Are "Houseplants" out of Style?????

Hi. Just re-joined DG after having an on/off membership for about 12 years. The houseplant forum used to be bustling. We even had trades and round robins. These days the crickets are chirping both here in the DG forum and among the general public. It seems that, other than collectors of a certain species, houseplants have fallen out of style. What do you think? Are people too "busy" these days to maintain them? I had a lady at our farmer's market tell me recently, "I'm not going to spend my time taking care of a PLANT". " I only keep them a few weeks until they die and then I throw them out". She spit the word "plant' out with the same disgust as if to say, "cockroach". Any ideas? Opinions? Maybe it's just the area where I live?

Probably most folks are specializing in specific types of houseplants and don't visit this forum. Yeah, DG has kind of died down. FB has kind of replaced the smaller sites. Plant ID is probably the busiest on DG.

I just moved over 1,000 "houseplants" indoors and it is a job watering them all. It took over 2 weeks working 4 to 6 hours a day to get them in. Crazy?

Don't give one person any thought if they are anti-houseplant. Find a garden club/society in your area that might interest you and check them out.

So,let's revitalize this forum!
I will take some pics of houseplants soon, as the outside garden season is dying down.
BayouBeader and hcmcdole do you have pics?

I have thousands of photos.

I'll have to take some photos. This year all of my "houseplants" are in the new greenhouse for the winter. The greenhouse is wonderful but it feels strange not to have any in the house. They'll be happier out there though, We are house hunting and a sun room or HUGE windows is high on our list.

What kinds of plants do you guys have? A little of everything or do you collect something in particular? It seems like African Violet people are the most prolific when it comes to houseplants. My grandmother had them. They were the first plants I had as a kid.

I have mostly anthuriums, staghorns, nematanthus and succulents.

I've got my houseplants in too. A mix of things. But work schedule and a full house mean I don't indulge every fantasy of houseplants that I would otherwise.
Begonias, parlor palm, orchids, 'christmas' cactus, streps, AVs, an Anthurium...a hodgepodge. This guy is some mini Epiphyllum, waiting for its first bloom, next spring I hope.

I've got one of those, Sally! After it blooms it will make berries that are full of seeds. I squeezed the seeds out of one of them into the pot and now I have a ton of babies coming up. Cool plant!

wow, great to know Bayou!

I've got 4 rooms in the basement packed with plants - hard to move around to water. About 75 shop lights running 12 hours a day. Just a few plants on the main floor and none on the second floor. Madness? OCD? Yet, I continue to propagate, buy new plants, move plants up to bigger pots and endure 2 weeks in spring and 2 weeks in fall to move them outdoors and then back indoors.

Here are a few photos as it is this week. Hopefully in coming weeks I can reduce, organize, etc. to reduce clutter.

Butch

A few more photos

Four more for now.

Lots of excellent plants there. You must have mastered begonias. Mine are giving me trouble. I took a mixed pot apart that was outside, and made them individual, now they are dropping leaves.

That is absolutely awesome! Your staghorn sure looks happy. If I had room for 1000 plants, believe me I'd have 1000 plants. We just got a small greenhouse and I spent most of last night hoping and praying that the heater was keeping up, which...it did.

I love rex begonias but they're one thing that I can't seem to keep healthy. Maybe with the greenhouse, I'll try a few again.

Butch, those are gorgeous plants. The Staghorn is beautiful and will soon be too large to move, at least for one person. I think I even see an Elkhorn fern lurking there. Most people think that the Staghorn and the Elkhorn are the same plant, but they are far different. They are not even in the same "family" of plants. Are you growing orchids as well? How about Tillandsia? Any plans of a (large) greenhouse some day?

Ken

Ah, rexes are troublesome for a lot of folks (including me) but you learn their faults and work through it. When the leaves start falling off then it is probably entering a state of semi-dormancy - cut back on watering but don't let it dry out either. Spray for mildew and/or remove the worst offending leaves so the mildew does not spread. Water well when it is actively growing.

Yes, Ken there is an Elk Horn fern in there somewhere. I have a handful of orchids but they are on the main floor except an old Cattleya and a Jewel Orchid. I also have five Tillandsia. No plans on a greenhouse on the horizon though. Earth Stars (Cryptanthus) on the other hand I have lots of (just 4 or 5 different plants though) because they multiply so quickly. Also a few C&S and getting a decent collection of Sansevieria. Philodendrons, Alocasia, Colocasia, Caladiums. etc.

Begonias are the mainstay though.

Some begonias before I moved them indoors. I've found that photographing plants indoors is very difficult due to light and tight spaces unless you have a small camera (which I use for tight spots) because I don't like to take anything off the shelf until spring - too much work!

First photo is of 3 Selph's Mahogany in front of an 18 inch pot of Immense, two Kong Coleus, and Caribbean King. Second photo has two Begonia 'Big' with big red blooms, and Maggie Nodal (dark green palmate leaves). Third photo is of mixed canes that I broke off and stuck in this big pot - the big leaf begonia is supposedly parviflora which at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is about 18 feet tall and in bloom. Fourth photo shows Caribbean King on the back side of the first photo with Immense. Last photo is Sophie Cecile - a gorgeous cane begonia.

I don't grow begonias but yours are beautiful, Butch.

Ken

thanks for the extra Begonia pictures; don't you feel kind of sad for them when they have to come inside? I do.

I did notice the mature Staghorn too. Kudos!

So the rex do go dormant? Someone told me that they have a programmed life span and it might not be that I'm killing them. I'll have to read up on that. I found a really beautiful one at Lowes not too long ago but I felt like it deserved a fighting chance at survival so I left it for the next person. Of course, I used to kill succulents on a regular basis too but I've gotten good at them now.

