All about taking it inside, especially through the long, cold days of winter. Getting my gardening fix year-round.
In late October, once most of the houseplants had been moved back indoors for the winter, I posted a series of photos to my social media accounts documenting the main spaces in my home where plants are kept. I thought I’d post them here with some explanatory text. As I have written before, my living …
A small infestation of mealybug was recently found on this variegated pothos (Epipremnum). I check my houseplants regularly, but they were camouflaged well against the white variegation. Of the many pests that can plague houseplants, mealybug are the one I’ve come up against most. This may be because I keep a lot of succulent plants, …
I recently joined the legions and brought home a Monstera deliciosa aka Swiss cheese plant. I wrote off the idea of getting one long ago due to a lack of space with appropriate growing conditions. However, we removed the living room TV this summer and that has opened up space around a south-facing window that …
I spotted this gorgeous, burgundy and olive-leaved bromeliad, Neoregelia ‘Fireball’* is my best guess since there was no tag, while walking out of a corner shop last week (having just purchased a plant, of course). I loved that there were already pups underneath and a long arm extending out with a forth, larger baby attached. …
It’s been hot here and difficult to get into the garden during the daytime, so in the interim, I’ve been repotting, refreshing, and propagating houseplants. I’m determined to give every single one their time this month, but they are legion. The process is laborious, but necessary as ill health over the last 4 years has …
I kid. A little hyperbole on a Thursday afternoon. The leaves on this particular plant expand as much as 25″ across! Those of you living in warmer climates must wonder why in the heck I have such a large agave indoors! They’re big, heavy, and their spines are painful. At this size they are not …
Ground control to Major Tom. Perhaps it is the trippy name or the reference to outer space, but David Bowie comes to mind whenever I look at the little cluster of earth stars aka cryptanthus that I keep in a terrarium. In reality, the common name of this unusual Bromeliad family plant has a much …
It’s not a particularly good photo, just a quick snap of some houseplants sitting on a table on my back patio. There’s bits of grit on the table that had been earthed by the squirrels, water rings on the metal table, and volunteer geraniums underneath the bay laurel tree — little messes that I might …
Some years ago, my friend Barry gave me a large jade (Crassula ovata), an extra that had become crowded in with another in the pot they shared. Through the years since, I had been caring for this large-trunked succulent much like I do many of my other tender(ish) succulents. They spend winter in the south-facing …
It was the day of our 20th anniversary, but I COULD NOT miss the annual Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society sale at the Toronto Botanical Garden (a different account of this story appears over here). Davin entertained my desire to go — an anniversary gift of sorts and one that he has been …
With flat and fleshy, bluish/silver/green leaves that reach out horizontally as if the plant may take flight, Propeller Plant (Crassula perfoliata var. falcata) is an aptly named South African succulent that I think you’ll love. For those who are curious, according to “Stearn’s Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners,” the Latin “falcata” or “falcate” means …
I probably should have waited to post this until it was doing something more exciting than simply being alive in a pot, but the fact that it is alive at all is one reason why I find this euphorbia so thrilling in the first place. Euphorbia platyclada is a living succulent plant that looks dead, …