Herself's Houseplants

You have heard that fluorescent lights do wonders for your electric bill. Mine dropped by a third. Not only do they use less electricity than incandescent lights but they don’t throw the heat that incandescent lights do.

They also are wonderful for your house plants. We’ve noticed that house plants that are not doing so well will thrive when placed under a fluorescent table lamp. The lamps also do not heat up so they can be placed closer to plants that need a good dose of light.

I’ve found many low light plants will do just fine on a desktop with a bright fluorescent bulb.

A good rule of thumb is to use 20 watts of fluorescent light per square foot of plants.

I haven’t the time or place to put a full terrarium. The micro sized ones I saw at the flower show have me experimenting with little ones this month.

I have three containers here of carnivorous plants. One is just an open round container about 8″-10″ at its widest, one is a cylinder with a glass cover and one is a small terrarium.

No lights, fans or other equipment is needed.

I was looking for unusual plants that would stay compact for these gardens and decided it was time to grow some carnivorous plants again. It’s been a while since I have done so.

The first two batches died much to my dismay. I had one potted in soil with gravel on top, and one with gravel on the bottom with soil on top. It turns out most potting soil you purchase now has fertilizers in it. Carnivorous plants can’t handle fertilizer.

So I dug around on the net and found out some people were using the same sphagnum moss I use for orchids as a base for carnivorous plants. It’s been a month and all are showing new life so it looks like it will work.

I soaked the moss and wrung out the excess water. The moss then went into the bottom of each container followed by the plants. Pitcher plants can get tall so use an open container for the taller growing plants. And be sure to plant them under the opening.

Carnivorous plants can sometimes be found in the house plant sections of stores and always be found on line. I’ve had good luck with both.

See also:
Carnivorous Plants
Carnivorous plant eats mouse
Nepenthes
Use sphagnum moss to make your plants easier to care for

I’ve been experimenting with indoor water gardening since I’ve seen the cool gardens at the flower show. This is more of an indoor bog garden than full underwater garden. I’m still looking for cool plants for one that is totally under water.

Lucky bamboo and rush, both straight and curly, do excellent in indoor water gardens. The rush will eventually get to be about 2′ tall, about the same as the lucky bamboo is right now. It will also fill out so it is not so sparse.

I’m told umbrella plants (cyperus involucratus ) do very well indoors too. The store has been out each time I’ve been by. Papyrus does not do well indoors. Mine took about a week to start looking unhappy and I re-planted it outdoors.

These plants are just planted in the vase with rocks to keep the lucky bamboo standing upright. The rocks will also help to hide some of the roots from the rush.

These plants can be found in places that sell pond supplies. I find they sell out almost as fast as the stores stock them so you may have to obtain them online.

When you find a pot you like in the store buy several. Most decorators recommend grouping by odd numbers; 1, 3, 5… but now that the weather is warm most of my house plants are outside enjoying the sun and humidity. Usually I place 3 phalaenopsis that are in bloom together here on the counter top. Since they bloom so long it is easy to do.