Plant Motherhood @geminisunx - Tumblr Blog

My top 5 favourite plants list!

1) Crotons- these guys are on the bottom of so many plant keepers lists. My croton is probably one of my easier plants to care for. DIRECT SUN! As much sun as you can give these guys the better. They will loose leaves and they will slowly loose their beautiful bright colours without enough sun. Watering this guy is a breeze to! I just wait until the soil is bone dry and give it a good water. I either stick my finger way down in there or I lift the pot to feel how light it is.

2) African violet- I had a challenging time starting out with African violets. Don’t be surprised when you bring one home that it looses its bloom very fast! It took me almost a year to get a bloom again and I almost cried I was so excited. I clearly need a life outside of plants. DONT UNDERESTIMATE FERTILIZER! I know in my last post I said slow down on fertilizer but the African violet is probably the only plant I will continue to fertilize. I give my flower a little half strength fertilizer every time I water them. Same for my croton I water these guys when they are dry! It’s very important to bottom water these flowers as the foliage really hates being wet. I promise you results if you bottom water with fertilizer.

3) Pothos- let’s be honest everyone loves pothos and for a good reason. If you kill plants this is a great plant for you. Pothos are very hardy. Depending on the variegation of pothos depends on the light. A jade pothos will need less light that a marble queen and that has to do with the colour of the leaves. The less green a plant has on it the more sun they will need. They don’t photosynthesize as well as fully green plants. These guys will grow like weeds and you can pretty much propagate them in any medium.

4) Philodendron- Philodenrons are beautiful and very similar to a pothos. The main difference is philodendrons will keep their sheath on them after the leaves have appeared and pothos will drop them. Follow the same instructions for watering these guys as your pothos. These guys also can live in low light situations. Low light doesn’t mean no light though!

5) Fiddle leaf fig- where do I even start with this guy. This is many plant keepers worst enemy. Their foliage is beautiful but definitely my most sensitive plant to the environment. They love light. I have mine in a southern facing window and she recently just gave me 3 new leaves! I water my fiddle when the top few inches get dry (I stick my finger in to the second knuckle).

Good luck planting 💕 feel free to message me for tips!

#plant parent #plantparentcommunity #plants #fiddleleaffig #philodendron #plant mom #plantparenthood #house plants #indoorplants #croton #african violet

Starting seeds 🌱

In the last few months I’ve been experimenting by starting my own plants by seed. It’s been both a rewarding journey and a challenging experience. I have successfully grown chamomile, lavander, and mimosa pudica (sensitive plant). My parlour palm seeds are sprouting currently.

In the photos above I am attempting for my 5th time to grow white sage. I’m hopefully going to be donating these to some indigenous shelters around my city (if it will just hold on). The trick with any kind of sage is that you need very well draining soil and LOTS of light. They pretty much need direct light all day. I have substituted grow lights and that seemed to work for about a month. Sadly overnight the plant died and I have absolutely no idea what had happened. Round 5 here we come! I am trying a new method of using a slightly larger terracotta pot (to help with drainage and root rot), and a ziploc bag. It’s pretty much a diy mini greenhouse on a budget!

In the slightly smaller pot with the glass on top are parlour palm seeds. These are not the seedlings but since I managed to sprout those I wanted to test my luck with trying it again! This time I used a glass from my kitchen and a small nursery pot I saved from my previous plants. The idea of the ziploc bag and the glass are to keep moisture in. I’ve placed both in a southern facing window that gets pretty warm and has lots of light.

Hopefully I’ll be able to update as these guys grow! 🌱✨

#plant parent #plantparentcommunity #plants #plant mom #plantparenthood #house plants #indoorplants #planting seeds

aquarianmermaid

Your daily reminder that Black Lives Still Fucking Matter. Casey Christian Goodson Jr. was mudered by police on December 4th and no one is talking about it. He was shot three times in the back entering his own home. The police are not going to get any better under Joe Biden, in fact, they will continue to get worse because there will be less media scrutiny. There is little to no media coverage of this story because of that very reason. We have to keep these stories in the public eye and continue to fight to defund the police just as hard in 2021.

Here’s a link to the full story from one of the few media sources reporting it.

Tips on winterizing your plants!

🌻- UP THE HUMIDITY! I cannot stress this enough. Winter air = dry air. You don’t need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a humidifier when there’s many cheap alternatives. You can fill a dish with rocks and a small amount of water. Make sure the plant isn’t sitting directly in the water or you WILL get root rot. If that’s not an option for you daily misitings will help.

🌻 - GROW LIGHTS! If you are starting your plant journey I suggest investing in some grow lights. They’re fairly cheap on amazon and unless you have amazinf exposure you will most likely need them in the winter. The one in this photo is actually an old aquarium light I had from a previous set up and my plants seem to LOVE IT.

🌻- CUT DOWN ON WATERING! It’s the winter now. Plants are dormant so they don’t need as much water now. Allow the plant to dry out a little bit more than you normally would but keep an eye on it so it doesn’t die. I personally don’t wanted any of my plants until they are home dry (minus the ferns). I moved all of my plants to a south west facing window so they will get bright light almost all day. I have a building blocking my window so I very rarely get direct light.

🌻- NO FERTLIZING! Again it’s dormancy time for plants so they really don’t need that much. Wait until the spring time to give those babies some much needed fertilizer. Too much fertilizer will burn your roots.

🌻- WAIT TO REPOT! This is a good rule to follow even when it’s not winter. It’s important to wait to repot as it shocks the plant. I keep my plants in the growers pot for a month or two before I even think about repotting. I normally wait until I can just see the roots coming out of the pot. Most plants enjoy being slightly root bound but not too much. It’s about finding the happy middle ground which can be tricky so don’t give up! If you buy any plants in the winter please wait until the spring to repot unless it’s an EMERGENCY!

Plants are an amazing journey and a very rewarding hobby. Although it can really bring your confidence down when you kill plants don’t give up. You won’t regret trying out that green thumb.

#plant parent #plantparentcommunity #plants #plant mom #plantparenthood #house plants #indoorplants #plant tips #plant

Epipremnum aureum ‘Marble Queen’ or Marble Queen Pothos are one of the easiest plants to grow indoors. They were actually included in a study conducted by NASA. This study was published in 1989 “found that indoor plants can scrub the air of cancer-causing volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde and benzene.” They thrive in so many conditions. This one is in a SW facing window and gets water the top 2 inches of soil are dry.