Indoor Plant Care Tips Guide

The husband had a large Dracaena fragrans when we met, not quite eight years ago. Over time, it grew, as plants will. By last year, when we were getting ready to move to the new house, it had gotten tall enough that it was hitting the apartment ceiling, so we cut it back, and threw the top into a vase of water, to be planted later, once things were no longer quite so crazy.Over a year later, we

Not my favorite orchid picture, but it's one of my favorite orchids. I don't know why people would, knowing that people are going to be photographing the orchids, set up a black and white grid as the background. No good can come of this; it's just going to mess with people's eyes as they look at the flowers. And that goes triple for a flower that's already this dark -- may as well light it with a

It's getting harder and harder to think of angles for taking pictures of Nina that I haven't used already. Also, as the Stromanthe continues its takeover of the left two-thirds of the tank, it's getting increasingly difficult to come up with an angle for taking pictures of Nina that isn't blocked by a leaf.Though pleased that the first test of her transporter was successful, Sheba realized almost

Eavesdropping strangers have been known to gasp and be horrified as rock gardeners start to rhapsodize about one another's buns. It does verge a bit on the mildly salacious when you hear some people moan and coo over someone's irresistible bun in their garden. Surely no buns are harder, more rhapsodical and amazing than the endless clan of sandworts. Sometimes classed as Arenaria , they are often split into Minuartia : under both these names you will find dozens of serviceable and often very handsome alpine plants that are an undervalued asset to our gardens. Numerous books have been written about primulas, saxifrages, gentians and dianthus. But sandworts languish a tad, barely meriting a few measley articles. I protest this sad state of affairs! It is time we acknowledged the enormous contributions sandworts make to the high alpine screes and ridges. Let's begin by praising Arenaria alfacarensis , surely one of the most adaptable, showy and spectacular of tight cushion pl...

Peonies have always struck me as a little too -- too froofy, too big, too campy. Like a falling-down-drunk drag queen with half a watermelon on her head, trying to do a Carmen Miranda impersonation and angrily insisting that everybody watch. Not just excessive, but somehow embarrassingly excessive. And the ant thing doesn't help, either. But as with most things, they become interesting if you

The New York Times semi-recently solicited houseplant-related questions for Tibor Fuchs (the President of the Metropolitan New York Chapter of the Indoor Gardening Society of America1) to answer, which he subsequently did, in three parts (the first of which is here). I happened to see the list of questions he was working from during the brief period when they were being solicited, and was struck

At least, according to the Iowa City Animal Shelter website, he has. Obviously we'll have to check back with the site occasionally, to make sure he doesn't come back again, but this is still very good news.

They probably wouldn't be called that, of course. But it seems like the same basic idea as with keiki on the bloom stalks of Phalaenopsis or other orchids. The Gasterworthia I bought a little over a month ago grew what appear to be tiny plantlets on its flower stalk ---- which is something I hadn't heard of Gasterias or Haworthias doing before. Maybe you have. I don't know. The larger of the two

THIS is my favorite Allium of the moment. Of course it helps that Allium platycaule is going over...this is the onion whose Latin name one must pronounce very carefully : Allium akaka ... It is distributed in Western Asia, and unfortunately it's not widely available commercially. It also does not seem to split its bulb as most alliums do. I have had two bulbs I grew from seed ten or more years ago quietly sitting in the same trough for all that time, just getting bigger and better but not more plentiful....drats! The second one is not as brightly colored, but still charming... Must remember to sow seed! I know, I know...it looks an awful lot like the Black Mountain onion ( Allium karataviense ) from mountains a bit further East in Iran and the stans...which is widely available commercially in the Dutch Bulb trade. I suppose it it were the rare one and akaka the common one my opinions woudl flip flop. Truth be said...I love them all! ...

