House Plant Pots

Sometimes, you just decide "enough is enough" with some plant pots.  The pots are ugly and mismatched, wrong-sized, etc.  But it never gets far enough up your To Do list.   Well, I sure have enough important things to do, but I've also been looking down the list for things that are more easily solved.

When I was transferred to a different office in 2000, was lucky enough to get a window.  But it was north-facing so no direct sunlight.  Caladiums or Coleus probably would have done OK, but I bought 2 Sandseveria snake-eye plants like these.  

They thrived!  By the time I retired in 2006, they were filled two 12" pots (and were greatly admired).  I brought them home, of course.  And I repotted them and divided them into 10 pots.  But they have been languishing by the basement patio door ever since in cheap ugly black pots of various sizes.

I decided it was time to fix that!  First thing was to get ten 8" matching pots.  And I wanted them in light green to show off the leaf colors.  That was harder than I expected.  Online, I checked Amazon, I checked Walmart, I checked Home Depot.  Green is not a popular color for plant pots.  I suppose they think you already have the "green" with the plants.

And there are 3 qualities of pots.  Cheap and thin plastic, sturdy thick plastic, and ceramic/terra cotta.  I wanted thick plastic.  And buying some of any of those is tricky.  I saw some nice ones for $4 each, but the shipping per pot was another $7, which explained the cheap price per pot, LOL!

But I eventually found some that were acceptable and $7 each with free shipping.  They look pretty sturdy.

They're are just going outside for the Summer, and I thought the pots should "at least" match.  In Winter, they can sit under low light and do fine.  So that problem is off the list...

But I had a second houseplant problem.  My master bathroom gets southern sunlight several hours a day, and I have grown variegated ivies there for 20 years.  Well, they eventually went all solid green, and then suddenly, they all died.  There is an end to every plant...

So I thought of what to replace them with (in a cleaned planter box and fresh soil).  I was looking for Coleus (which was ridiculously expensive per plant), but I found Caladiums at Home Depot on sale.  Caladiums don't need much light.  So it occurred to me that I could have 2 trays of them. 

I have 4 of these.

And 2 of these (or similar)...

One for the Master Bathroom with 3-4 hours of direct sunlight shade most of the rest of the day, and the other for the Main (windowless) Bathroom and then trade the trays every few days.  It should work.  

Flashback Friday

I use Flashback Friday to show old events on Mark's Mews.  So why not here as well?

I had built 2 landscaping boxes on either side of the front steps. Back in 2009, I had Caladiums on the left and fancy Hostas on the right.  They were gorgeous.  

OK, that year.  Neighbors commented on them.  Then the deer found them...  Hostas are deer-candy.  I have moved most to the backyard where the deer don't try to enter.  They didn't like the Caladiums so much, but Caladiums aren't hardy here.  If you don't dig them up and store the bulbs properly, they are gone.  I didn't get around to that.  I might buy more next Spring for planting elsewhere.

So I converted the Caladium bed to Snow-On-The-Mountain.  I got some from my parents in New Hampshire and deer don't eat them.  They multiplied rapidly and that was good.

But some sprouts went all green and took over.  I'm still fighting to pull those up and get the bed all the variegated type.  But the green ones are hard to kill.  I think I'll have to just dig up the variegated ones and pot them, pulling out any green sprouts.  Then smother the bed over Winter and try to replant next Spring.

I'll put paper over the bed (that stuff used for packing in shipping boxes).  I have a lot of it.  I'll poke holes in it and set the variegated pots in those.  Should give them a better chance to re-establish.

I have 3 dozen Nandina shrubs growing and need to decide where to plant them.  Saved the seeds 3 years ago and they are a foot tall now.  They takes months to germinate.  Deer won't touch them, which is good, and they are evergreen with bright red berries in Winter.  

Mine stay about 4' tall and 3' wide.  I think the edge of the drainage easement would be a good place.  They have strong deep roots (I tried to dig one up once) and would resist occasional drainage flooding.  And since they are evergreen, they make a good yard border.

A lot of Nandina and Hollies would be interesting...