Last April I made the decision to get rid of many of my artificial plants and to add more real plants and flowers to my home. I blogged about it here.
By now you might think that my home is a virtual rain forest of planty goodness.
I wish that were so.
Sadly, only some of my attempts at keeping plants alive have been successful.
Here are some of my victims:
The China Doll is no more. Sigh. I really love this plant but I think I may have under watered it. My grocery store has these from time to time so I’m going to try again.
This little evergreen was definitely a victim of under watering. Even though it still looked green, it was dry as a bone. I may have been able to salvage it, but I was a little tired of the evergreen look in July and — not content to just kill plants — I had even broken off a piece off the edge of the urn it was living (?) in. So this spot is now empty.
I got a little overzealous with this rosemary and decided to try to make it into a rosemary topiary. It didn’t die exactly, but the stalk just sort of stood there and refused to grow. After a few months, I finally put it out of it’s misery. I’m going to try it again by bringing the rosemary that’s happily blooming in my potted herb garden inside when the weather gets cool.
I’m refusing to call the orchid that was in my bathroom dead. After it quit blooming I cut the stalks way back, as I had read to do, and they never returned. But the leaves are still green so I’m not giving up on it. Kate at Centsational Girl shared some orchid tips from her husband, the Orchid Whisperer, so I’ll try those next time.
I do have some plant success stories, however.
This Weeping Fig is still going strong. I even took it to death’s door and managed to bring it back, so that tells me there’s hope for my gardening abilities.
This common houseplant (I don’t have a name…help me out people) is very forgiving of neglect. It’s not my favorite plant, but since it has my favorite plant trait (it’s alive), I’m keeping it.
This Peace Lily has been in our home since 1995 when my son was born. At seventeen years, it’s by far my biggest houseplant success story.
It’s survived a move and many periods of serious neglect, so I decided that it might survive repotting. Indeed it did and I was able to divide it into two plants so now this one is in my dining room . Win!
So four months after embarking on Operation Houseplant, I’m enjoying the successes and remembering this quote when something dies:
If you are not killing plants, you are not really stretching yourself as a gardener. –J. C. Raulston
Can you relate?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I can definitely relate! I haven’t tried a real houseplant in quite a few years since my prior results have been rather dismal. Like you, I have a peace lily that my sister gave me 24 years ago and it’s still going strong – yeah!
You don’t need to cut off the spent flower stems on Phaleanopsis orchids. If the stalks stay green, they will often send out new flower stems from old ones.
I think I have only one plant left that my husband brought to our union nearly 13 years ago – I’ve killed all the others! Even a HUGE cactus! And countless orchids have met their maker at my hands. Guess I’m really stretching. (love that quote)
The mystery plant looks like a variety of Alocasia, but I’m not sure which one.
Yes, I’ve killed a few plants in my day. When our dog was a puppy, he liked to dig in the dirt of our plants that were low enough to reach. I believe he has outgrown this tendency (he’s 5) and I will once again have some real plants in the house. (I got rid of all of my fake ones). I love the plant that is at your front door. I intend to do the same.
! You don’t mind, do you? 
!