I'Ve BEEN FOOLED!!!
i got this plant, called an 'air fern' from Lowes. doesn't need light, soil, nor water. thrives on air the card said.
type of 'seaweed'
so anyway, i did an internet search, ends up its a dead animal, dead mircro small sea animals (type of coral) that hook together to form this 'plant'
they die, and are taken from the water, then dyed green to look like a fern.
so now i'm grossed out, and don't know if i'm going to keep it.
yuck. ewwwwwwwwwww
Don't throw it away yet! It's so beautiful. Are you sure it's dead?
Harper
I've had those...I don't think they are dead things, cause I had one once was nice and green and I managed to kill it....just like any other type of plant, and I don't think something dyed green could have turned brown when it died...maybe do a little more research before you toss him????
LA
Very Pretty! OMG I had NO idea thats what an Air Fern really was! I guess I really do learn something new every day. It is awful pretty for being a bunch of dead sea creatures tho : )
I've looked that thing up and came up with the same info as sjonesartist on several sites. It was pretty at first...now that I know what they are, I don't like them anymore. lol
I didn't know that either. While it's pretty, it's kind of false advertising and sort of ruins why you bought it in the first place. I guess I'd keep it and see how you feel later.
This is interesting.
yes, false advertising. saying it thrives on air and needs no care. i bought 4 of them. (they were cheap, in 2" pots, no soil, being held still , pushed into a slit in a piece of cardboard. the reason i got them, was after seeing how easy the care was... my mom has multiple sclerosis, and couldn't care for her plants anymore, and had to give them away. and i thought, oh this is PERFECT!!!
so i got 1 for me, 1 for my son, and 2 for her.
my boyfriend liked this one best out of the plants i got at homedepot that day. .... until i told him what i found out it was. it is very pretty. so for now, it will just stay on my desk.
You know what? It IS pretty. And as long as it looks like that, I'd smile and keep it. :-)
sjonesartist I vet your Mom would love them ! I am 99.9 percent bed bound and I know I would enjoy them too ! Many times I take blooming plants in my room to enjoy.
Soon when my hubby gets our master bedroom finished ( we moved to an other mobile home this one is double wide he gutted doing it over ) then I will have him put some windowselves as the masterbedroom/bathroom is large !
they are pretty, and i guess i'm keeping them... my mom was more grossed out than I was and doesn't want them in her house...and keeps asking if i threw them out yet.
LOL
stephanie
Yep they are dead and they are sprayed and they were sea animals!!! Have you ever smelled one of them?? the paint helps to seal in the odor, but after a while they fade and the smell gets bad! Be Careful!
I was a floral designer for over 35 years and I didnt know about them either! I did some research on them when after "recommended" care the plant didnt thrive! I couldnt figure out why they did nt grow, but after watering and or misting for several months they just started stinking! I think if you dont mist them they will stay sealed longer and want Smell!
hmmm, maybe a thread for best low maintenance houseplants is in order....
Dead Sea Creatures, Painted Green and sold as Air Plants?! What an ingenious idea .... living in Florida, maybe I should go into business and make some money. LOL ..... I'm just kidding of course!
I think it's really wrong for someone to make a business from something like that, Unless the product is labeled as to EXACTLY what the thing is! And, I'm sure as pretty as it is, some folks would still buy it because it does look nice. Even though it is very pretty for now ... as those dead sea creatures begin to decompose and rot I think you WILL notice the odor.
sjonesartist: Keep us posted with photo's so we can see how long your "air fern" survives!
I would definately enjoy looking at it for as long as I could (until it began to smell)!
Lin
When I worked in a garden center and folks would ask for one of these, I'd explain we didn't carry them and I would tell them what they really are.
Nevertheless, some of them swore that theirs actually grew.
Really.
LOL.
talk about optimists!
My father, husband and son are all hunters. I had quite a few "trophies" hanging on my walls. Several years ago I told them that they all had to put them somewhere else because I was tired of "decorating with dead animals". You have a new twist on my old theme. LOL Holly
LOL!! I know a couple of people with these, too who also swear that they have 'grown'!
too funny nan. well, mine haven't grown. but they look good!
stephanie
Hey...I forgot to say, WELCOME!!!
And thanks for 'livening up' the HP forum this week!
I love posting to other's topics...but I can never *think* of anything new to post on my own, lol!!
I would take it back to Lowes with a print out from the web and confront them! Their true idenity represents the complete opposite reason you bought it in the first place. Whole different set of rules.
Don't feel bad, I bought one years ago and felt ripped off too. They should state that they are decorations, NOT real plants IMHO. It IS false advertizing....
Tom
Cool thread! I never knew this either. I think Lowes or anyone else is probably thinking the same thing that there were told....that it is a live plant. They probably wouldn't care if you confronted them because it sells. I wonder who the supplier is?
:) Donna
I saw some of these at Walmart last week and thought of this thread...
I saw them, too.
They were in little plastic pots stuck on a white cardboard card at the end of one of the aisles. Having seen this thread about them, I took a good close look at the "ferns". I think I had always assumed that they were plastic before, rather than a live plant, due to the translucent nature of the "fronds" when examined closely, but now knowing their origins as skeletal remains of sea creatures, you can see the individual "cells" from the larger ones if you get really close in. The dye used on the ones I saw was a really bright, vibrant green - didn't look "real" at all.
I had a nice little chuckle at them as I walked away, now that I'm "in on the joke".
I believe I saw this plant at Wal-mart. I smelled the one there and pewwww....reminded me of wet dog smell. Hearing the truth of this plant makes it even grosser!
Since it comes from the ocean reminds me of my own "dead" ocean story. I had a collection of seashells and a friend gave me one preserved seahorse (cool at the time...looking back...totally gross). Well I rinsed my shells from time to time and the seahorse was amongst them. I let them all air dry but then would store in a metal tin. Opened it up months later and it STUNK to high heaven....yeah...the horse it molded in there. Pew! SO scary. I don't want any more dead stuff from the ocean.
**Back to thread** =)
Uh, now that brought back memories of one summer when I was a kid and we had been to the 'beach.' (The beach where I live was a public big pond/small lake.) I gathered up a bunch of snails that day and while sitting in the back seat on the way home, I put them in the ash tray in the arm rest of the door (remember those?) for safekeeping until we got home. Well, I forgot about them and the next day, when my dad went to get in the car, he was MAD. Took him a little bit to figure out where that awful smell was coming from, but when he did, he knew who had done it. I'm an only child. BUSTED!
Oh, and it was a really hot summer day, too..........
ROFLOL!!!! Only child...that's to funny! Hehe. We always called our "lake" THE BEACH. Annoys my DH now who lived on the gulf coast....he says, "That was NOT a beach!" Was to us. =)
