Urban Indoor Houseplant Design Book and a Tool Give-Away Contest

46 Comments

1. I got a canna lily at a grocery store for a dollar last year, and put it in a pot. It bloomed nicely, then faded, and died. There happened to be some weeds growing in the pot, too. I don’t know why but I watered the weed, hey it was alive and making tiny flowers. Later I got a new plant and decide to put it in the lily pot only to find lily bulbs still very alive. The funny thing about it is that if the weeds hadn’t been there I wouldn’t have watered the pot, and most likely the lily would have died. Thanks to a little weed, the lily has sprouted again this spring, and I’m hoping for more blooms.

2. Anna – LOVE this story. Watering weeds is good. 🙂 HA!

   Shawna

3. My favorite story about a house plant isn’t even about a house plant I had – it was one my teacher had. He had a pothos plant in his garage – no light, no water, and it FLOURISHED. His sister came to town, took pity on the plant, brought it inside where it got more light and was watered regularly. It died, naturally.

4. This may require a bit of “Theatre of the mind”, but essentially a life’s lesson:

   When moving your mother’s prized houseplant for her, an overgrown schefflera that you gave her when you were a child, make sure the ceiling fan is off.

5. My indoor garden is more of a laboratory (English pronunciation here). Some things do quite well. Other stuff looks like a Frankenplant experiment. I look at my plants sometimes and say, “How did this happen?” “What were you before?” Thank goodness I always keep the tags. And, I am now comfortable with dead plants that bloom (one last gasp). It has to be dead for some time or completely disintegrate before I declare. Hey, my orchid’s reblooming. [Stick’s tongue out at the world.]

6. Thanks for leaving links to the other contests. Had not seen many of them yet

7. This is a story about my mother-in-law. She had all these houseplants all over her house. One day she was in her son’s room (not my husband, his brother) and noticed he had plants too but they weren’t growing very well. So she started regular watering and fertilizing and the plants flourished. She was so proud she showed a friend how well these plants were doing and the friend exclaimed ” do you know you are growing weed and that it is illegal? Sadly the poor plants were tossed out.

8. Thank you, Shawna! Kylee and I so appreciate your generous support of our book! And these houseplant stories are cracking me up–I’ve had Frankenstein experiments like Jeavonna, too. 🙂

9. My Frankenplant is a corn plant that an elderly neighbor gave me when it didn’t sell at her estate sale. She wanted it to have a good home. It is no over 15 feet tale and has frost burned leaves from touching the skylight during a freeze. It looks so bad…….but it still has green leaves so I can’t toss it.

10. I have an unnamed houseplant that we have nick named the Hannah Plant. I got it from a mysterious lady at my church bridal shower who claimed she got it from her friend Hannah who had recently passed away. Based on the name, my grandma found out that Hannah was her aunt. I think it’s strange to get a live plant from a dead lady via a stranger, but the plant lives whether I water it a little or a lot, and its long stems and sparse leaves suit my slightly eclectic taste–that, and the fact that it’s still alive.

11. My first houseplant experience was with a cactus. I tended to it, cared for it…and KILLED it. How does one kill a cactus even! Can’t say I’ve had any more luck with houseplants, as I seem to kill them all. At least I can kinda keep the plants outside alive!

12. Book & pruners look interesting…sign me up!

13. Not really a story per say but I was given a spider plant and my girlfriend said I could not kill it…..well I killed it.

14. Sorry no funny stories, just sad. I have been plant sitting for a friend while he is remodeling. This has been going on for about a year. I was overwatering, so I checked on them this morning…….the peace lily(the last one left). Maybe a tool will help.

15. My mom is so hopeless when it comes to house plants. The last potted plant I bought her was a Boston fern in a hanging basket. She dutifully misted it and did her best to keep it alive. One day I noticed it looked really bad. I asked my mom what happened and she told me she accidentally misted it with a bottle of windex. Needless to say the fern didn’t make it.

16. Shawna, I’m afraid I can’t compete with all these great stories. I have nothing funny, I’m afraid. I literally have hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of plants in pots. I love to propagate for plant swaps and sales. I love sharing with others and especially new gardeners. I really need a new set of pruners so I hope you’ll enter me in the contest anyway. thank you for hosting! LOVE your purple wicker table and chairs!

17. I guess one of my favorites is more sweet than funny. a few years ago in Feb I was browsing Ace hardware & found their Christmas amaryllis on clearance for $1. They were boxed with a pot, a bulb & some bagged soil. I peaked in a couple of boxes & saw sprouts so I bought two, one for me & one for a friend. I was so excited about my find that I told my husband as soon as he came home that evening. Knowing how much my friend & I love flowers, he turned around, went right back to town & bought all they had left. I divided them with my friend & we had gorgeous blooms through the rest of the winter.

    I sure hope I win the prize!

18. Looks like I need another book. Here’s a good one. I have a pretty big Haworthia growing in a pot that looks like a small pumpkin. My nephew comes over occasionally and brings his little Shitzu (something shaggy) dog with him. Since the plant was on the floor and the dog was male for some reason that dog made a bee line for that plant and lifted his leg on it. We scolded him and I put the plant up but every time he just had to. Yes the plant is still alive. Matter of fact it is really big and should be repotted. But now it is out of his reach.

19. Heya i’m for the first time here. I came across this board and I to find It truly helpful & it helped me out a lot. I am hoping to give one thing back and help others like you aided me.

20. Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! It’s the little changes that produce the most important changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!

