August 17, 2015 - I’m not a perfect house plant caregiver; I won’t hide behind pretty pictures of my plants and pretend that they’re all just doing fine. This post is dedicated to some of my most cherished plants that have died (or have been banished from staying indoors):
CC Vittatum (1st generation offspring) - one day I found more than half of its foliage completely yellow and shriveled. I decided it wasn’t worth trying to revive it. Perhaps the soil got too hard and I never loosened it.
Mini umbrella tree (schefflera arboricola) - I’m quite sad about this one - it was infested with thrips/spider mites. I should not have tried to propagate it by stem cuttings. I should have just pruned the upper half as I’ve done in previous seasons and just kept this growing as 2 stems. Fortunately, this is a commonly available and cheap plant.
Philodendron micans - I made this plant from cuttings but the soil never looked quite right. Leaves started getting splotchy and infested with thrips. I had to get rid of it.
Watermelon peperomia - this was an especially tough loss because it’s my avatar and cover photo. This plant seemed to outgrow itself - it doesn’t grow any true stem so leaves simply emerge on top of the previous one. Eventually the lower leaves get strangled. I tried to save the growing tips but my cuttings got infested with thrips.
Begonia rex fairy - I have no idea what happened to this one. The leaves started dying off one by one until there was nothing left. I tried soaking the soil but the moisture didn’t seem to be taken up by live roots so I could only conclude that the roots were dead.
End of part 1...