Tag: anthurium

Take a seat – 20% off

My sister and I went to the garden centre with a couple of small specific items in mind. I came home with a new garden seat. (A slight exaggeration; my sister and my nephew collected the seat later in their trailer and delivered it to my house.)

My specific item was some potting mix to re-pot two anthuriums which were looking a bit tired. I took photos of them to show the garden centre experts in case they had some advice.

The plant on the left is bigger than the other
One has dry soil, the other seems to stay quite damp

As we walked in I noticed large signs advertising 20% off everything in store. I eventually found my potting mix and a pack of lettuce plants as well. Then my sister met someone she knew and began a long conversation. This gave me time to look around. That’s how I found the seat. It’s been in the back of my mind to look for a new garden seat as the old one has begun to fall apart. Added to my existing patio furniture, the new seat creates a friendly, conversational vibe.

As for re-potting of the anthuriums, it turns out I didn’t read the instructions closely enough. Pots of at least 200mm are required, it seems. Sounds like another trip to the garden centre. Yippee!

House plants forever

I’m not a big fan of house plants. In the seventies it was ‘the thing’ and I became overwhelmed by monsteras and spider plants which I lugged from flat to flat and which threatened to take over like triffids. The only two which I still have are kept in the garage. One is an aspidistra and the other a hoya. I water them sparingly, feed them rarely and may have repotted them once in forty-odd years.

Today, the hoya scent drew my attention to the flowers it still produces. Grudgingly, I have to admit they are rather lovely, dripping with nectar.

Now house plants are fashionable again and I have seen articles about house plant competitions, prices for desirable plants going stratospheric on the internet and people stealing rare plants from the botanic gardens’ hothouse.

I do enjoy the two indoor plants a former colleague gave me. They sit on my desk and are kind of cheerful and quirky.

One of my nieces has a collection of succulents on her window sill, but I’ve never really warmed to those sorts of plants – until I bought some on impulse to put in a difficult-to-pot outdoor hanging container my brother had given me. They look rather fetching – like a living picture, perhaps.

Trouble is, they are multiplying and really need dividing and replanting. I wouldn’t bring them inside, but I’ve considered making a small rockery for them – if I can find a space.

I picture them multiplying and taking over the garden forty years from now.