As per usual, I am starting to get my winter houseplant obsession. I am fairly obsessed normally, but it really ramps up this time of year.
This year’s items of extra interest are epiphyllum (orchid cactus) and primulina (Asian violets). Ferns are a perennial favorite. I got some nice cast iron plants recently.
I have spent a lot of money on indoor house plants (peppers, mandarins, oranges). Issue is we have no south facing windows. The peppers did well until outside where they got aphids, the vanilla orchid got uprooted and the roots died, and the mandarins and oranges did not do well inside. What has done well is some kind of Brazil hanging plant, mint and philodendrons for us. Basically something that handles low light and can survive anything. The mind is very nice because you get mint water in the middle of winter.
Yeah, it’s always a struggle between picking what will do well in a dry house with less than optimal light and what looks cool! Last year Aroids were super popular houseplants, but most people didn’t realize they needed really high humidity to succeed. A lot of wasted $$$ by new hobbyista.
Another issue with some houseplants is the cost. The last two years people have talked about how expensive some fruit trees are but some houseplants can go for thousands of dollars. If you get some houseplants that don’t do well you can be out of a lot of $$$.
Yup. My mom and grandma talk about why I spend so much on plants and xmas items. It is a hobby. Hobbies take a lot of money and time but there are worse things you can spend money on than plants and Xmas items.
@ampersand I have a Queen of the Night but did not know about the other beautiful epiphyllums. Where did you get your epiphyllum cuttings?
I love your staghorn fern. I hung mine on a tree and the squirrels chewed off most of its leaves. Do you have that problem?
There’s a hobbyist group for pretty much all plants! I first saw epiphyllum at a local exotic plant greenhouse, that’s where I got my red one. I found a hobbyist on Facebook where I got a bunch of others, plus some from ebay. Come spring I can send some cuttings, they root and grow quite easily.
Squirrels are busy eating all my figs, they haven’t touched my houseplants.
