#plantersparadise

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Here is a quick post to celebrate National Houseplant Appreciation Day.

Three of these babies have gifted me with new leaves or will be unfurling new leaves soon.

One of them, I am worried about.

And another one, I’m not sure will last much longer.

But all told, watering them and watching them change from day to day has been fascinating.

I love my little collection of houseplants.

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This is a story of renewal.

My phalaenopsis orchid lost its flower the weekend after Thanksgiving.

After a long weekend in Miami, I came home to find it drooping, so I snipped it off.

It had three buds that I contemplated cutting off too. I read so much about winter being a time of dormancy for many plants. But I guess things are different in Florida.

Anyway, the buds continued to grow.

I continued to watch, so amused day by day the little changes I observed.

They became a lime green, mimicking the colors of the plants on a nearby windowsill.

They continued to grow rounder, there was a plump to them I wanted to feel, but didn’t, too scared I would ruin the process.

After a while, I began to see the flecks of purple within them, symbolic to me of the flower that would soon open.

I went to work one day and got a photo from my mother. She texted me to show me the progress of the largest bud.

It would soon open.

I thought it would take a longer time to show us its insides, but instead by the next morning, my orchid had a full blown flower.

And dare I say it was even more beautiful than the flowers from the store.

I continued to wait to see if the other buds were destined for flowers too.

And they were!

I have three flowers on my orchid spike.

I was so fearful of this plant when my boyfriend gifted it to me on my birthday.

I still considered myself a plant killer at the time.

I had no idea what I was doing.

But now, I feel differently.

I’ve had successes.

I love watching my plants grow.

And nothing makes me feel quite as peace as the days I wake up knowing my plants are due for a good watering.

Anyway, my orchid.

I haven’t named her. But I will know.

Ofelia the orchid.

That’s my mom’s name. And she was just as excited to watch this gorgeous plant grow as I was.

All in all, I’m less than a month, I lost a flower and regained three new ones.

The first flower lasted me two months so I am excited to see how long these will be here.

I wake up to Ofelia every morning.

She’s at the foot of my bed. And she greets me with her beauty.

And I am happy to have her there.

This is the best birthday present I’ve ever received.

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I came home from Thanksgiving weekend and found that my Phalaenopsis orchid’s flower had wilted while I was gone.

She hung limply from her stem.

She was surrounded by a few buds that I hoped would flower after her but I’ve heard it’s difficult to get orchids to flower twice.

I’ve read about bud burst and all the sad things that could keep an orchid from flowering so I was aware it was a long shot.

I gave her some fertilizer and hoped for the best.

I took the photo above on Sunday, almost a week since I had arrived back in Fort Myers and this is what the buds looked like.

I didn’t want to overwater her so I kept misting her leaves and the buds.

This is what she looked like on Monday night after work.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

And this is what she looked like this (Tuesday) morning.

SHE BLOOMED IN ALL HER GLORY.

I don’t know if the other two buds will flower, but I am very happy this one has.

I woke up this morning in astonishment when I saw she was there to greet me.

Plants are cool you guys.

If we treat them well and are patient, they reward us in unexpected ways.

I am so happy I found this planty pastime.

It’s brought me lots of joy.

I watched this Phalaenopsis regenerate itself in the span of a week.

It’s beautiful.

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Look at this coleus.

It looked like it was ready for repotting.

I’ve been shocked by how successful these seeds have been, honestly. I hesitate to call myself a green thumb because it’s all so new to me and I’ve also heard coleus is fairly easy to grow.

But still, I wanted to split the plants in these nursery pots because I felt like they were too overcrowded.

So that’s what I did.

I think I may have killed them in the process. I’m unsure how well it turned out, but I was sad to see how wilted they looked in the end.

I split the first nursery pot into two and after that I decided to repot a nursery pot into a 4-inch terra cotta pot. I felt like they had the highest chance of survival like that instead of splitting some of the roots.

Honestly, I killed a few seedlings and it made me feel really bad.

I hope they continue to grow and gain some strength.

They were still a bit wilted today and I am hoping they come through in the end.

I may have not been successful but I have to say that getting my hands dirty and caring for my green babies is always a great mood booster for me.

I’ve grown to love this plant world and make it my own and cherish the little feelings it gives me.

Let’s hope these coleus babies find the sun and rose again.

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Is there anything more beautiful than an alocasia leaf?

I haven’t properly baptized this baby, but every morning it brings me much joy.

