F I R S T N A T I O N S
Less a couple of plants, this is what my 'garden' looks like these days - all indoors. I like the cascading type as you can see.
If you look closely you might see a couple of spots of color dotted around that don't seem very planty...
...and those are little weights I made to train the vines to grow downward and not twist. I saw this done with little brass bells once years ago, which works well but is jingly. These random, big beads I had, strung on a little wire, are just the thing.
They're light enough to encourage rather than force the brittle stems, they provide a little modest twinkle, and prove that I am the kind of lunatic that does shit like make jewelry* for their houseplants.
☙❧
Ms Nations, your vertical indoor garden of spiderplants and bejewelled pothos (and whatever that crinkly-leaved plant is on the lower shelf) is delightful! Do you turn the plants so they grow evenly rather than leaning towards the window?
* I used the British spelling for the title as it wasn't a verbatim quote (so it didn't look weird to my British eyes), but left your original American spelling in the body of the post.
What a clever trick! I like the idea of jewelry for the houseplants. I have cacti and succulents under a grow light and that seems to be the best I can do to keep plants alive inside. I'm tempted to try a spider plant though. My mom had a brown thumb, but somehow she was able to keep a spider plant alive.
ReplyDeleteAll spider plants seem to want is good drainage and an occasional Negroni.
DeleteWhat a nice view of The Hanging Gardens of Idaho !
ReplyDeleteEh - what ? You make yer plants work out ?! Yoh lift, bro ?
My Gänseblümchen is a ten-pounder !?
Ah, the Toklas druggie book - I remember well when you gave the recipe for a nice witches brew, all homegrown, I miss yer old garden (and no, I will not mention the thing).
Good. That will remain our special secret, then. XOO
DeleteOh, I like the plant jewellery! How clever! Though judging by some of my indoor plants I might be better placed to stick to making jewellery.
ReplyDeleteSx
I would like to see it if you did!
DeleteI learned something today. I have never seen anal beads used as plant weights.
ReplyDeleteAll lovely for indoor plants. I have no luck with indoor plants at all. Jokes aside, I did not know about the weights for viney plants to make them grow downward. Not to mention adds color. That Nations is a smart cookie.
The rough part was listening to the perilla beg.
DeleteJewellery for plants, what a brilliant idea, how about piercings for plants, I have a dangling cacti that is crying out for a Prince Albert.
ReplyDeleteHa!
DeleteI've got something for your prickly dangler.
DeleteI've got my eye on that Alice B. Toklas cookbook.
ReplyDeleteMy baby, if you would come back, I would send it to you free of charge.XOO
DeleteXOO back atcha, hon.
DeleteA little bit of sparkle makes everything look better! It's a great display, Ms Nations... Jx
ReplyDeletePS Are those really spider-plants? They're usually variegated, in my experience. [NB our collection of said Chlorophytum comosum never comes indoors; it's tougher than it looks...]
Ms Nations did not identify them, Jon, but if one views the first photo at actual size, the spidery plant on the middle shelf has produced a telling inflorescence with a tiny plantlet at the tip.
Delete(Also, I used to have a totally green one like these. The ones I have now - both indoors & out - are Chlorophytum comosum 'Variegatum' which has dark green leaves with white margins. Whereas yours, I believe, are C. comosum 'Vittatum' with mid-green leaves and a central white stripe?)
I bought the original "mother plant" of our spider-plant collection for 50p on the "dead-or-almost-dead" shelf at Homebase [a place that seemed to specialise in total neglect of its plants; so the shelf was always full] more than a decade ago. It's variety name [if ever we knew it] is lost to the mists of time... Jx
DeleteIt's a viridia. I always seem to find them, and they always try to blossom themselves to death. If you keep on them and take off every sign of a floiwer bud you see, then you start getting the nice cascades of spiderlings - no anal beads required!
DeleteI've not heard of a spider plant with that name, but as it just means "green", I get it. As for flowering, ours do, every year, without any harm - indeed, we have even found seedlings from where the bees or hoverflies have done their job and the seeds have dropped into neighbouring pots! Jx
DeleteAt first I thought that you had been very careless with your earrings but no you have been very clever.
ReplyDeleteLovely to see an indoor garden and I think your plant shelf by the big window is genius.
My Fave is the Alice B. Toklas but there is a nicely bound 2 volume set and another that I can't make out as your earring is in the way.
The first thing I ever grew was a Spider Plant. We love them and have had several outside in all weathers for many years. They are indestructible.
PS
I am working on posting a selection of my cookery books and hope to have it ready soon.
Ttfn