Don't buy your cacti from places that do this:Yeah, that's about half an inch (1 cm) of water standing in the bottom of a plastic tray that apparently has no drainage holes in it. I've seen the same trays at Home Depot before. I do not understand why anybody thinks this is a good idea. I mean, for fuck's sakes, they're cacti -- they'd need to be watered eventually, but if they have to wait two or

I've been trying for the last couple weeks or so to sort through the ever-increasing stack of pictures I have, and I have to say, it hasn't actually been going terribly well. It's really time-consuming, and of course I keep taking new pictures as I'm sorting out the old ones, so there's an element of futility to the whole thing. But, the up side is that I have a bunch of pictures to post now. So

Onions are problem children in the garden. Either they become nearly ineradicable pests, or else they sulk like problem children, needing something (more attention? a good drubbing? a fresh start elsewhere?). And of course, most of the ornamental onions sold by Dutch bulb firms are Eurasian. Denver Botanic Gardens ought to be renamed Christoph Botanic Gardens this time of year: Allium christophii has naturalized so enthusiastically in so many gardens there that it's verging on becoming a cliche--a majestic, magnificent and enviable cliche to be sure. Allium aflatuenense appears to be gradually making similar inroads in my own garden: each year a new colony pops up here or there, and the older colonies get thicker. Their luminous, deep purple orbs are so stunning, who cares? And then there are the rabble of Western American onions. They are really fabulous: dozens of species, some growing only in steppe, others in desert, others at moderate elevations and some of the most stunning...

These aren't quite roadside flowers, in that I didn't take the pictures along the sides of roads, but the spirit is there, because they're weedy and yet also sort of pretty, or at least interesting. It's unclear whether or not there will be roadside flower pictures this summer, because until the car's air conditioning is fixed or it's an unseasonably cool day, I don't see myself going anywhere I

We have a very large silver maple (Acer saccharinum) toward the back of our long, narrow yard. Then the neighbors on one side have another silver maple, at the very back of their lot, and the neighbors on the other side have at least one Norway maple (Acer platanoides) in their yard, too, and . . . well, basically what I'm trying to get at is that there are maples everywhere. Our back yard abuts

Yet another photo from the Illowa Orchid Society's show at Wallace's Garden Center at the end of March. (The reader should expect that these posts are going to happen every week or two; I have them planned through January.)Unlike with some of the others, I don't have any fun trivia or strong personal feelings about this one. I think the picture is the problem, as far as strong personal feelings:

A very long time ago, someone at Garden Web asked for suggestions for a tall, narrow plant that would stay narrow, rather than spreading out and becoming vase-shaped with time. The reason was because the person had a fairly limited amount of floor space, and wanted the plant in an entryway, so any plants that got wide would eventually take up too much space and no longer be usable in that spot. I

Celebratory Gazanias.So the winners of the Mouse and Trowel awards were announced yesterday, and PATSP won for two categories: Best Indoor Gardening Blog, and Post of the Year (for the Zombie Apocalypse post). I didn't acknowledge it yesterday because:1) We're still dealing with some dog diarrhea issues here (she has yet to go in the house, which is very, very good, and believe me we're

is what one of my former wives used to say to me....okay. I confess. I only have one former wife, but I can pretend, can't I? And she did used to say it (to my annoyance: I happen to like white flowers). Alas, John Q. Public and his equally opinionated spouses (former and present) tend to agree with Gwen and selling a snow white shrub that blooms not long after the snows have receded in Colorado is an uphill climb. Or just plain futile. And of course it blooms just as the crabapples and redbuds are doing their amazing rose and magenta fireworks. And yet every year I come and worship at the spectacle of Exochorda wilsonii , one of the most reliable, spectacular and really just plain wonderful flowers of spring. I googled and found two or three nurseries that supposedly sell it. My friend, Jim Knopf, has E. giraldii , and you can occasionally find the much more slender and delicate hybrid 'The Bride'. But maybe THIS is the year I can persuade that Celtic magician Mike Bone to...

I intended to post something a bit more involved today than just some Iris pictures, but yesterday was by turns frustrating, anxiety-inducing, and miserable, so you will have to accept these as the best I can do for the moment. What happened yesterday involves canine diarrhea and is probably best not described in detail, but I didn't get a normal amount of sleep as a result, and then had to spend

In October 2008, I traded plants with someone from Garden Web, who gave me three sets of Hoya cuttings: Hoya bella, Hoya carnosa var. holliana, and Hoya picta. Picta only lasted four months before it basically shriveled up and died; carnosa var. holliana looks like it's going to make it, but it's only been actively growing for about six months now; and then we have bella.Which has produced two

