Quick update

Hello, I hope you all are well.  I've been doing some plant tlc over the weekend. Wet finally said goodbye to the little brown wrinkly guy that was in the plant pot hospital. The other two are very happy so I've left them as they are. 

R.I.P brown wrinkly one

 I gave Santa a new put and he's feeling very sideways about it all.

My fiance bought a flowery new addition to the home. Will find out the name soon.

Have added a chop stick to support the fast growing Larry.

Moved my beautiful monstera to the large bookshelf and she's rewarded me with another new leaf! That's two babies ready to unfurl. You can see them better in the next picture. I'm so glad she's happy up there.

Lastly here's a fun info sheet about various plant illness's!

Lots of inspiring plants at my mum's house

My mum has the most beautiful garden. It's full of vegetables and flowers in a variety of bright colours. Trinkets and lawn ornaments plus a small greenhouse add character and lots of interesting things to look at.
Inside her house the jungle continues with so many stunning houseplants. There's African violet, pilea, aloe and much more. Her wandering Jew (which was the same size as mine when she got them both as tiny cuttings) has grown so big it's really inspired me to put mine into a bigger pot.
Here are three of her plants.

Wandering Jew

Not sure on the name but this is 15 years old

Another one I'm not sure the name of..

As always, names and advice are much appreciated. Happy gardening folks!

Monstera Deliciosa Facts

I thought I'd post a quick one today as I found out some interesting facts about my favourite plant.
Did you know that the leaves of a monstera can grow up to 90cm long! Could you imagine? I've seen one at a local plant shop that is super old with big leaves and it does look spectacular.
Also, big news to me...monstera is a fruit producing plant! Mostly when grown outdoors though, unless its specially cultivated in a temperature controlled environment, but how cool is that!! Here are some pictures of the fruit that apparently tastes like a mix of banana, pineapple and mango (um hello talk about heaven!)

All above pics from this site

 OK this just looks delicious!! Has anyone tried this? Want to try??

Also the root of the plant is used in some countries as a remedy for snakebite and also to soothe arthritis. What a wonder plant.


Ooh and I almost forgot, check out the newest addition to the family. A beautiful Echeveria! The exact type I'm not sure but it sure looks cute in it's green glass. My partner got it from Waitrose. They seem to do OK from there.

Also I took my monstera out on the balcony for some primo sun and fresh air  and look what treat he's shown as a symbol of gratitude! A new leaf!! Can't wait for it to unfurl into a beautiful tender soft leaf.

How to build your own terrarium!

Hello! Today I'm going to show you how to build a beautiful and healthy terrarium like the one above for a fraction of the price you may see in some high end plant shops (one in particular I know of charges £40 for a tiny one!). 

The one above I made for my partner a year or so ago and all the plants have been pretty healthy until I had to remove one which had got rather poorly and brown (you can read about it in the post below). Everyone else is happy and as long as you keep an eye on everyone and water them a small amount if the soil feels dry then everything should be OK. 

Feel free to accessorize your plant home with glass pebbles, trinkets and toys etc. I bought the pebbles online for about £3 and then a couple of collectors star wars figurines which were around £5 each to add but if you're not buying specialist collector stuff then obviously it will be cheaper. There were seven plants in the one above but today's I'm making has five plants only.

So first of all you're going to need a home to place all the new residents in. I picked up this beautiful square glass jar or whatever it is from a charity shop today for 75p. I think it has good character and is thick high quality glass. 

Get everyone ready for the big move! Here they all are ready for their new home, can't you just feel their excitement through the screen??

Firstly you're going to want to add a layer of draining material such as this white perlite I bought from B&Q. For closed containers like this, pebbles are essential to avoid flooding of the plants. On top of the perlite I used succulent compost also from B&Q but other garden centers will stock it.

Remove the excess soil from the plants, taking very special care not to damage the roots, dig a hole in the soil and place the plant inside, add extra soil over the top and flatten it down firmly, the plant doesn't want to be wobbling around.

