Ever Get Tired or Bored With a Plant?

I know this is probably sacrilegious, but has anyone here ever gotten bored with a plant or family of plants that they have kept maybe for years? Maybe I'm the only one that this has happened to. In my case, there have been a few. Right now it is Christmas Cactuses. Maybe I'm just sick of picking up spent flowers and cleaning up their mess. I have five that I take care of - two at home and three at work, and I hate them all. I also am bored with the Cast Iron Plant. I've kept that one for 18 years, and am pretty sick of it. I don't think it all has to do with how long you have kept a plant as to whether you've fallen out of love with it. I have kept Swedish Ivy for at least 20 years, always starting a new plant from the old one once or twice a year, and I've never gotten sick of that one. A well grown Swedish Ivy is always a spectacular plant to me. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else ever gets bored with or maybe just wants to try different plants for a change.

good thread! not so much a particular plant, but a HANGING basket in my kitchen. It is very high up and difficult to water. A hanging basket in that particilar spot looks good, but not when the leaves are crispy brown. I have bought several cheap plants and the watering thingy for hard to reach plants, but alas, they all meet with the same fate. sigh

Honestly, I can say that I have gotten bored with a plant and like you right now it's Christmas Cactus. I have mine outside and have decided that if they die, they die *lol*. I repotted it last year and since then the branches have been falling off left and right and now it looks so spindly that I almost hope it does die so that I don't have to bring it back in this fall. The only thing that breaks my heart about it though is that it was a cutting from my Great Grandma's plant. I look at it this way though, I didn't know her that well and I have an Easter Cactus from my Grandma that is doing great and I am VERY close to my Grandma but didn't know her mom. My Easter Cactus is very special because it's from Gram but it has never bloomed. Hers does every year though so I'm hoping that in time I will see a bloom from mine. I try not to grow much for just foliage plants (except my Pink Princess) as I feel like this, if I'm going to take care of it all year it better reward me with a bloom or two or it's off to the trade forum for it *lol*

Kim

I, also, decided that two Cast Iron(Aspidistra elatior) plants should die, took them awhile. I had those plants for at least 20 yrs in 12" plastic pots and they needed to be repotted! No room in the Inn.

Now I don't feel so bad; thank you. Here in Vermont it is relatively easy to take care of a plant you don't want any more. You simply give it one last hurah for the summer, and just leave it outside to freeze to death in the fall. One more plant to mention that I hate, and it is not even a house plant. First let me say that I take care of all the plants at the library where I work. It takes about 3 hours a week - there are a lot of plants! Some one is always dragging something in to add to the collection, and of course I take care of it, because I feel obligated. Someone brought in a Mimosa tree, which is supposed to live outside in the South. I can't water that thing enough. I'm watering it three times per week and that is not enough. It keeps losing leaves that I have to pick up. I'm sick of it! I am telling the woman who brought it in, this week, that the darn thing has just got to go.

Trade off your don't wants. Cast Iron Plants are hard to find plants. That said, I have had some that I hate, get rid of etc and then in the next year may decide I want to try again. I don't want more than 2 of any same plant, tho.

Me, too...happens a lot!

Then I'll read on this or the other forum where someone else is wanting one or just got one, etc....their excitement about it will inspire me to take better care of it and the interest is renewed....that is, until it becomes boring again, LOL!!!

Hoya,

When you tell the lady at the library you're done with the Mimosa, if she says throw it out would you please let me know?
I had 3 TINY mimosa seedlings that I tried to get to grow and I lost them all. I would love to replace them. How big is it? My kids LOVED those seedlings and I miss them dearly but they were too tiny for me, I need some ROOTS on plants *lol*. I tend to over water everything in my house so I would love to baby a Mimosa :)

Thank you so much,
Kim

Kim, It is not a baby Mimosa. It is seven feet tall, and I have to keep cutting it back, because it hits the ceiling.

Doug

Oh my goodness, it must be beautiful! Have you ever seen it bloom Doug? I would LOVE to find a nice sized (of course not 7 feet) Mimosa and try to grow it in Maine. I would keep it bonsai'd so it fit in the house but I just think they are so neat.

Kim

Maybe this isn't true in your state, but in Minnesota the State Hort. Society has a service to "place" unwanted plants. Most are significant outdoor bushes or other plants, but they arranged for someone to take two non-hardy succulents that had grown taller than my 9 ft. ceiling. And, because it went to a non-profit group, they gave me a tax receipt for a donation. They people who picked it up came in a pickup truck, and even took my picture with the plants! They told me I could come to visit the plants I donated; the whole experience was fun.

Susan in Minneapolis

Kim, if what I call a mimosa is what you call a mimosa, I pulled up about a dozen of the things 3 days ago. If you'd like, I'll be more than happy to see if I can find anymore, and I'll take a picture so you can confirm that's what you're wanting and we'll see about getting one or several to you. :o)

Oh really RainGazer?
What I call a Mimosa is also sometimes known as "sensitive plant". When you touch the leaves they close up. The have little balls of pink fluff when they bloom. I have always wanted to try one and bought 3 tiny seedlings at the flower show this year but they were too tiny for me and I failed with them miserably.

