Indoor Plant! (Oxymoron) Anyone ever seen a plant pack up and volunteer to move into a house?
On average, the climate preferred by human beings (mid 20s Celsius, low to moderate humidity, no direct sun, low overall light levels, minimal air movement, etc.) is NOT a happy place for most plants as we know. The sheer fact that so many species are tough enough to survive it continues to startle me to this day. I am not surprised then when most "house plants" turn out to be ravening monsters the minute they encounter any sort of outdoor conditions, especially free root run in the ground. I think restricted root run does more to affect the overall size of a plant than any other factor which I can recall (think of Bonsai). I've sold and traded a LOT of cacti and other succulents over more than thirty years. Time and time again I've seen people buy a plant, go on about how "cute" it was and know in my heart it was probably destined to turn into a languishing spindle in the middle of their dining room table, no matter how often you tell them it won't be happy indoors - these people wouldn't buy a live fish and keep it on the lawn, so why do they think they can do the equivalent with a plant?
Mind you, I have no objection to making money from people, I just think it's a bad thing when you see someone doing something which is bound to be a disaster in the longer term. If nothing else, a bad experience is likely to put them off coming back for more plants. So many species get a reputation for difficulty, when it is the fault of a lack of knowledge of the plant which is actually the problem.
Chrissy's comment about the China Doll "Tree" cracked me up though - my Mother's local supermarket has a very small plant nursery section and they had 3 plants of it for sale - 20cm pots, nice bushy specimens about 60cm high - $39.95 each! needless to say they were sold the next time we went in there (I kept muttering to Mum "more money than sense"). I too grow quite a few of the well known "invasives" Agapanthus, Spider Plants, Boston Fern, multiple kinds of Tradescantia, both in ground and potted. Plants which have shown a distinct ability to get past my pruning shears in the past include Wisteria, Morning Glory, White Jasmine, the climbing Asparagus fern, Passion fruit grafting stock, assorted Ivys and the common white flowered Potato Creeper. Tree seedlings which come up at random (birds) or from self seeding garden specimens are less of a problem as they get pounced upon as Bonsai starters. I have had olives, silky oak (Grevillea robusta), occasional pines, Washingtonia filifera palms, elms, beeches and birches; even a Casuarina, you name it - my current garden seems to have a surfeit of tiny fig trees thanks to the big tree behind the house, plus some other odds and ends which are as yet too small to identify. I agree with Sunset about the labelling too. If the nursery trade can afford to print up big fancy labels with pretty pictures on them the least they can do is give you the proper Latin plant name and some idea of the maximum plant size of a mature specimen while they are at it!
Oh well, as we all know there are three types of plants in every garden - the ones that you fuss over like the royal offspring and which cost you a fortune and die with no notice (in my case that would be Clematis and Marantas - I have killed three of each!). The second group are the ones which do well for you and make up the bulk of what you grow and the third contains the plants which take you over and cause the air to turn blue every time you see them, even in other people's places (AKA Weeds, Invasives or that !^@%#$&@!$#, LOL!). What makes gardening interesting (and gives us something to talk about) is that the three categories contain DIFFERENT plants for each of us.
One or two quick specific points, Chrissy, do you have a local plant nursery, fete or council run plant exchange, maybe a Bonsai Society? - you might be able to turn your nuisance seedlings to some benefit given the price of the plant commercially. Also no Cacti or Succulents ever do really well as long term house plants. My best advice has always been to tell people to get three (all about the same size) put two outside, and bring each one in for a week in rotation. Really, for most succulents, including cacti, a week at a time indoors is about as much as they can take without showing damage of some sort unless your house has something like an indoor atrium or sunroom.
Re Begonias: I had an old friend who was heavily into the tuberous types but the only Begonia I ever truly coveted was the Iron Cross (have you noticed I like spiky things) but I refuse to get one until I can find a way to keep it happy, and that I need to think more about. Oddly enough, speaking of things coming back into fashion, bedding begonias have been big with the municipal gardens here in Adelaide lately - for a long time it was pansies, petunias, and occasionally celosia but they seem to be branching out again.
Weed-woman & Sunset, re Zygos, I too have had successful flowering seasons in the last two years, after having had no luck at all in the past; so I have been giving this a bit of thought and also doing a lot of reading here in the Orchid Cacti forum. My current batch of flowering Zygos are plants a bit less than 5 years old. At my last house they lived on the path against the brick wall by the back door, behind a set of iron plant stands holding other succulents. Now they live on the ground in clay pots under the big melaluca tree. In neither of these places have the plants been exposed to direct sunlight in any season, just reasonably bright but filtered light. We have also just had one of our coldest winters for a long time and they have all flowered like mad. Zygos and their relatives are mostly winter flowering, so it is reasonable to assume that this is triggered by some combination of cold with short days/long nights, The affect of things like patio lights etc. would depend greatly on what kind of lights they are, as the wavelength matters. Red (warm) light affects most plants more than blue (cool) light so I would expect an Incandescent light bulb to annoy Zygos a lot more than a fluorescent strip light for example. Most timing issues in plants are derived from the conversion of one chemical to another, and flowering is no exception, I've done a bit of hunting on the Internet and found a reasonably approachable article on the subject here: http://www.adonline.id.au/flowers/photoperiod.shtml if you want to know a bit more about the topic.
Re your Epiphyllum, Weed_woman, can you move it to a sunnier location, without repotting it? If you repot now I think you will blow any chance of it flowering successfully this year. In my experience repotted Epies tend to sulk and NOT flower for the first season until they settle in. If you can give it some sun now (about 3 hours of morning sun will do) and give it a dose of fish emulsion about once a fortnight it should be good to go - being pot bound (within reason) does not seem to bug them in fact just the opposite! The other food I recommend for floral encouragement is Phostrogen. It comes in quite small packets of crystals and mixes up in water - very economical as I use it only on plants which are unresponsive or seem a bit "depressed" and it has no bad effects on any cacti or other succulents that I have ever seen. If you can't find Phostrogen, ask at your local plant nursery or garden supplier for any liquid plant food with a low Nitrogen high Phosphorus high Potassium ratio. In addition stuff a few Banana peels under the plant - like many tree growing plants (staghorns, orchids etc) Epis love these, they contain a lot of Potassium, and the banana peel acts just like a big slow release pill as it rots away, letting it out a bit at a time.
Lastly, the tulip geranium sounds interesting. Can you find us a picture, Sunset? I've seen Ivy geraniums, common geraniums, zonal geraniums, royal geraniums (all actually Pelargonium) and cranesbills ("real" Geraniums) but never heard of a tulip Geranium. What does it do? Inquiring minds want to know, LOL, Kaelkitty.
