Information about toxicity to pets would be useful as well. If you have pets this it's something you should know about, as many common house plants can seriously harm or kill pets if they ingest the leaves, which can happen when you're away from the house, for example.
A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
11–20 of 43 posts
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#12In the 1970s, a Canadian composer named Mort Garson composed a full electronic album meant to be played to house plants. It's called Mother Earth's Plantasia, because it was primarily distributed at plant boutique in L.A. named "Mother Earth".
My dad had a copy lying about that I used to listen to in high school when I'd be studying. It turns out its become a cult classic online, as a sort of pioneering electronic work [1][2]
Anyways, included with the original album is a wee book suggesting that plants benefit hugely from listening to music. Whether that claim has any basis in reality aside, Garson also names 15 hassle-free plants for the home. I can attest to the fact that they are easy to take care of as a relatively new indoor gardener.
They include:
Chinese Evergreen, Sansevieria, Spathiphyllum, Palm, Nephthytis, Philodendron, Boston Fern, Piggyback, Maranta, Dracaena, Dieffen-bachia, Aspidistra, Pothos, Ficus and Grape Ivy.
[1] https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/collections/mort-garson
[2] https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/44931/1/mort-gars...
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#13I'm interested in growing potted plants indoors that yield food. I think my apartment is perfect for it: corner apartment with larger windows facing east, south, and west.
Does anyone have a good resource for growing food indoors?
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#14Here's a tip I learned from taking care of house plants for the last year and half.
'Note that when you buy a plant, it usually comes in a "potter's pot" which is a small plastic container meant for temporary use. Ideally, you'd buy new pots (terracotta or ceramic) and re-pot your plant with additional soil.'
Instead of repotting into a new pot, keep the plants in the "potter's pot" and sit that in a nice decorative pot. As house plants grow they will need to be moved to larger pots or even require root maintenance. Getting plants out of a fancy ceramic pot is a lot hard than the thin plastic "potter's pots", and appearance wise they look just as good.
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#15Definitely the Dracaena trifasciata (snake plant, mother-in-law-tongue). The only way to kill it is with over watering. Once a month is plenty. They have been discovered in closets still thriving after months in the dark. Green, alive and near zero maintenance. This is your plant...
What’s the hardiest edible plant? I love the whole indoor plant idea but want to be practical too.
I suspect Basil is at least in the running, everyone I know who starts growing Basil at home ends up cloning it endlessly and gifting them for lack of space. Aloe is another I've seen follow a similar pattern.
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#16Definitely the Dracaena trifasciata (snake plant, mother-in-law-tongue). The only way to kill it is with over watering. Once a month is plenty. They have been discovered in closets still thriving after months in the dark. Green, alive and near zero maintenance. This is your plant...
What’s the hardiest edible plant? I love the whole indoor plant idea but want to be practical too.
My rosemary has survived wanton neglect that many other herbs etc have died from. It just keeps on growing.
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#17Here's a tip I learned from taking care of house plants for the last year and half. 'Note that when you buy a plant, it usually comes in a "potter's pot" which is a small plastic container meant for temporary use. Ideally, you'd buy new pots (terracotta or ceramic) and re-pot your plant with additional soil.' Instead of repotting into a new pot, keep the plants in the "potter's pot" and sit that in a nice decorative…
Why is it harder to remove them from ceramic pots?
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#18Water X times a week is generally not good advice, as many factors such as humidity and light can affect soil moisture. You will pretty much always need to get your hands in the top 1”-1 1/2” of soil to evaluate moisture.
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#19Here's a tip I learned from taking care of house plants for the last year and half. 'Note that when you buy a plant, it usually comes in a "potter's pot" which is a small plastic container meant for temporary use. Ideally, you'd buy new pots (terracotta or ceramic) and re-pot your plant with additional soil.' Instead of repotting into a new pot, keep the plants in the "potter's pot" and sit that in a nice decorative…
On the other hand they'll never grow if kept in the potter's pot, which is probably desirable in a houseplant, but personally I would rather watch the plant grow.
I was gifted a monstera adansonii in a fairly small (12cm diameter iirc) pot and it remained more or less the same size for a year or so, but since repotting it a couple of months ago into a 25cm pot and providing a new trellis structure it's grown nearly 30cm and sprouted many more leaves (although it has been all vertical growth so far, I'm hoping it will fill out horizontally once it reaches the top of the trellis). Obviously it would be impractical letting it get to maximum height indoors (around three metres, if I recall correctly), so we probably won't provide it a bigger pot once it reaches the limits of the current one, but seeing it grow has been quite nice.
I attribute part of its success to keeping the plant in the bathroom such that the steam from the shower provides a more tropical climate than the rest of the house and helps moderate its water requirements. I'd like to move it outdoors at some point and let it get to maximum size, but I don't think it would do well in the harsh Australian summer.
Re: A Beginner's Guide to Houseplants
#20Here's a tip I learned from taking care of house plants for the last year and half. 'Note that when you buy a plant, it usually comes in a "potter's pot" which is a small plastic container meant for temporary use. Ideally, you'd buy new pots (terracotta or ceramic) and re-pot your plant with additional soil.' Instead of repotting into a new pot, keep the plants in the "potter's pot" and sit that in a nice decorative…
Why is it harder to remove them from ceramic pots?
You can cut a potter's pot with a pair of scissors.