Wednesday, September 12, 2012

magical plant stands..


I have never been able to keep indoor plants alive. I'm so bad I even kill cactus. But something magical has happened this past summer. I have successfully kept alive EIGHT houseplants and they are flourishing. The days I get to work from home my desk sits right next to these windows and I get to watch them grow and be happy in the sunlight. I think that both the plant stands I found a couple months ago had some sort of magical properties to them that are keeping my plants happy and alive.

Let me give you an introduction to the happy growers:

First up is my spider plant (I think thats what they call them?!) . This one hasn't really grown too much. I got it for a dollar at a little plant sidewalk sale. But I haven't killed it, so that's all that matters!

Next are my geraniums:


This is my winner for most impressive! My Aunt had given me a small clipping of one of her geraniums and I actually snipped it into two pieces because of the way it was leaning. For the first few weeks it didn't do anything and I thought it was just another one of my plant deaths. But then I got the magical plant stand. Once it sat up on the top tier it came to life and has been growing like mad. I need to get another pot and split it up because right now the two of them are in the one pot. It looks like it's going to flower soon which will be awesome because I'm not sure what color it will be. My Aunt has an AMAZING plant collection. When her and my Uncle went on vacation in July she brought over 20 of them to my parents house to be "watched" hahaha. All different sizes and colors and variegations. The plant she cut this from was actually the only one that was not flowering at the time, so it will be a surprise.


I'm not quite sure what this guy is called. Some sort of suculant. I call them Shrek ears, cause well they look like Shrek's ears.. My mister had given me one before that was combined with a bunch of different types. I had it at my desk when I was a manager at a local bank (hahah can you believe I was an assistant manager at a bank!) Anyway, all the girls took care of it for me and I also had it in a "self watering" container. So I guess I kept those alive too. But again. I wasn't the only one looking after it. I had to be reminded to water it. Note to everyone out there, just because it's in a self watering container - you still have to water the container so that it can water the plant... But this little guy is getting big and has already sprouted up new Shrek Ears.


"Violet, you're turning violet, Violet". My african violet that just started to flower yesterday! So excited!! 

Now moving over to my other awesome plant stand!


This was another 1$ plant. I have absolutely no clue what it is but it's growing like crazy! It literally was this teeny, tiny snippet then all of the sudden it exploded into this! The arms of it are going everywhere (I call them arms..I'm not a plant person as you can see!)


This guy hasn't grown too much. I'm not sure what this one is either, but it is really cool looking so that's all care about. Oh, and it's not dead. Another bonus.


Don't ask, no idea what this one is either. Just know that it doesn't like much light. You can't really tell from this picture but the leaves are variegated with pink in them. Another cool plant that isn't dead so that makes me happy.


I love this one. I don't know why I'm in love with it so much, I just am. And yeah, I don't know what it is either.


I suppose I could try and figure them out and google them. I'm also sure readers on here will inform me what I actually have growing in my house. But I really could care less the names of them. Just that I have kept them alive for multiple months now and they are totally loving their bright space and stands. I love it too. I love having plants in the house and now I want many many more. I want HUGE plants and small plants and hanging plants and random plants. Plants everywhere! 


I have wanted this circular plant stand for ages now and finally found one at the same shop I got the pagoda style stand at. She asked if I was going to paint it and make it like new. Why would I do that? It would loose all its charm and life. I love it just the way it is. She agreed and was happy to know it would be staying original. (don't mind the floors - its a very long story behind these floors - basically there was terrible fluffy carpet in this room when we moved in We both detest carpet and ripped it out but underneath was even worse. It was this super thin, green wacky "carpet" the backing of it was burlap and it was put down with TAR! I can not even explain the amount of bad, bad words that were said taking that up and then scrapping and scrapping..and scrapping the tar off. We were left with these planks, some have knot holes and we can see down into the basement! We slapped some stain on them and they will serve as the subfloor for when we finish off these two rooms and decide what final floor will actually go in. Some of the areas close to the walls, I started giving up and left some of the black because I couldn't take it anymore! Especially when its not like these floors will be here to stay, oh and pieces of the stuff that is in between the boards  comes up and kills your feet when you are walking. it depends on the weather if the wood is swelled or not. but once its not swelled that stuff pops out- it looks like chalk almost. you wouldn't believe how many times i sweep and try to get rid of it all- but it always seems like there are more little pieces everywhere! i probably lost all of you with that portion of the floor rant!..ok back to plants!)

I've shown you the other stand before, so no need to show that one in all its glory again. But yes, my plants are happy and that makes me happy.