House Plant Blog

10/25/2016

Potting up some Tradescantia zebrina (commonly known as the "wandering jew") cuttings. These are certainly one of the easiest houseplants to propagate from cuttings. Start them in water, or drop them directly into soil and water them in. They'll be fine. Tradescantia will adapt to a wide range of lighting conditions, but make sure you let them dry out between waterings--it is not a cactus, but it's succulent stems store water, making this houseplant partially drought resistant.

09/01/2016

🌱FREE TO A GOOD HOME🌱
Hello plant people! It's that time of year when I start giving away my rooted cuttings. First up, we have several cuttings on Dracaena marginata, commonly known as the Dragon tree. This is a very easy houseplant that loves bright light, and to dry out between waterings. Anyone want a cutting? Seeing as I have no real infrastructure in place to ship these, I'm going to offer first dibs to anyone in the NYC area, or anyone who can come pick one up from me in NYC. They come from good stock (parent plant pictured behind her babies), and are completely pest free. If you aren't in NYC, but feel like you just can't live without one of these guys, drop me a DM and we will try to figure something out. Happy planting!

07/04/2016

Detail pic of my Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) digesting a nice meal. Remember never to feed your flytrap with liquid or granular fertilizer--you'll burn the roots and your plant will grow legs and eat you. (Just kidding).

06/22/2016

Well, since people seem to like it when I post photos of plants in my bathtub... This photo is about 1/3 of my Pothos (Epiprenum aurem) stock being cleaned. I do this because houseplants gather dust, which affects their respiration. I consider it best practice to rinse the foliage of all my houseplants every once and a while. A clean plant is a happy plant!

06/04/2016

Oh look, my Venus flytrap flowered! Contrary to the anti-flower diatribe you may have seen in my latest YouTube video, I let this guy have his moment. Why? Because I've never had a Venus flytrap flower before. The flowers are rather small, white, and insignificant, and I'll probably chop them off in a day or two, but I wanted to share this with my plant people. I know there have been a few unanswered questions about flytrap care posted, and I promise I'll get to those, too.

06/03/2016

Some houseplants flower more prolifically than others. Anyone who has an Oxalis (purple clover, false shamrock) knows that these guys put off little flowers ...

05/31/2016

*Chop chop*

Bonsai make great pets. And while my American Elm isn't really a houseplant, I thought I'd share another defoliation video. I've had this tree for about 6 ye...

05/24/2016

Hey, my piggy back plant bloomed! This happened quickly, before I even realized it. Usually, I pinch out the buds on all of my house plants to encourage foliage growth instead of flowering. Why? Flowers attract bugs, and generally speaking it takes a lot of energy for a plant to produce a flower--energy that could be used to make more leaves. I know, I'm a total sadist, but I've never heard any complaints from my plants!

05/23/2016

Another video of my flytrap eating. You can see how delicate the fronds are, and how careful you have to be while feeding it. If you trigger a misfire, and t...

05/21/2016

Anyone else love their Purple clover (Oxalis sp.)? If you have one, you've probably noticed that the fronds open and close every day. Here is a time lapse video of the fronds opening. And yes, I had to wake up at 5 am to shoot this video!

A time lapse video of my Oxalis sp. opening. The individual fronds are very photosensitive and only open during the day to gather maximum light. At night, th...

05/19/2016

I grew this guy from a small cutting about 8 years ago. Every year during the summer months I aggressively prune, defoliate, and wire him to shape. Ficus ben...

05/11/2016

Behold, my largest cactus! Let me tell you how hard this thing is to move around. I previously had it living part-time in a back yard, where it was able to enjoy full sun during the summer months. With optimal conditions, these guys will grow about one foot per year, maybe more. You can tell that the last year was tough on this guy because of how much smaller the new growth is. I may end up leaving it where it is this summer--it gets pretty good light from a window and skylight--or I may prioritize its happiness over my own (as I tend to do with my plants) and trek it out to the yard again. As I am writing this, I am realizing that this photo isn't really that great. I'd be happy to post another if there is any interest, perhaps with something for scale--then you'd be able to tell that this guy is almost 10 feet tall! As with any cacti, you really can't go wrong if you water/feed monthly during the growing season, and basically leave them alone during the winter. Easy peasy, right?