I was somehow exhausted before even waking up on Saturday, and then stayed exhausted all day. I don't feel sick exactly; it's more like I've been up for 24 hours. Except that I haven't. In any case, this means that the little hamster on a wheel that powers my brain is sitting in the corner of his cage, giving me the finger while watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and eating potato chips,

Less eventful than last week, as far as either Sheba or Nina are concerned, though our vehicle was diagnosed with some kind of cancer of the air conditioner compressor on Wednesday, which is unfortunate. Not really very relevant to the pets, who don't drive much (though Nina's been studying the driver's manual, so she can get her learner's permit), but it's kind of significant to my personal life

(This is Part II. If you haven't read Part I yet, you should do that before reading this. It has "Ghost Whisperer" jokes, carnivorous plants, and a hopeful but tragically misguided plan to solve the invasive species problem by making every species invasive.)Ficus microcarpa. Native to: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia, some Pacific islands. A Florida Category 1 invasive plant. 6.

As if the state of Utah weren't blessed enough (with so many gorgeous National Parks and endemic treasures), but the state is lucky enough to have the queen of penstemons named after it: Penstemon utahensis . This gorgeous morsel sneaks a short ways into Colorado, and probably makes it into Arizona I suspect, but it's main homeland is its namesake state throughout the slickrock country of the Colorado Plateau, the San Rafael Swell right up to the Tavaputs Plateau: a large portion of Utah. It starts blooming in April and you can occasionally find it at its highest extremities in June. Right now, I can't imagine how many millions must be blooming throughout the magnificent canyon country: it always seems to find a perfect spot to perch with a cliff behind (I've got a sheaf of pictures like this from all over Utah and its Colorado outpost). That color is rare in temperate plants. Somewhere between coral and cerise--eye blasting. You notice this out of the corner of your ey...

Just a little post today so anybody who wants to catch up on yesterday's invasive species post can do so before tomorrow's invasive species post.We have a small patch of Convallaria in the back yard; it came with the house. I've heard things described as smelling like lily of the valley all my life, but had never (as far as I can recall) smelled the actual flower, so the information didn't really

My one tiny claim to Narcissus fame is that this tiniest of daffodils, Narcissus scaberulus , loves me. Mind you, the flower is less than an inch across. And you won't find it sold by bulb merchants. I simultaneously was given bulbs of this several decades ago by the spouse of a colleague at work (who collected them, shamed to say) and from an obscure English bulb merchant. I'm not sure which of these formed the base of my stock, but it prospered at the Gardens for years, but at my old house it set fat seedpods and produced dozens of progeny. When we sold the house, I made sure to transplant lots of these onto a similar north facing rock garden slope at Quince St., and shared the rest widely. So you can now tell who my best friends are locally because they too have thrifty stands of this obscure Iberian miniature. While tulips, crocuses and iris thrive in Colorado, my luck with daffodils is mixed. I simply don't keep things wet enough many places for the standard sorts t...

Ardisia elliptica. Native to: South Asia, Southeast Asia, Indonesia. A Florida Category 1 invasive plant. 1. PATSP is attacked! On December 7, some anonymous person showed up on the Ardisia elliptica profile and dropped a big ol' douchebomb on me for owning one and writing a profile about it. I was called irresponsible, stupid, ridiculous, and silly, because of Ardisia's potential to become

For the most part, what's come up in last year's vegetable garden has been no big surprise: it's mainly dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) and goosefoot (Chenopodium album) and other weedy stuff. I haven't been very interested in looking at it, as a result (we haven't even been sure we necessarily want to try growing anything in it again this year: an argument could be made that neither of us

Potinara is an intergeneric hybrid in the Cattleya Alliance. It is a cross of four genera: Brassavola, Cattleya, Laelia, and Sophronitis. I've recently discovered that the term for names like Potinara, which are given to intergeneric hybrids, are "nothogeneric names." I'm not sure what the point of having a term for this is; "intergeneric" worked just fine for me. But I suppose it's maybe useful

Dracaenas tend not to flower in containers; I've run into, and posted about, flowers on D. deremensis 'Janet Craig' (link), D. surculosa (link), and D. reflexa (link) in the past, but I've never seen flowers on D. sanderiana, D. marginata, or D. fragrans before (though flowers on D. fragrans happen fairly often, just never when I'm around: I get the impression that they're more or less inevitable

