House Plant Update

It's June.  The weather is warm and sunny and it's prime gardening season.

Yeah, that's not what's happening this year.  It's been a mostly gloomy, overcast, and cool month so far.  My garden looks great but it's been raining so much that I haven't kept up with weeding so I'm going to do an update on my indoor plants.  The ones who don't care that's it's gloomy, overcast and cool.  They're growing and blooming anyway.

My Anthurium possibly 'Otazu' continues to look great.  I think the blooms were fertilized in the green house before I bought this beauty.  Look at the swellings on the Spadex (the, ehem, suggesting looking part of the bloom)!  I promised seeds to Mr. Subjunctive at PATSP as soon as they're ready.  Because he needs more houseplants.  And because I'm lousy at seed starting (I can get them started but they usually don't make it to transplant size).

I've been thinking about making some changes in my house plant collection.  I've had this Hoya for years - I got a cutting from a friend and it's never done much.  It's a long vine and I have filled all of my "hanging" pot spaces.  Since it doesn't look spectacular (I like LOTS of leaves on a plant) I had been thinking of replacing it with something else.  So I move it to a different spot and then it does this.  Yep.  It's going to bloom for the second time in as many months.  Maybe I'll try cutting it back and keeping it.

I've also been thinking of getting rid of some of my "spiky" plants - aloes and Sanseiveria sp. (of which I have five different varieties).  They are hard to manage in limited spaces.  There's no squishing the plants together to fit more in the same window.

This one I'll have to keep.  Yes, it's a Sanseiveria trifasciata, the most common species in the house plant trade.  But it's from a cutting from a plant my mother got back in the mid-70s.  I've had it grow up and taking cuttings and had those grow up and rinse and repeat several times.  This is not the first time it's bloomed, either.  The first time it bloomed it took me quite a while to figure out the source of that smell.  Especially because it's a night bloomer.  Great for the bedroom if you have enough light.

Lastly, I had a recent (sort of) message on an old post about a fern that had spots on the leaves and I wasn't sure of the cause.  No word on the cause but I wanted to let the writer know that the fern in question is still doing well.  Too well.  I split it into two baskets because I was tired of the too-frequent watering and now it's filling two baskets and starting to need frequent watering...  Anyone want one?  

And now, just for our friends at the NSA, a short video of common loons. 

Those males are just so sexy when they puff up their chests.  And I love their sweet calls.  Almost as attractive as male pigeons displaying [I'm serious - if men could coo like that!  Whew!].

Better version is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmyUc00QCoA&feature=youtu.be