21. Those pruners are awesome!

22. I made a succulent wreath that I brought home and proudly displayed on my dining room table. Followed all the directions but I kept on losing parts of the wreath. One day I was in the living room and looked over to the dining room and there was the cat carefully pulling the little succulents out one by one and tasting them. Then she batted the poor plant around the room. Guess I need to get a better technique for attaching the succulents. I moved it and but she constantly went searching for “her plaything” It ended up outdoors!

23. I have my succulent arrangements on a rotation schedule. One might decorate the entry table for a week or so, living in bright light and no water. Then it goes outside for a while to be refreshed, while something else outside comes in. That way I always have my indoor plant decor! Excited for the new book!

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25. The book looks great, maybe it would help me with my houesplants, I’m not a good waterer so eventually my houseplants die. I currently have some orchids that seem to thrive on neglect, but I expect I’ll kill them eventually…

26. I had a cactus at one time that I was told should be easy to take care of. I think I might have over watered it at one time, because it got moldy around the base and died. : (

    Susanne
    From the Market to the Plate
    Putting Words Down On Paper

27. Great blog!! I love being inspired by others’ creativity. I need to do a better job with my houseplants. Maybe this will help me!

28. I’m sure at some point in my past I had houseplants. In the last twenty years or so, I haven’t. Mostly because I had indoor cats. I was always afraid they would mess with the dirt, I mean, soil, or something would crawl OUT of the soil and that’s all it took to discourage me.

29. “Enjoying a Summer Evening in Winter”
    My houseplants enjoy a summer vacation outside under our second story deck, where they thrive for a few months in our southern New England climate.
    A favorite of mine is an English Ivy topiary, that I’ve nursed back to health from drought (kids forgot to water when we were away) and white fly infestation, over the years. It sits in a 2 gallon clay pot (read:heavy) on top of clay feet and over small stones in a large plastic clay colored saucer. The saucer protects my floors and I water the rocks to give the ivy a little more moisture, especially when I bring it inside the dry winter house. The saucer also collects rainwater when the ivy is outside.
    This last January, the plant was happily sitting in its spot in our living room, when I suddenly realized that the saucer was dry. I ran and filled a container with tepid water, and doused the rocks.
    About a week later, my husband and I got into bed to read, and I heard a familiar summertime sound. Around my head. Annoyingly familiar. But, it’s January. Couldn’t be. Yes, it is.
    Mosquitos do hatch in winter, especially with a little help from tepid water….

30. My story is about how much faith your friends have in you for healing their houseplants. My friend “M” brought me her Mother’s (she has passed away) Christmas Cactus to resurrect. If you could see it, it is light green with two leaves with no chlorophyll (sp) and is beyond saving. My husband saw me changing the soil, clipping it and putting it in fresh soil and placing it in my kitchen window. He said…isn’t it already dead? I said no…but if you touch it, you will be, hehe I am calling it a wing and a prayer…I am still praying!

    Thanks for the giveaway….and the opportunity! Happy Gardening and let miracles happen!! 🙂 Pamie G. New Braunfels, Texas

31. What a great giveaway! Love the colors, which I need, because I am always setting something down only to not be able to see it when I look for it. I now get every portable tool in color. Not exactly a houseplant story, but one which I fondly recall. One mother’s day, I decided to surprise my mother by planting some beautiful flowers I had found while on a ramble (I must have been seven or so). I went back and forth carrying little plants that I dug up (there were millions) and planting them in the bed around our garage, adjacent to the lawn. When I proudly showed my mom my labor of love for her, she gulped. Apparently I had just transplanted some very invasive weed (with beautiful blue flowers). Bless her heart. We never did get those out of the lawn where they continued to multiply.

32. years ago one of my neighbors moved and left me all their houseplants. one being a very big cactus of some sort. it didn’t matter where i put the thing, someone always got stuck!

33. When I was first married, I wanted to have houseplants, but wasn’t very skilled at keeping them alive. So I went a bought a preserved bonsai plant, which required no water, it was just “planted” in lifelike looking stones. But everytime my mother-in-law would visit, no matter how many times I had explained the situation, she could not resist secretly watering it. And then the water would just roll off onto my furniture.

34. I don’t have a lot of experience with houseplants but this is definitely motivating me to try some more. I love the picture with the wine corks and plants…great idea!

35. I cannot go past a cart with half dead flowers for half price without buying one. Most of the houseplants that I have in my sunroom are those that I have “risen from the dead”. Now if I could only “turn water into wine”!

36. The family had to move across country for a new job but our house didn’t sell. We were living in a small rental apartment in Maryland while most of our stuff was in our house in Illinois for “staging.” My husband went back to Illinois at least once a month to check on things. Almost a year passed and the house hadn’t sold but we found a tenant. I went back to Illinois to pack up the house. Long story short, in all of his trips to Illinois, my husband hadn’t watered the plants once. Mind you, we’re talking succulents so overwatering can be an issue but probably wouldn’t have given he was only there about once a month. I’d had my Christmas cactus for over 10 years. It was the first plant I had kept past its initial green-from-the-nursery phase. (I’d managed to kill plastic plants. DO NOT leave plastic plants on radiator covers.) My cactus looked oh-so-dead. I did the only thing I could do. I watered it and watered it and watered it — while thinking less than generous thoughts about my husband. My husband must have a guardian angel because the plant came back. It produces beautiful flowers at least twice a year. Now I worry that maybe I might be overwatering it.

37. Jeavonna – you are the randomly selected winner of the contest! YAYYYYY! I’ll get your information to the prize sender-outer immediately.

38. Thanks, Shawna. This is really nice. I’m feeling some purple love.

39. CONGRATS to Jeavonna!

40. Yay!

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