Herself’s Houseplants

This is one of those Walmart plant finds. It’s really a cool store for plants if you poke around in the novelty plant section. Every 4th or 5th time I do so I find something worthwhile, and it’s almost always dirt cheap.

Pencil tree is really more of a dense shrub than a tree with branches about the size and thickness of a pencil. As it grows older stems thicken and turn a brown-grey color. In the wild in a perfect home it can reach 25′ tall. In homes in containers it can easily reach 5′ tall.

In the summer it develops leaves as you can see in the photos. Flowers are yellow and extremely tiny.

Give this plant as much light as you can and water only when dry. Treat it much the same as you would a jade plant. Water more in the summer, less in the winter. This plant can not tolerate freezing so protect it from the cold.

This plant prefers to be slightly pot bound. Which is a good thing since it is not the easiest of plants to transplant.

Prune to what ever shape pleases you. It is often grown in containers with other plants as a dramatic background.

Propagate by cuttings. Cut off a section and let the bottom dry out for a few days. Then plant in a loose sandy soil and keep moist until it roots. Slowly ween off the water until you just water it when dry.

This plant is native to southern Africa.

This plant is in the same family as pointsettias and has a similar milky sap. The sap will irritate some people’s skin and be very careful to keep it from your eyes. Do not ingest the sap it is toxic to humans, pets and fish.

Recently it has gained attention as a possible source of biofuels. It is often used as a hedge in many of the places it grows outside.

There is also a red version of this plant, ‘Firesticks’.

Of all the carnivorous plants I grow these are some of the more challenging. For easy carnivorous plants, try a pitcher plant.

Flytraps do very well in terrariums. Any clear covered glass container will work. Fill the bottom with soil that does not have any fertilizer and peat moss. A 50/50 combination of sand/peat works well. Soak the soil and wring it out. It should be damp not soaking. Place your flytraps in there, put the cover on, put it in a sunny window and forget about it. They will thrive. Another option is to grow them in sphagnum moss. I’ve had that work very well for me also.

The only other way I have been successful with flytraps is to put them in a clay pot with a soil and peat moss mixture. Put the clay pot in a dish with about an 1″ of water. Water from the bottom, just top off the water every morning.

Fly traps grow slowly. You’ll need to be patient. When they are happy and large enough they will give you really cool flowers in the late spring. They rarely get beyond 8″ in height, most will max out at 5″. The flowers are white and will grow on long stems far above the height of the leaves.

Temperatures are not important, I’ve kept them in sunny northern homes with no air conditioning and drafty old Victorians in the dead of winter. Short of freezing them or baking them at 100′F or more they won’t complain.

Deadhead the old traps to encourage new growth. If a trap turns black, remove that leaf.

Do not fertilize your plants. They will turn black and will die. Use tap water or use rain water.

Flytraps are mostly dormant in the winter, do not be alarmed if yours do not grow then or die back somewhat. Ease up on the water a little during this time so as to not rot the tubers. You do need to create a dormant period. Many sites declare you need to stick them in the refrigerator for a few months. Not so. I grew beautiful, large flowering ones for years in New England. Not once did I create a dormant cycle.

Do not feed them meat. They eat bugs, not cows, not chickens, not lambs. ( and that is a very good thing )

Do not feed them bugs larger than half the size of the trap. The trap needs to fully close around the bug.

They hate to be transplanted. Since there is no danger of over watering them go ahead and put them in a decent sized pot to start with.

They are difficult to grow by seed, division is a better way to propagate them.

There are usually three trigger hairs on each side of the trap, sometimes more. You will have to look closely and catch the light just right to see them. There are also digestive glands on the traps inner surface which release enzymes to dissolve the bugs and to take up the nutrients. These are the red area of the trap. In the outer green edges of the trap are glands that release nectar to attract insects. This part of the trap reflects ultraviolet light that most insects can see.

The trap closes when two or more of the trigger hairs is bent over by an insect in less than a half minute or so. At the base of each trigger hair is a cell that allows the trigger to bend over, it acts like a spring. The upper part of the trigger hair is stiff and unbendable.

The trap rapidly closes when triggered, but leaves small air gaps. Smaller insects escape through these gaps. If a larger insect is inside and it can not escape through the gaps, the trap slowly closes the rest of the way. This is triggered by continuing movement of the trigger hairs or if the prey insect urinates or defecates.

The fully closed trap fills with acidic liquid released by digestive glands. Digestion takes time depending on the size of the insect. Digestion could take as long as a month. The trap reopens once all nutrients have been absorbed. The exoskeleton of the insect remains, waiting to be blown off by wind or washed off by rain. During this time the trap will not re-trigger.

These plants are native to bogs in North and South Carolina which is the only place they are known to grow in the wild. Temperatures there range from ~20′F to 100′F. I tried some outdoors but they couldn’t handle the summers of Houston or the winters of Boston.

Do not buy wild plants. They are endangered. Buy from reputable dealers. A lack of fires to clean out surrounding vegetation, and increased fertilizer runoff has damaged most of the remaining habitats of these plants.

These plants were a favorite of Charles Darwin who considered them to be one of the most wonderful plants in the world. Carl Linnaeus spoke of them as a miracle of nature. John Ellis was the first to describe the flytrap during his travels to the new world. Upon his arrival home there were lines of people waiting to obtain this plant, much like the iPhone lines of recent.

Elk horn fern is a gnarly version of a bird’s nest fern. It wants slightly more light than most ferns and lots of water like all ferns do. If you like bird’s nests ferns but want something slightly different check this one out.

I find the broad leaf ferns are much easier to grow indoors than the smaller leaved versions. This one should do fine just about anywhere in your home, I’d avoid putting it in direct sun however.

Water it frequently but do not let it sit in water.

The height is about 18″, the spread is about 18″ as well.

If you purchase one online be sure to double check the latin name, I found several ferns going by the ‘Elkhorn Fern’ name while I was researching this one.