Repeat with the other plants and there you have it! A drink of water to celebrate their new swish pad and a sunny spot to keep them happy. You can now add whatever decorations you wish. 

This spot on the window in our study is perfect! A view of the beautiful park outside with all the tall trees is sure to inspire them to grow big and healthy.

Happy potting!

Trying to save a wrinkled brown cactus!!

Poorly parodia ottonis (below), sempervivum arachnoideum (right), pachyphytum oviferum (left)

Good morning everyone!
So today I'm sharing this picture as I decided to re-home a few of my smaller plants today and figured I'd put a few of them together in a larger pot so they can stretch out a bit. As you can see, one of them is in dire need of some TLC as he's going brown. I removed him from the terrarium where all the other plants are really striving but he unfortunately isn't. Hopefully this pot with some fresh soil will do him a bit of good. He did used to be happier, even flowered once! Although the flower didn't open and just shrivelled up, at least he tried. I'd love to see some pink star shaped flowers from the sempervivum this summer. Did you know the term arachnoid is used in botany to describe something cobweb like in appearance? Pretty cool huh? The sempervivum had a load of brown papery leaves at the bottom that I pulled off too, they're all in plant pot hospital really. The top left one wasn't getting enough light hence the stretched out neck. We'll see how they get on at the plant hospital and I'll keep you updated. Have a great week all!

Wish list

Here are a few plants I'd love to add to my collection

Maranta / Prayer Plant

Pic - Pinterest

I love the leaves on this beautiful houseplant!! They are just stunning, maybe I'll get them tattooed one day alongside my existing coffee and wild plant tattoos.

Trachyandra

Pic - Pinterest

How amazing is this super curly wurly beauty!

Monstera Variegata

Pic - Pinterest

I'd love to add a variegated variety to monstera family. The patterns and colours are stunning.

Geranium Plant

Pic - Pinterest

This one reminds me of waterlilies . Love the flowers and how that deep purple compliments the green.

So there you have it! What's on your plant wish list?? Do let me know - x

Meet the gang..

So here are the current members of my plant family. I've got a few more I'm propagating and some outdoor plants which live on the balcony and may appear in future posts. For now I'll just be sharing the houseplants that I keep in my small 2 bedroom flat in Sheffield, UK.



Wandering Jew / Tradescantia Zebrina

I'm hoping to see some white flowers on this beauty in the Summer. I received this from my mum a few months back and she got it as a tiny cutting from a plant swap. This plant sure does grow fast and will start to hang apparently, no signs of it going limp anytime soon.



Coral cactus / urphorbia lactea crest

How alien does this guy look?? This is not actually a cactus at all but instead its a mutant succulent from Africa. Think we got this guy from Ikea! Easy to look after, doesn't need much water.



Jade plant / Crassula ovata

One of my favourites, I love the diamond white plant pot and I love it's fat little leaves. This one lives happily in the bathroom.



Unknown Species (C. acanthocarpa??)

We've owned this one for some time now and sometimes his arms reach high into the air but for the past few weeks they've been drooping downwards. I hope he's ok! I've tried my usual resources for identifying him but no luck. Any ideas, please let me know!



Eve's pin / Austrocylindropuntia subulata

Lovely spiky little one, we've had her a couple of years and she'll soon be ready for a bigger pot.



Worm Plant / Crassula marnieriana 'Hottentot

This is a baby from our main plant which is pictured below.



Pachyphytum Oviferum

This one had a little growth spurt from the top there as you can see!



Bunny Ear Cactus / Opuntia Microdasys

Had to pick up this classic looking cactus when I spotted him on the high street! He fits right in and has a lot of character with a couple decorations that seem to have accumulated on him over the last year or so.



Christmas cactus / Schlumbergera truncata and S. × buckleyi 

This has treated us to some beautiful pink flowers from November to April! I even framed some that fell off in one of those double walled glass hanging frames. Very beautiful.



ET's Fingers / Gollum Jade / Crassula ovata

How fun are the nicknames for this plant? They sure do look weird, like alien tubes! Another coral weirdo plant that fits right in in our home.





