I have a couple of confessions about this house plant haul:
- It isn’t timely. I got these a few weeks ago
- They’re babies! Which, you may remember, I swore off buying because I couldn’t keep them alive.
It’s all good though! They’re doing well!
There was a bit of a dicey moment when I dog sat at my mum’s for a couple of nights – I cam home and the little Verrucosum had collapsed. She recovered though, after sitting in a little dish of water.
So who do we have?
Philodendron verrucosum
This is my second verrucosum. The first one got thrips and has either, er, succumbed, or is a wet stick somewhere that will reveal itself in summer. I’m pretty sure it’s the former tbh. Never mind.
Verrucosum are one of those plants that people either struggle with or are super easy. Mine went from being suuuper easy to care for to being ravaged by thrips. It’s fine, it’s fine. They’re so beautiful that I’m willing to try again.
This tiny baby was only £6.99 so hardly a massive investment. She recovered from her two-day ordeal and is pushing out a new leaf. Everything is crossed for her!
Philodendron gloriosum
I apologise for the picture being so dark but it’s absolutely hoying it down (that’s code for raining heavily btw) and I’m cosily ensconced at my desk so I’m not moving.
Oh, I have a better one:
Another bargain at £6.99!
Chlorophytum ocean
You can kind of see in the picture – she’s actually pushing out of the pot with her roots. She’ll just have to wait until I have some suitable pots and soil.
2023 is going to be the year I keep a spider plant alive.
Fingers crossed. Perhaps if I manage, next year I’ll treat myself to a Dieffenbachia!
This little spider set me back a whole £1.99.
Ficus Audrey
Yeah, yeah, I know I’m a good three years behind this trend, but I just spotted this little fella for £2.75 and thought, why not?
She’s cute! She has a little growth point! I can make her into a tree! What’s not to like?
I like a Ficus. There’s something about a plant that wants nothing from you for months but the second it does we get a dramatic ‘well I shall drop ALL my leaves then’ that I just really respect.
Once I’ve got these in bigger pots I fancy a baby Benjamina and a baby Lyrata.
Dealing with baby house plants
As I said, I’d sworn off baby house plants because they need much more attention than I typically like to give my plants BUT I really want to build my collection up this year – not necessarily in numbers (though I plan to prop a LOT) but in size.
I want to spend more time with my plants, caring for them, and doing things I didn’t previously have the time or inclination to do, like move them about more so they can all have a bit of the good light.
Baby plants are a great baby step to help me into this routine. I keep them on my coffee table so I see them every day and spend a lot of time near them. This made it easy to get into the habit of checking them every day, and since they’re so small, at least one of them will want something.
I’ve found that the easiest way to water baby plants is to sit them in a tiny dish, like these Gu ones:
I don’t want to repot quite yet, because they have really delicate root systems at this stage, so I’d rather have them in small pots. They dry out super quickly so you need to keep an eye on them, BUT the roots definitely seem to grow faster using this method.
Oh, and if you couldn’t read the labels all of these baby plants are from Dean’s Garden Centre just outside York. It is WELL worth a visit (it’s close to the Designer Outlet in York, which has a Park and Ride into the city centre so you could easily make a day of it). They don’t do delivery but the manager explained that that was a conscious decision so they could keep their prices lower.
So that’s my little house plant haul! Anyone got any new additions they’d like to share with the group?