Saturday, January 28, 2012

New Houseplants

Over the winter break I was moved into a new office [I guess my old office neighbors complained about all the noise coming from The Mad House - that's what happens when you stick people together who have the same sense of humor].  The new office space has (gasp!) a WINDOW.  With a WINDOW SILL.  

My view is of the next building over and I don't get great natural light but being a True Gardener some of my first thoughts were "what kind of plants can I put there?"

Low light.  Tolerant of dry air.

I have a small  Philodendron hederaceum with chartreuse leaves (variety notlabeledus, possibly aureum).  I can repot that and set it on the windowsill.

One plant will not do. I need more, more I tell you!

This sounds like I need a trip to Kane's (the closest garden center that carries houseplants).

I knew what I needed.  A hard to kill indoor plant.  Spathiphyllum (peace lily).  Kane's had large leafed ones (too big) and smaller, more typical ones.  I bought the smallest pot they had (it'll grow).  It's not in bloom right now but I bet I can get it to bloom.


Unfortunately [????] they also had a large variety of Anthurium.  I have one (Anthurium grocerystorensis) that has a red spathe and a red inflorescence (spathe is the big leaf shaped bit and the inflorescence is the sticking up in the middle bit).  Kane's had...  Wow....  Lots of variety (no purple ones, though.  Dammit.).  I picked up a small (it'll GROW - why buy big?) one with a red spathe and a yellow infloresence.


Sexy!

Now comes the hard part.  Where do I put the new Anthurium?

I need more windows...

Thursday, January 26, 2012

NEW USDA HARDINESS ZONE MAP

Related to yesterday's post...

The US Department of Agriculture has created a NEW plant hardiness zone map (located here).  The Edge has moved from hardiness zone 6a to hardiness zone 6b.  Woo-hoo!  I can't wait to make lists of all the plants that are now considered hardy here.  Muhlenbergia (pink muhly grass) please?