Desert cactus - Species unknown

Not sure on the exact species for this large cactus. We've had him for two years since he was about 10cm. Now he must be at least 2ft! Grows pretty fast too with a little spurt after a feed.



Tree cactus / Pilosocereus Pachycladus

Apparently these ones can reach up to 30ft in height!! Definitely wouldn't fit in my flat if it was that tall. He does seem to be having troubles at the root, I've tried adding more soil to give him a bit more security but am worried it could be that he's not getting enough light.



Bromelia!

We call this the weird plant because it never shows any sign of growing or changing whatsoever. In fact just today I looked closely and realised it had become waterlogged. I went to tip the excess down the sink and poured away what must have been 4 drinks worth of water, none of the other plants have had this issue. I'm sure he's a fake! Update: I learnt it's called Bromelia thanks to Elena from the plant swap group. I've learnt a lot about this plant today!



Aloe Vera

A very heavy and large aloe vera. This has soothed my burns on a few occasions and was gifted to me by a friend.



Swiss Cheese Plant / Monstera Deliciosa 

My favourite! This was gifted to me by my fiances parents for my birthday. Since owning it it's grown many new leaves, I love each moment of seeing a new stem appear and then unfurl into a fresh baby leaf, all shiny and pale before becoming strong and robust.



Prickly Pear / Opuntia humifusa

A fairly new addition to the family and still in it's black paper until I find it a pretty pot. Love the flat leaves, features very high in my fav list, I'm thinking a stone or cement pot would suit it rather well.





Powdery Dudleya (Dudleya farinosa) ?

Another one I've struggled to identify and it's driving me crazy! Anyway this one is so wide!! I wish I had a garden because that's where he seems to want to be, sure is heavy and big!



Chinese money plant / Pilea Peperomioides

Another gift from my mum, this one she gave me just a week ago. Hoping it being a money plant will bring me lots of money so I can buy more plants!! How cute is it in it's little ceramic jug though!



Elephant bush / Portulacaria afra

According to the internet, these are a favourite food or tortoises! This one was dying a while ago so I gave him a temporary bowl and he loved the stretch so much, he's still in his bowl for now until I move him to a bigger pot. They can grow huge!



Golden star cactus / Mammillaria elongata

This plant always makes me laugh because he's grown so fast! We got him two Christmas' ago from tesco and he had a funny Santa hat and beard on so I call him Santa.





Aloe vera on left / Aloe Butiabana on right

Another aloe vera / possibly agave???  This one was from the same plant swap my mum went to. I need to go myself one day but I'm always working! The right aloe we actually got from one of our favourite cafes as it was left on the table just this little shrub so took it home and potted it with a new friend.





Cotton pole / Austrocylindropuntia vestita

Cute fluffy little one, still a baby and happy in it's pot for the time being.



Bear paws / Cotyledon Tomentosa

Another tiny one from the swap (thanks for the ID Mathilde)



Tiny cactus

Cute huh!



Gasteria ‘Little Warty’

A strange tongue like succulent.



Tiny Pachyphytum Oviferum

I'm tempted to start another terrarium with a few of the baby plants I've got in my collection. I could do a step by step guide with instructions for how to build your own! In fact I think I will, stay tuned!



Worm Plant / Crassula marnieriana 'Hottentot

So beautiful right? Like a string of jade pearls. I'd love to make one of those macrame hanging pots for this one



Echeveria Elegans

These can grow pretty big.



Adromischus Bicolor

I've spent almost two hours on this post what with finding everyones names. I think I'm going to run a bath. I may update this with the name, I may not...updated with the name thanks to Mathilde from the Sheffield plant swap facebook group!



Two together

Exact name to come, any plant experts feel free to tell me what any of these are!



Two tiny propagated babies

We do have more too. Maybe I'll add them to the terrarium or take them to the next plant swap.



Echeveria

A big old pot for a little succulent.



Aloe vera

This is 13 years old! Sits happily in the bathroom for now.