Well, Sheba's run of twenty vomit-free days came to an end this week, on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. On the one hand, this is a new record, but on the other, we were really kind of hoping for longer. Maybe the baby mice she found and ate on Tuesday morning's walk didn't agree with her, or maybe it was the sponge she tore apart on Monday (she didn't get all of it, or even very much of it,

A PATSP reader writes,I recently found your website while looking for growing information on some cacti- but after browsing through many past posts, I noticed that you and your readers help a lot of people with various plant ID. I fell in love with a Dahlia [in] a public garden about a year ago, and have not been able to figure out what kind it is. I was hoping someone might recognize it and know

I'd pretty much thought that the last batch of tulip photos would be it, but they keep coming up, and I keep taking pictures of them, so I have another batch to show. Plus, everybody likes tulips. So. This first one I really like: it's pink and orange at the same time. I've seen them in a couple different places around town. And then another flower of the same (?) variety, from a different

As ridiculous as it might be for me to be growing a full-sun, non-cold-hardy succulent that can potentially reach 8-10 feet (~3 m) in diameter, and to be doing this in Iowa, and indoors, I do really love my Furcraea foetida. I worry about it sometimes, too, like for example this winter it lost several leaves, and I don't know whether that was something that was going to happen regardless, or if I

The third fabulous spring in a row. Don't know what's up with this crazy state of mine: we have had Magnolias opening their first flowers in early March, and there are still flowers in shady sites on them today nearly six weeks later. The Crabs and Plums and Cherries have been blooming for weeks. Nearly a month! The burning bushes (my new name for floweringquince, which is a silly name since all quince flower) have been surreal. I drove by the park near us on the way West to Colorado Boulevard: several color forms of Crabapple from deep rose red and paler, flowsy pink ones and pure white... What bliss...

If only it weren't an irrepressible weed, what a terrific alpine plant this would be: gorgeous contrast of flower and foliage. Wonderful deep purple foliage...aaah! the irony of it all. Oxalis corniculata thriving in a crack at a church where I spoke recently. I remember plucking leaves of this on the way to grade school and savoring the sour tang of oxalic acid (which I believe is toxic in larger quantities). Few weeds are more annoying to try and eliminate in greenhouse collections, and I have a patch that still resurrects itself in parts of my rock garden no matter how vigilant I try to be to get rid of it all. Yes. Beauty is relative indeed!

I've posted pictures of 'Caribbean Dancer' before, more than once, even, but felt obligated to post some again because my plant is putting on quite a show all of a sudden. Or not "all of a sudden" -- I don't think Schlumbergeras do anything suddenly except drop buds -- but you know what I mean. There have been buds building for months, and finally they started to open around mid-April. I think

PATSP has been nominated for multiple Mouse & Trowel awards. Which is kind of weird. I mean, I'd thought maybe one nomination. But instead, I'm up for:Best Container Gardening BlogBest Indoor Gardening BlogBest Writing1 Post of the Year (for the Zombie Apocalypse list)Obligatory Gazania of Celebration. Gazanias are the official celebratory flower of PATSP since, like, forever.Or maybe it should

Got an e-mail last night from someone interested in an ID for this plant, which was spotted in a Northern Minnesota state park three or four years ago. The photo isn't the clearest (it should help to open it in a separate window), but you should still be able to make out the main features: low rosette of leaves, prickly/hairy flower stalk and leaves, red-orange flower with lots of yellow

Well, I have a favorite perennial now. I bought two of these last spring, and they were among the lucky purchases which got planted somewhere (along the north side of the garage, in this particular case). I wasn't feeling especially optimistic about them coming back, but they have, and one of the two is now in full bloom, while the other is heavily budded but not actually flowering yet (as I

Sort of a Stalin-era statuary / high school senior picture kind of "looking toward the future" vibe with this one. I like it. It's fairly hard to make Nina look like she's thinking or emoting. (In actuality, she was just looking up at me and/or the camera, trying to determine whether to run away.)As difficult as it is to get a picture of Nina that looks like thinking or emoting, it's even harder