The leaf on the right is a new leaf and developed over the last week. It’s been fun to watch these grow.

I thought they were weird little aerial roots when I first got it, but slowly they expanded into another leaf.

But to answer the question.

Quite honestly, I can’t stop looking st the underside of these leafs. It’s one of the most beautiful patterns I’ve ever seen.

I have to come up with a name for her.

Ally? Short for alocasia?

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The Tumblr app does this bullshit where if you write and leave the app for a prolonged period of time, it deletes your draft.

I had written this long thought out post about my last update and it’s gone.

I’m going to try to recreate it.

I didn’t want to write about things that made me sad, but that’s exactly what I did last week because writing is what I know best.

I was consumed by emotion and fear and hopelessness and it all spilled onto this blog.

I guess it happens.

Last week I made the decision that my pride was not worth the loss of this person. And so I told him that.

We worked through it. We are still working through it. I told him I felt insecure and would continue to feel it for a while and he told me he understood. It was his job to make me feel secure and he failed.

Anyway, I chose to fight for him. I don’t regret it. I’m happy and including him in my life brings me more joy than not.

I can’t envision a future where he and I are strangers. It doesn’t exist.

I’ve chosen to help us bloom like the new leaf on my calathea, a plant so beautiful, it hurts to look at it sometimes.

I have faith and hope that we will bloom and grow.

I came back home from the Thanksgiving weekend and found that my orchid flower had wilted, but these buds look promising, right?

I hope so.

And another happy update, here is my cactus who has another new pup.

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OK.

I’ve had this Phalaenopsis orchid since my birthday. My very kind boyfriend gifted it to me on my 31st birthday on Oct. 8.

This solitary flower has been blooming since then.

Each morning I wake up and glance at my flower half expecting it to be wilting and each morning I smile when I see it’s going.

Now, I’ve heard and read that it’s really hard to get orchids to rebloom so I am super ecstatic that this one is still going, but imagine my excitement when over the last few days, these buds have begun to extend themselves.

This stem has been there since I got it and I seriously contemplated cutting it because I didn’t realize the plant would have the energy to flower again, but since last week, I’ve noticed it’s just shot out way beyond the flower.

I’m not sure, but I have begun to fertilize it the last two weeks? I’ve also begun  to mist it between watering. This is the same Phaelanopsis whose roots I noticed growing sometime last week.

And, I swear, I think this former plant killer might be figuring this whole green thumb thing out.

Anyway, I hope I’m not getting ahead of myself.

I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope I get more beautiful flowers. Regardless watching this beautiful plant flourish has been pretty cool and I think it’s the one in my collection that really made me go for more.

P.S. I’m super stoked about this planter’s market this weekend. Can’t wait to look at all the pretty plants.

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It might be too early to say this, but I think I may have a green thumb.

I’m a self-professed plant killer who let her first succulent wither into gray mushiness. To this day, I don’t know what I did wrong, but that succulent suffered a terrible death.

But, look at this photo. My coleus seeds have turned into teeny-tiny baby plants. I did this.

If I can change from killing plants to successfully growing them, than I think there’s a little room for evolution in all of our lives.

The seed packets told me it would take 10 to 20 days before I would see any seedlings, but it’s day five, and they’ve begun to sprout.

I previously wrote about the difficulty in planting coleus seeds due to their size. I think I overplanted because I couldn’t keep straight which planter had how many seeds.

Look at these clusters!! And I have like six other tiny planters with about 10 seedlings in each of them. This is very exciting, but I won’t have space for all of them in my home, so a lot of friends will be getting coleus plants for Christmas this year. 😊

I’ve kept these babies humid by either placing them inside of a glass dome or in a large ziploc bag.

To water them, I’ve let them sit inside of a small glass of water so the soil can soak the water up. They are too fragile to have water poured on them at this stage.

I swear I didn’t think this was going to work. And obviously it’s still early in the process, but it was nice to see these seedlings this morning.

It’s been a tough week. Working with soil and taking care of my plants has given me a sense of calm and I look forward to it everyday.

We all have to find that thing sometimes that helps, right?

Another thing to note, I’m a very impatient planter and thought it would take longer to see results from these seeds, so I bought myself this little dude.

I’ve named this prickly pear cactus Calliope. In Greek mythology, she’s a muse who presided over eloquence and epic poetry.

She also makes me happy.

On another spectacular note!!!! There’s a huge plant sale in Fort Myers this weekend, so guess where I will be?

Fingers crossed I find myself an alocasia!!