Thanks Ken. Show some of your Orchids, Plumerias, and Fiddle Leaf Ficus when you can.

SallyG, I feel sad for my back when it is time to move them in or out. It seems easier to care for them outdoors but they have problems outdoors too - critters, slugs and snails, some insects, falling limbs and leaves, drought, flood, storms, etc.

Rexes are eschewed by a lot of folks due to the dormancy issue and mildew. A lot of breeding has gone on to ensure that the dormancy is as short as possible. Most folks think that when a rex is going dormant that it needs more water, then the next thing they know they have a rotted rhizome. I still lose plants inside and outside but for different reasons. If you are winning more than losing then you are ahead of the game. After you kill a few hundred you either find a new hobby or learn from your mistakes.

Here are some photos in the greenhouse. The anthuriums aren't doing much right now. They stayed out in enough cool to slow the flowering almost to a halt. I expect them to start up again now that they're moved inside.

more

last one

really...last one

Very nice. I like the euphorbias and staghorn ferns.

What kind of hanging cactus is that?

Is the orange flowered plant Clerodendrum paniculatum? How much fuss is it to take care of?

Yes, it's the clerodendrum and it's no fuss at all. Blooms like crazy in shade/part shade. Last year it froze down to just one spindly stalk about 2 feet tall and you see what it looks like now. I feed it Miracle Grow bloom booster in the summer and ignore it otherwise. Hummingbirds love it. The two hanging cactus are a stapelia gigantea and some NOID epi that I picked up at a nursery when it was dying on the clearance table. The seeds germinate very easily.

I had a Clerodendrum thomsoniae but it died quickly because I forgot to water it. GRRR! I do have the hardy one - C. trichotomum which can be weedy but I like most aspects of this small tree - leaves that smell like peanut butter, spicy blooms, and eye catching dark berries.

I thought that was an epi. Has it bloomed for you? I grew some from seed many years ago and one only bloomed one time when I had a greenhouse at our previous house. I guess it needs sun year round to set blooms?

Here are a few photos of the C. trichotomum (Harlequin Glorybower, Peanut Butter Tree). The only blooms of my epi a long time ago.

I love the trichotum! This one does drink a lot of water but it's in a pot and has gotten so big that I'm sure it has a ton of roots. I think the epi is ramulosa? It had berries from last year's bloom when I got it. It was a mostly dead thing on a clearance table. I noticed yesterday that it's budding out again so I'm excited to see what it does.

http://www.anniesmagicgarden.com/product.php?productid=17902

Sounds right, Your picture has inspired me to get mine hanging. Is that bloom from ramulosa, or another epi?

I have C trichotomum too, only a few years so I'm just learning about the weedy tendencies. Can sucker surprisingly far from the main plant. Wonderful scented flowers too.

By George I think you've got it! NOIDs drive me crazy. I'm going to make it a tag right now. Thanks Sally!

thank you BB for the hint!
I think hanging plants have gone out of style. I might just make my own quick string hanger for the existing pot. Maybe I can find a sturdy basket at Goodwill and add chain. It can go in the basement with my now big red epi (grew a three foot arm over summer) for winter, then hang in a shade tree for summer, again along with the big one.

Speaking of hanging pots, I have a few but the lipstick vine I bought a year or two ago has bloomed and done very well this summer. Have you seen the seedpods on a lipstick vine (Aeschynanthus)? I am in awe (well, a little awed) by the extra long seedpods.

Here you go:

I mount many dozens of orchids, tillandsia, staghorn ferns, and bromeliads. Believe me, mounted plants have not gone out of style (if you chose to label these "hanging" plants).

Ken

Wow! How cool! I'm waiting for my lipstick to bloom. Don't get me started on the hanging plant thing. I make glass bead plant hangers and take them to the craft fair/farmer's market. I'm amazed every time someone looks at one and says, "That's pretty...what is it?" DUH!

so pretty!

Bayou, what do you use to string your beads? Those are very pretty!

Thanks! I started making them because you can't find pretty plant hangers in the stores these days. Maybe they are out of style. I dunno. Not in our house though! I string them on 15lb test fishing line. It takes about 2 hours to make one but I use a lot of seed beads. They're not big. 18 inches long but I wanted something smallish and sparkly for the kitchen window so that's why I made the first one. Now it's sort of an addiction. They sell pretty well but amazingly, most people don't buy them as plant hangers. They use them for other things. Non Plant people. Weirdos. ;)

I'm wondering what else they can hang

Oh, you could put dried flower arrangements in them, garlic bulbs, small, colorful gourds, gosh, just about anything you could think of that would fit. I like the idea of putting epiphytes in them though. That's a nice, clever way to show the plants.

Ken

BayouBeadery, I was wondering the same thing about houseplants - or at least this forum! I've been here on and off over the last 10 years, and when I came back this last time, I was sad to see that this forum wasn't hopping like it used to be. I especially miss Jdee. She and I had gotten into houseplants at about the same time, so I learned a lot from her threads.

Your plant hangers are beautiful, by the way! When we start house hunting, a sun room, or at least a 3 season porch, is high on my list, too. :)

Thanks everyone for the compliments on the hangers. I can't resist anything colorful and sparkly. So many people that I've talked to at the markets seem to consider houseplants as disposables. They buy them, don't care for them and then throw them away and replace them when they get sickly looking or die. This is a strange area though. In general, the people here are not warm and fuzzy if you get my drift.

I'm thinking of putting plants in them for the upcoming Christmas market. Maybe they'll look more "gifty" and appeal to a wider audience.

I was just looking at a fellow's website who has a lot of mounted epi's. Beautiful plants. I never thought about using them for that but they would look amazing ;)