Question of the Day: Sunday, June 29

[laralove]

Some people have a green thumb. I have a black thumb. My daughter gave me a little tin can of flowers for mother's day and I have managed to keep them alive. The basil plant (and all those who came before it), however, has not faired as well. I've also lost (murdered?) a couple of houseplants, various other herbs, and another canned flower.

Do you have a green thumb? If so, what do you grow at home? If not, what's in your plant graveyard, so to speak?

 

[swampwitch]

It seems that one of my thumbs is green, the other is black. 

  Some plants I know how to care for, others not at all.

I'm always amazed at the person who takes care of the garden here - it's just second nature to him, like taking care of our cats is to us. Sometimes I will see seaweed spread out all around the rhubarb, or the grass clippings in the strawberry beds. One day I walked out and the whole garden smelled like coffee because of all the grounds that had been placed around the plants. I have no idea what he is doing, but boy does it work!

I think anyone can have success if they do the research on what particular plants need. The magical green-thumb people know intuitively, but it all really boils down to knowledge.

All I grow inside the house these days is catnip and cat grass - we have a kitty who nibbles on all greenery. Since so many plants are poisonous to cats, I just keep it safe.

 

[pinkdagger]

I can sustain plants, but I wouldn't call myself a green thumb. I've got aloe, money tree, spider plant, corn plant, and what I think is an aralia plant - polyscias fruticosa. I have to look it up every time because I'm never sure. I received a bunch of these from my parents because I missed having the greenery, and living near a highway and airport, even just having a few plants lets me pretend my air can be slightly cleaner, lol. My parents gave me an aloe baby from their giant plant at home (which I originally bought), but it didn't survive the repotting so I went and bought a new one of my own.

I also have cat grass and some old sprouted bird seeds on the balcony. It's my personal apartment's lawn.

 

[peaches08]

I have no indoor plants for the same reasons SwampWitch mentioned.  Cardboard isn't even safe here.

Most plants I do well (outdoors).  I've only had a few just not tolerate the weather, sun, or something.  It took some adjusting since I was raised on clay-based soil (ATL area) to understand this sandy soil as far as needs.  Still learning, actually!  I hope to do some plantings once I have some money.

 

[laralove]

 
Cardboard isn't even safe here.

My cardboard isn't safe either!

 

[fhicat]

*looks outside*

I've got grass. Does that count?

I -used- to have green-ish thumb when I was a kid living with my parents. We grew hibiscus, money tree, aloe vera, alamandas and ixora. She'd get some seeds or cut stems from a .... flowerer? and we'd place them in the soil in pots. It was quite pretty. 

 

[laralove]

 
We grew ... money tree... 

My mom assured me when I was a kid that money does not grow on trees!

 

[fhicat]

 
My mom assured me when I was a kid that money does not grow on trees!

Haha, it's a Chinese thing. It's called kumquat, and supposedly it brings prosperity and wealth (we're real big on prosperity and wealth cuz we're materialistic like that 

), so sometimes we call it money tree. There's another kind of money tree, that's not a real tree, but same concept. 

 

[angels mommy]

I have had a garden for the last few years. It seems to do pretty well, when the squirrels & bugs aren't eating it!  This year I seem to have a squirrel eating my sunflowers!

Here are some pictures from the last 3 years of my garden. (I just plant in spring, to have summer flowers. By winter there is no garden).  

http://s1255.photobucket.com/user/kelly8-69/library/Garden Pictures

 

[fhicat]

I love your gardens, Kelly! You have awesomely green thumbs.

 

[angels mommy]

Thanks Cory!  The first year was the best. That's the pictures of the many tall sunflowers, & that big bunch of mixed at the base of my stairs was all from one mixed packet!

I have never had a garden as good as that first one. This year's is coming along, but as I said, the squirrels are feasting on my sunflowers. ..."Little stinkers!" 

 

[fhicat]

 
Thanks Cory!  The first year was the best. That's the pictures of the many tall sunflowers, & that big bunch of mixed at the base of my stairs was all from one mixed packet!

I have never had a garden as good as that first one. This year's is coming along, but as I said, the squirrels are feasting on my sunflowers. ..."Little stinkers!" 

At least they give you back your sunflower after they chew on them. 

 

[angels mommy]

 
At least they give you back your sunflower after they chew on them. 

From my "caption this" picture right?  

 Yea, that time at least. Seems to be one little guy that comes to visit. 

I think between him, & my new bird feeder, my next series of photo's are turning out to be "Birds, & squirrel."  

"I'll have to load the pictures I've taken, & start a new thread." LOL!  (& make a new photo bucket album). 

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i'm not sure that i have a green thumb, but i do have quite a few flower gardens and have dabbled in growing vegetables too. i enjoy gardening very much. i find it so relaxing to be outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine and quiet. it seems that every year i'm planting or transplanting, that my gardens are evolving over time. all in all, i think i do pretty well at growing things.

i've got spring to fall flower gardens, which i dug and planted myself. among the flowering plants i have are hardy hibiscus, a butterfly bush, lots of mums, coreopsis, astilbes, hostas, peonies, liatris, asiatic lilies, one  coneflower, daffodils, tulips, squill, crocus, hyacinth, dutch iris, and a few bearded iris and grape hyacinths. i also had 3 lavender plants, but only one seems to have come back this year -- so next spring i'll be planting something else where the two lavender were.

i have a new garden bed that i started last year. it has two of the hibiscus at either end, and i planted (by seeds) alyssum, dianthus, and aubrietta this spring. the alyssum and dianthus have started growing well, but the aubrietta i haven't seen sprout up through the soil yet.

i've got 6, six foot long by 11 inches high by 11 inches wide planter boxes, that i constructed last year that have two columbine growing very nicely in them (3 more columbine never grew from the starts i planted). and this year i planted some of the alyssum and dianthus seeds which seem to be growing nicely. last year i planted perennial geraniums in these planter boxes, but only two sprouted and none made it back this year.

i have a raised bed that has strawberry plants growing in it, just 5 plants this year.

i don't do indoors plants, partly because i don't do well remembering to water them and partly because i don't want them where my snick could get to them.

oh, and i have a couple hanging planters with annuals in them -- moonflower this year.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

No indoor plants here!  I really do not like them.  Especially anything that vines/trails or has huge leaves.  

