The Green Side of Life: Spider Plants.

I have another plant to add to my collection! It’s a spider plant and it’s one of the easiest plants to grow. Mind you, I have met a couple people who have killed them, but they’re in the minority.

Spider plants are one of the top six plants for beginners. You can ignore them and they’ll grow. Over or under water them and they’ll keep going. They will let you know when it’s time to pay attention to them. The first one I had pushed itself right out of the pot, and we had to cut the pot with plyers to get the root-ball out. I love them, not only because they’re almost maintenance free, but because they can become a bushy addition, especially when they have ‘babies’. Mine is just a baby itself. You can see pictures of it HERE.

Propagating them is the easiest. When they’re ready, they’ll grow long narrow branches called a stolon, with little white flowers on the end. As the flower goes through it’s life cycle, small leaves will appear, and before you know it, you have baby plants on the end. Just take those babies, plant them in the ground and you have more spider plants! There is no pot size to determine when the flower stalks will appear, but if I recall correctly, the plant was pretty root-bound.

There is one drawback to owning spider plants. They are susceptible to mealy bugs, and once the pest is on your plant it can quickly migrate to other plants around it. Best way to keep them at bay is to pay attention to the plant, water and fertilize on a schedule. I add a bit of weak fertilizer to every water, to keep all of them healthy.

The Green Side of Life: Alocasia, or Elephant Ear.

I bought this in the summer because of it’s interesting foliage. It’s just beautiful, but it wasn’t until I did some research on it that I realized it’s the same type of plant my grandmother had when I was a child, I just didn’t know it’s genus name. She didn’t have one like this. It’s leaves were a lighter green, and she had it attached to a pole.

This type of Elephant Ear plant is called Black Velvet and is the more popular because of it’s foliage (right!), and that it doesn’t grow very tall. It is known to have soft yellow flowers, but these are rare and not very showy. All varieties love a bright room, but out of direct sunlight. Because it’s a tropical, I need to keep the soil moist, but not wet, and have a high humidity around it, which is easily done by sitting it on a tray of pebbles or misting it. This is a slower growing plant that the others of it’s kind, and can take several years to mature, but never getting any larger than 18 inches or 1 ½ feet. Which is fine with me. You can find pictures of my plant HERE.

I’ll have to repot it in the spring with soil that is more appropriate. Black Velvet likes well drained soil and it’s suggested that I put it in a tropical mix of bark, sand, and loam mixed in with the soil, but after that, I can repot it every couple of years. Alocasia plants are grown from rhizomes, so it’s best to propagate when you replant.

You can find more information on the most popular varieties HERE.

The Green Side of Life: Snake Plant.

My husband wanted one of these for a very long time. He thinks they’re cool looking, and considering how easy they are to take care of, I wanted to get one too. The one we have is one of the more common. It is the variegated variety with tall, banded, stiff leaves with yellow edges. You can see pictures of it HERE.

What makes these plants so attractive, beyond their banded foliage, is the fact they tolerate low light and almost drought-like conditions. If you have a busy lifestyle, this plant don’t die if you forget to water it. I let ours to dry out a little, and have it back almost eight feet from the main window. It can survive in very low light, so it’s perfect for an office or any part of your home that has low light and needs something to brighten it up. Depending on the plant, it can grow anywhere from two feet to twelve feet, and is easy to propagate. While this is one of several perfect plants for beginners, it is toxic to animals and should be avoided if you have pets. You can learn more about it HERE.

The Green Side of Life: Mums and Spencer the Spider Plant.

We have a new addition to my plant babies! A spider plant! You can see him HERE.

Spider plants have to be one of the easiest houseplants to grow. It takes a lot to kill them, but I don’t think that’s possible. Three things I love about this plant, other than the fact it’s hard to kill is, 1) it’s easy to propagate. The little babies that branch off the main plant are ready to drop into some soil once they have a few leaves on them. 2) They can become so bushy and spread out quickly and is a great plant to help clean the air. 3) Easy to take care of. Water once a week, fertilize once a month during the growing season and it’s happy. It’s by the window now. It was in rough shape when I bought it, but I plan to move it once it’s in better shape.

The stores have autumn mums in stock and they’re so beautiful! I posted a picture from the local shop HERE.

I love how they come in so many colours. Hubby bought a tri-coloured pot a few years ago, and both of us were surprised when it flowered again the following year. I thought they were annuals, so I’m thinking of buying one for the balcony. Do you have any autumn plants blooming?

The Green Side of Life: Hoya or Wax Plant.

There are two house plants that always remind me of my grandmother – wax plants and African Violets, but the wax plant in particular brings memories of her. I remember when I was very young, looking over the beautiful, small flowers on her plant and wondering if they were real or not. I don’t know what happened to her plant when she passed. I don’t think it came home with us because I have no memories of it later in life.

We bought a wax plant a few months ago, and right away, all those memories came back. It hasn’t flowered yet, but I can hardly wait until it does. I’m torn between letting the branches fall or winding them up with the short hook that came with the plant. I put it in a west-facing window, and now that the sunlight is weaker, it’ll still do well.

See pictures HERE.

Apparently, this plant will become enormous. I want to see that. I may end up having to hang it from the ceiling after all. It’s a tropical plant, but I keep it on the same watering schedule as the rest and it seems to like it.  If it develops any flowers I’ll post them on IG. If you’re interested in learning more about the Hoya, or Wax Plant, I found a site that has really good information on the different varieties and how to look after them. You can read up on them HERE.

The Green Side of Life: Devil’s Ivy.

Despite the name of this plant, the Devil’s Ivy is one of the easiest plants to grow, and despite it being a tropical, it can withstand just about anything, including long periods without water. A vine plant, each ‘branch’ can grow to an excessive length. The first one we had grew branches eighteen feet long. We had to string it up along the walls in the living room. When this plant is happy, little drops of water will collect on the tips of the leaves and drop on unsuspecting people when they get too close. One friend of ours used to say the plant was spitting at people.

See pictures HERE.

Because it’s a jungle plant and found on the trunk of trees, it prefers defused light. I have our sitting a good ten feet back from a west-facing window. I water more in the summer and trail off to once every two weeks in the late autumn/winter/spring. I feed every two weeks during the growing season with liquid fertilizer and do a cleaning (remove dead leaves, wipe down leaves) when needed.

This plant is still young, so I probably won’t have to transplant it for another year or two, but I’ll keep an eye on the rootball just to be safe. The branches of this one are down to the floor, so hanging it up will allow it to expand and as you can see from the second picture, it’s getting close to that time or maybe in another year when more of the vines reach the floor.