I would LOVE to see a picture of the ones you pulled. Does it bloom?

Thank you so much,
Kim

I think the Sensitive Plant is related to the Mimosa that I have. Mine, I think is the Southern "weed" tree that Raingazer is talking about. My tree does fold all of it's leaves up at night, but I have never seen it bloom.

smKennedy, I think that is a wonderful service that they offer in your state. There is no such plant relocation service in VT that I'm aware of. As a matter of fact our local mall put out a call for anyone to take several 12' Ficus Trees that they wanted to get rid of. I'm sure they had to end out throwing them out, because really how many places can deal with a plant of that size.

Sensitive plant is Mimosa pudica http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2573/index.html, Mimosa tree is Albizia julibrissin http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1764/index.html. I think Logee's sells Mimosa pudica from time to time if you want one, it stays small and would make a nice houseplant.

As for the mimosa tree in the library--watering 3x a week sounds like too much unless the plant is really rootbound, some leaves might drop anyway but overwatering could definitely make the problem worse. It's really going to be happier if it can be outside during the summer rather than indoors if you want to keep it. It'll also be more likely to bloom if you can get it outdoors in full sun.

I don't know what mine is, then. I found just one and it's quite small. It just dawned on me that I didn't check one other flower bed where I've seen them before. I'll look there tomorrow if this turns out to be what you want, Kim.

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to which this one is?

I love them both RainGazer :)
It's just that it has to have some GOOD roots in order for me to be able to grow it. For some reason I have the hardest time with little seedlings :( I can't seem to grow things from seed unless I direct sow them outside *lol* It sure is cute :) Is that the only one? D-Mail me.....maybe I have something you need to have *lol*

Kim

Here it is tonight. The color is washed out because I had to use the flash so the shutter wouldn't stay open so long (that made it too blurry). The little leaves are folded up. :o)

There's a teeny one under an Agastache that is determined to take over the world, but I don't see how it will ever survive. I looked, but didn't see anymore, but it's getting dark, so maybe I overlooked some. There's a woody area at the back of our yard. It's waaaay too snakey-looking for me to go back there, but my son loves it, so I'll send him out there tomorrow to see if he can find anymore. Also, I'll move some dirt around in the bed where the one pictured is. They tend to come up when the dirt is disturbed, so maybe we can come up with a few more for you.

Kim, I've seen your plants... you have LOTS of things I *need*! LOL ;o)

If this is a seedling that sprang up outside, it can't be Mimosa pudica since it won't be hardy in your zone. It could be Albizia, but there are a lot of things in that family and they all have similar looking leaves (and a lot of them fold up at night too). Are there adult trees around? If so then that's probably what it is, they tend to pop up seedlings everywhere which is why they're such a problem in many parts of the country.

ecrane, do you think I could possibly grow Albizia as a houseplant (of course putting it outside during the summer) and keeping it a "bonsai"?

Kim

No, there are no adult mimosas (as we call them) around my house. They are certainly in this area, but none near my house. The adult trees have the pink blossoms on them, whenever it is that they bloom.

Kim--I'm not sure if Albizia can be bonsai'd or not, maybe you could try asking on the bonsai forum and see if anybody over there has any experience with it? I'm sure it would do fine with the summer outdoors winter indoors, my only question is whether you could keep it that small long term. Anything that you grow in a pot will tend to grow slower than if you put it in the ground, so even if it's not really amenable to bonsai culture you can probably keep it in a container for a while and enjoy it.

Raingazer--the seeds can travel a good way from the parent tree so if they're in your area then that's probably what your seedlings are. Only time will tell though!

Hoya,

I want to apologize, it seems I may have abducted your thread and I am sorry.

Back on track................

Believe it or not, I am beginning to tire of the Pink Princess Philo as she is just getting too tall and too "viney". I wondering (as I look outside and see her growing as I write *lol*) where I'm going to put her when she comes back in this fall. This is one that I put outside and said....if you live you live. She is special to me because a very dear DG friend shared her with me and I have coddled her since she arrived. BUT she has definitely out grown her spot now . I don't know enough about philo's (maybe I'll have to do some research) to whack her in half or something.

I have 2 lipstick plants that grow really nice foliage, attract a million mealies and NEVER bloom too.....hmmmm

Other than that I love my babies and cherish them for many different reasons.

Kim

That's how I felt about my pink princess. She got to be this enormous, vining plant that was too large for almost anyplace so I neglected her last winter with not watering too much and she evidently felt my rejection and died. Now I kinda miss her but not enough to go out and spend a pile of money for another one. :-)


Susan

Kim, don't worry you did not "hijack" my thread. The discussion of the forms of Mimosa has been most interesting. I just dragged the offending culprit here outside, and it is now 8' tall. It can grow a foot per week easy.