I enjoy my outdoor garden but I have limits with it.  I have to wear sleeves and gloves to harvest the bush beans and cukes.  DH has to pick the summer squash and zucchini for me.  I also have garlic, carrots and a few types of peppers growing in raised beds.  I have tomatoes and a variety of herbs growing in pots on the back patio.  

I have some potted marigolds (from seeds I received from my Secret Santa here last year!) and the new planter for out front that DH built this year with petunias, geraniums and pansy's.  Oh and 3 hanging baskets of calibrachoa (also called Million Bells).  I'm hoping to get some permanent floral landscaping done in the next few years. 

I don't know that I have a green thumb; like my Grandpa, Aunt and one cousin, but I'm learning a lot every year.  This is the 4th year I've had a veggie garden and it's had it's highs and lows.  We harvested 2 summer squash and 3 zucchini tonight. That's always a high!

 

[Winchester]

I dearly love houseplants of all shapes and sizes, but the cats like to have them for lunch, so no plants in the house. But B.C. (Before Cats), our house looked like a greenhouse. There were plants everywhere. I loved the summer because the house we lived in at that time had a large gorgeous front porch and I could put the plants out there for the summer. I'd hang the spiders and ivies and set the rest out on stands. I don't know that my thumb is as green as my sister's thumb, but my plants thrived.

Since the cats, though, I got rid of all my house plants. I did end up getting a few, though, for my office here at work. I have some spiders, a couple African violets. some pathos, a prayer plant, a pencil plant, and a dracena. Oh, and there's a huge umbrella tree that lives out in the building foyer; it outgrew my office years ago, so it got moved out there. It's almost up to the ceiling now. Mom gave me her Christmas cactus (it used to be my grandmother's and Mom told me it was a good 60 years old). It's in our main planning room where there's a lot of light and it really puts on a blooming show in the winter, starting around Thanksgiving and going until February. It usually blooms 3 times before it's finally done. I've been trying to take meticulous care of that baby. It wouldn't bloom for Mom and she got so frustrated with it one time that she threw it out in the front yard. Then she felt bad for it, brought it in the house, and called me. She brought it into my work and it's been in the planning room ever since. When it's in full bloom, it really draws attention to itself! Visitors will always stop and gawk at the cactus; it's just gorgeous when it's in bloom.

My dream is to have a room where the cats cannot go. And in that room would be all the plants that I want. As it is, we try to work in flowerbeds outside.

One of Hydrox, the Old Coot's

 favorite things was to pee in my plant containers. We tried everything to stop him: toothpicks, sharp stones, additives to make the soil smell bad. Nothing worked. And then Rick decided to fasten chicken wire around the tops of all the large planters on the floor throughout the house. That worked. He couldn't get through the wire into the soil. But he did manage to kill one of my orange trees because of his peeing. I learned early never to put a plant on the bow windowsill in the living room....that was his spot alone. I made the mistake of placing a beautiful begonia in the center of the window. And then I watched that boy literally push the plant to the floor! He'd sit down next to the plant and move it. Then get up and sit down again, moving the plant. He did it and did it and did it....and the begonia ended up on the living room floor. And then he sat there and scolded me as I cleaned it up. Lesson learned.....the sill of the bow window was for Hydrox and only Hydrox.

B.C. (Before Cats) some of my favorite plants: Calemondin orange tree (it would fruit, too; they say the oranges make good marmalade but I never tried it), a couple coffee trees, a banana tree (it actually flowered a couple times and we got one hand of small bananas one time), some lantana trees, African violets out the whazoo, tons of different begonias, ivies, wandering Jews, different succulents, avocado trees, a lemon tree, a humongous prayer plant, false aralia, snakeplants, an umbrella tree, a monstera, philodendrons, too many spiders to mention that were hanging all over the place, and so on.

Oh, and I almost forgot the Raminski Brothers! The Raminski Brothers were actually four rubber trees in a large planter; they lived in the kitchen next to the lantanas, where it was always sunny and they grew like crazy. I perfected my air-laying technique on the Brothers, learning to propagate new plants from slicing into the stem of the rubber trees and wrapping damp moss around the cuts to encourage growth, then lopping off the top of the plant for a new one. I've always loved plants.

When our son was in first grade, his class planted marigold seeds in little paper cups for Mother's Day. He gave it to me and I kept it on the window sill in the kitchen (that particular kitchen had a southern exposure, with tons and tons of natural light). Well, I had that thing about 7 years, until I think it just bloomed itself to death. We were both upset when it died because it had lasted for so long. It would go through blooming periods, then stop and I'd feed it and water it.Then it would start to bloom again.

I kept a plant light on an island in the kitchen and I was constantly trying to root leaves of different plants and get seeds to grow.

If we didn't have such mis-behaving cats, I'd have house plants. But I can't have both and I can't sleep with plants or cuddle with plants, so......

 

 

I don't know what I'm going to do with my office plants when I retire and leave my office. 

 

[swampwitch]

If we didn't have such mis-behaving cats, I'd have house plants. But I can't have both and I can't sleep with plants or cuddle with plants, so......

 

 

I feel you... I really miss having cut flowers in the house, but love our kitties much more.