineaple plant? Was it from a 'Slice off the top of a Pineapple'? I am interested because I read about this somewhere and cannot remember how it was propogated and would like to try it.

[chickadeedeedee]

Hi.

That is the original plant. A little tangled clump of spiney leaves. After some months tiny pineapples started to form! The little pineapples are forming since August. Maybe that's why they are so tiny? Because of the crowding?

You can grow a pineapple by slicing the top off leaving about a finger's worth of pineapple at the base of the green top. Let it dry for about a day then simply place the top onto some moist potting soil and you're done! Keep the green lightly misted daily and don't keep the soil too moist. Place in a warm sunny spot. DO NOT ADD PLANT FOOD! After about a month or two roots should be forming on your new plant. ;D

[Missredhead]

oooh I think that I might try that...

[Tig]

I have a Chinese Rose (Hibiscus ??) - my original plant was bought in a bargain bucket back in 2002, but got very woody, so I took some cuttings!
They have grown very slowly and one has flowered but is extremely leggy!! Can I prune it back? What should I do to try and make it bush out like it's parent? Anything I can do to encourage it to flower?
Any advice appreciated!!
Here is a picture of the flowers on the 'mother' plant, back in 2004. Tig

[andy]

You can cut them back in spring....quite hard if you want and then give it a weekly feed when it starts growing. You might want to pot it on too into a slightly bigger pot.

When the risk of frost has gone, put it outside for the summer...they don't mind a bit of sun.

Watch out for pests. Aphids, red spider mites, mealy bugs, vine weevil and just about anything else love Hibiscus

[Tig]

Thanks Andy They are all single stem, and one is about 20" tall at the moment, I will give them a good prune in March. They are currently in 6" pots, are they fussy about compost? I have grown the cuttings just in general purpose potting compost with an occasional watering with liquid tomato feed. Tig

[Essexgirl]

I never do very well with houseplants.When I buy one from a GS it's usually beacuse it looks spectacular.But within 10 days it'll be dead.The only things I've been able to keep are spider plants,tiger leaf begonias and African violets.
Foliage plants like colius and pionsettias have no chance.I can kill them within 3 days
I was just wondering what houseplants you all have and any advice on how to look after them would be helpfull.

[Missredhead]

I never do much to mine, water them maybe once a week or less feed them when I remember, which isn't often and re-pot when they get too big for the ones they are in..

I'm not very good with flowering ones, poinsettias don't stand a chance with me.

[Tig]

Jan 25, 2008 5:19:25 GMT andy said:

You can cut them back in spring....quite hard if you want and then give it a weekly feed when it starts growing. You might want to pot it on too into a slightly bigger pot.

When the risk of frost has gone, put it outside for the summer...they don't mind a bit of sun.

Watch out for pests. Aphids, red spider mites, mealy bugs, vine weevil and just about anything else love Hibiscus

I asked for help with my hisbiscus and followed the advice Andy gave me back in January, result ...



It lives on the loo windsill, something nice to greet you on entering the smallest room in the house

x Tig

[andy]

;D

[Tig]

To say it has done well is an understatement - it's been blooming lovely - the flowers are over 6" across





x Tig

[4pygmies]

Wow...that's fantastic! How lovely.....I haven't anywhere light enough. What a bummer....I want one....but I am a houseplant assassin sadly...