I guess, like you, some of my apathy or dislike of a particular plant can be traced to it growing up and just becoming too large to take care of properly. Two of the Xmas Cactuses that I want to get rid of here are 3' in diameter, they are too heavy to easily repot, they are covered with dust, and if you cleaned up dead blossoms all winter long you would hate it too. What I have always done with my plants is when they begin to get too large, I just propagate them from cuttings and when they get going, I throw out the parent plant. That way I always have a nice plant of managable size. I have propagated a couple of Philos, not Pink Princess, from cuttings and they started pretty easily. I just took a pot of moist good quality peat-based potting soil put the cuttings in, covered it with a clear plastic bag, put it in a bright place with no direct sun for about 6 weeks and had a new plant. Maybe you could try it with Pink Princess.

We have the giant trees of mimosa with the beautiful puffs but what a mess they do make!!!

But boy, if you love hummingbirds, this is the tree to have! They swarm these trees in my area when they are in full bloom!

I just bought a Mimosa tree a couple of weeks ago. Its still in the pot - haven't planted it yet. Its only 4 feet high, and has a few blooms. So I guess they can bloom when pretty young. I love it!

Randi

Oh boy I thought I was the only one who got tired of a group of plants. I have had AVs for yeeeeeearssssssssssssss and I am tired of them and have been sending them to my sisters and my daughter and anyone else that will take one hope. I have got them down to 6 I think. I am going to get kicked off of the AV forum for this.

C. comosum - spider plants (green ones, anyway).

I started out in gardening with them just a couple of years ago....but good grief I have WAY too many (and I give away almost all my pups!).


David

Randi,

You are so right about mimosa trees and hummingbirds. My parents' next door neighbor has a huge mimosa and I have never seen so many hummingbirds as in that tree.

Well, - if I may join in here. I do eventually get bored with some of them too. Like the Janet Craig dracaena I found last year for a buck.(small) and a Peperomia obtusifolia. They are so carefree, I never even get the drama of seeing them wilt or get a yellow leaf! It's almost like a plastic plant. And the ones that get big sometimes have to get composted or frozen. For some reason I have a different mindset with a 'houseplant' than an'outdoor ' plant, I have a hard time letting the first freeze and die I guess because I could/should save it.
I also take plants to schools to get them a winter home, but it's hard to find anyone willing to help care for them. The one gal willing to water, OVER waters LOL

I think that everyone needs a change after a while. Anyone who has been only keeping African Violets for years is ready for a break. It is great to move on to other challenges and rewards in the plant kingdom. I also think that when a plant gets to a no longer manageable size, it is time to take cuttings, try to propagate it if possible and even if not, toss it. No need to feel guilty.

I think it is natural to get bored with specific plants after a while. I went overboard on bearded iris years ago - probably had over 100 different varieties at our old house. If the bloom time lasted longer then I may have stayed interested in them. I finally let the trees take most of them over.

I still enjoy them but now I have maybe 7 different ones at my new house. I think that is plenty. Same goes for a lot of plants.

That is the same problem I have with bearded iris - the bloom time is just too short. They are one of the most beautiful flowers, but after the extremely short bloom-time what are you left with? The plant is sure not enough to keep me interested for the remainder of the growing season.

if I get tired of a plant I give it to my friend, and its like putting it on death row. I give detailed instructions that I don't think she follows and then the plant dies. She had a steady stream of plants that she kills and returns to places like Lowe's and Home Depot. I remind myself that a friend is worth more than the accumulated total of plants that she kills, and so start her more every year. Anyhow, I never have to 'let' them die - I just pass them on to her.

Maybe you should buy her a subscription to DG so she can learn how not to kill them!

I've come to the conclusion that most people who keep killing plants just don't have the interest in really learning how to properly care for them. I've done well with plants for 30 years, and here is why: I don't ignore them, and I have the interest in learning about what makes them happy. If you don't have those abilities, you will never be successful with plants.

I take care of anywhere from 50 to 200 plants at the place where I work depending on the time of the year. It never ceases to amaze me when some co-worker will want to move a sun-loving plant to a dark corner even when I try to tell them that it will find a slow death there. They don't care, because it will look good for a while. The plant looks great in the first place, because I have it where it wants to be, and they want to move it!! I think there is no such thing as a "green thumb" you either have the interest or you don't.

Up until about 10 years ago, I was never really interested. Now that I'm really into plants, I don't understand those that aren't. But there are lots of people who don't have a clue about plants and are not really interested in learning.

Susan

I think alot of it has to do with getting people new to plants to understand that different plants need different care, and to pick plants that fit into their needs and abilities.

first things first, they have to assess what type of light they have. then they have to decide on what type of water intensity they want. I like plants like pothos and fittonias because they give that wilted "drama queen" look when they need water and will perk right back up.

I was able to get a dear friend of mine to develop her green thumb from a historically black thumb. her death rate has dropped dramatically so long as she doesn't get high light plants (her family keeps all the blinds in the house closed which drives me bonkers because the house has such great light.)