A growing orchid collection

While I was visiting my local Lowes, I stopped by the garden center (this shouldn't be a surprise).  I noticed that the distressed plant section was full of orchids, so I took a closer look.  The plants weren't distressed at all, they had just lost their blooms, they looked happy, the leaves were bright and firm and the flower stalk was even still green.  So I picked up a couple new types of orchids.

I got a dendrobium orchid and a blue orchid.  It was upon my return home that I found out that not all orchids are created equal.  An extensive internet search proved to be a little depressing.  I now have four different kinds of orchids all with their own little nit picky preferences.  They all like different amounts of light and different amounts of water, some like the bark medium some like moss.  I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed with what I should know and I'm not quite sure how I can keep this all straight.

Grow your own ginger update

A new sprout started showing itself a couple of days ago and it's just the cutest little thing. I'm not sure what this means for the plant itself especially after the big shoot tipped over.

As you can see in the picture, I have also been dealing with some brown leaf tips.  I'm not sure why that is, but I moved the plant to an area that receives less light and have also been misting the leaves often.  Hopefully that will help with both the brown leaves and the weak shoot.

Where did all these bugs come from

Not only do I seem to have quite a plant collection, but I also seem to have quite the pest collection as well.  Along with the fungus gnats that inevitably come with plants (esp. Fittonias), I have also discovered spider mites and mealy bugs.

While fungus gnats are annoying as they try to fly up your nose or when you can't leave a water glass out without collecting carcases, they are really nothing more that a nuisance (and spider attractant).  From what I've read about spider mites and mealy bugs, they can actually take a toll on the plants health and well being.

So I'm wondering where they all came from?  I have a couple of newly acquired plants, but none of them seem to be affected by either foe.  There was also a couple of amaryllis that had been living outside and are now inside, but these also seem to be unaffected by the pests; however, I suppose that the bugs could have hitched a ride on any one of these plants and just found other plants in my collection to be more desirable.

Anyways, through this little glitch in my apartment garden I have discovered the wonderful things everyday household items can do.

1st ~ a mixture of dish soap and water sprayed onto the plants and the soil has pretty much eliminated the spider mites, although according to a lot of the sources I read a reapplication or two will be necessary to kill the eggs that hatch later on.  I was amazed that when I sprayed all my plants with this at night and by the next morning only a couple little bugs could be seen.

2nd ~ rubbing alcohol dabbed onto the fuzzy looking mealy bugs with a cotton swab killed them and they could be easily removed.

Today is not a good day to be me

Yikes, I just discovered little tiny bugs crawling all over a bunch of my plants/pots.  I'm assuming they're spider mites, but I can't be sure.  The only things I know for sure are that they're tiny, kind of off-white and like house plants.

I quickly sprayed all my plants and pots with dish soap and water, it was the best solution I could find using things I already had and it is suppose to take care of a wide array of pests in case my diagnosis was incorrect.

Then my ginger, which had been growing quite nicely for some time, just tipped right over...timber.

But I'm pretty sure that things will still be a mess when I wake up in the morning....

Houseplant: I'll breathe for you if you breathe for me

I think it's hard sometimes for people to understand why houseplants are so important, but I have a perfect example of why I could never go back to living without them.

While I was away from my apartment for a week, I had my bedroom (where most of my plants reside) all closed up, the window was locked, the door was shut and there everything just sat for a week.  When I walked in to the apartment upon my return it kind of smelled like it had been closed up for a week, a slightly stale feeling in the air that made me want to immediately open a window no matter what the weather was doing outside.  But when I opened the bedroom door I got this waft of beautiful fresh air, there was nothing stale about it.  It was like I just stepped outside and was in a field of grass or a meadow or something, but the point is I had fresh air in a completely closed off room.  It smelled so beautiful and clean; it was truly eye opening as to what plants can really do for you.

The End of a Bean Plant

I had started my Northern Bean experiment with pretty high hopes, they had sprouted without trying.  But alas my miniscule efforts were for naught.  While away for the week they began to wither and when I returned all the water in the world wasn't going to save them. Maybe next time...

New Edition to the Apartment Jungle

 A very large chunk of the year I live where I can only by plants at Wal-mart or Lowes, and while I can find some plants I like at those places (I have my eye on a white bird of paradise currently stocked at Wal-mart), there are very few plants that I find captivating, that I don't already have.  So when I go to visit my parents (who live where there are actual greenhouses) I like to stop by and see if there's anything that I absolutely must have.

To my surprise the greenhouse that I stopped at had a plant that I had been thinking about for a while, a vanilla orchid.  I had been researching how to keep my orchid happy (it's still working on its flower stalk) and I stumbled upon vanilla orchids.  I researched them and decided that I would like to try to grow one if I ever had the luck to find one.

The vine is still quite small and therefore it wont bloom for a couple years at least, but it seems to be pretty happy with me so far (its had several inches of new growth).  I am definitely looking forward to having some homegrown vanilla beans :)

An Avocado Tree's New Home

I finally decided (okay, got around to) planting my avocado tree in a real pot.

I think he looks happy in his new home. I know the pot is a little bit big for him, but I needed a very deep pot in order to have room for his incredibly long tap root.  And this way I figure that he'll have plenty of room to grow for a while.

I also should let you know that I didn't pinch off his baby leaves, I left for about a week and when I came back his leaves were huge and I just couldn't do it.  Many of the things I read online say that's its important to prune an indoor avocado tree, but with this being my first attempt I'll just see how it goes.