Paging Dr. Greenthumbs

Dear Ivy,

I wanted to ask you a plant question. I’ve inherited the responsibilities of caring for the dilapidated peacy lily at my mom’s taekwondo school. It’s about eight feet from the windows so I’m wondering what other problems I should tackle first.

The damage is pretty typical: tips and edges of the biggest leaves are crispy and brown with some slight yellowing, some broken stems, no flowers (though I did find one crusty inflorescence with a few seeds jutting out — can I plant those?)

Some info I found also said to trim the brown stuff off the leaves but that seemed so wrong! I gave the peace lily a haircut anyway, trimming off dead edges and removing dead leaves at the node. While pruning, I noticed someone stuck a little blue food spike in the soil either yesterday or tuesday.

What now? Should I let it rest and recuperate? Move it into a different level of sunlight? Re-pot it?

-Eager Reader

Dear Eager,

First things first.. Your mom has a Taekwondo school?! That’s awesome!

Ahem, I mean.. Kudos to you for taking care of this neglected plant. Lucky for it, you’ve come around before the damage is too severe, lucky for you, these plants can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. I should know. I am guilty of neglecting a few of these specimens myself.

These plants, also known as Spathiphyllum, are native to South American rain forests. They grow in large groups in the shadows of taller trees. They enjoy the forest floor, with its densely packed nutrients. They love frequent waterings and will burn if left in direct sunlight.

As for your leaf problems, this could mean any number of things. Crispy edges are a cry for help, but not an explanation. I have heard people say to trim the edges off the leaves, but personally, once leaves have begun to die off, I just pull them out from the bottom. (Does that sound barbaric?) If it is 8 feet from the window, examine this more closely. Are there objects blocking light from the plant? What direction does the window face? Extended periods of direct sun during the day could burn this shade-loving plant.

My guess would be under watering. I find that these plants tend to droop when they have not been given enough water. A quick dousing will cause them to perk back up. I have never had a problem with over watering these plants. As long as they have a well-drained pot, they love their water and humidity levels to be high. Don’t be afraid to mist it. You can also do it a big favor by taking a soft cloth and cleaning any dust off the leaves. This will make photosynthesis and respiration a bit easier for your little lily. Since this plant isn’t in your home, where you can access it whenever you’d like, I would suggest a water globe, one of those glass globes you stick in the pot that will release water slowly. It’s best to water little bits at a time, rather than big floodings once a week. Brown edges can also indicate poor water or soil quality. Rainwater is best, followed by filtered water. Make sure it’s not too cold. If this seems like a hassle, never fear! I’m sure your plant will be happy with tap water. I know mine are.

As for re-potting - DON’T DO IT! These plants love to be root bound. They like their root systems to be packed tightly and securely. If you can maneuver the plant at all, check underneath to see if the roots are starting to snake their way out of the bottom of the pot. If they are, re-potting may be in your future, but even in this case, I would wait until Spring, or at least until the plant is very healthy again. If you change its pot now while it’s in a weakened state, you could cause shock to its system that could damage or kill it. When you do choose to move it to a new pot, choose one that is only a bit larger than its current container, and add a bit of peat moss and/or composted soil.

I have never heard of someone growing one of these plants from seed. That would be quite a challenge! I have propagated these in the past by splitting existing plants. If you can’t get under there, just snoop around and see if you can find any new growth. This is usually an indication of a healthy root system. These plants tend to have pretty high metabolic rates, meaning they grow quickly, need lots of water, and can usually bounce back from neglect.

If someone stuck a plant food spike in there, that means you have a little helper at your mom’s school! Just make sure you aren’t both giving generous waterings, you don’t want to cause root rot by daily dousings. Also, watch any little ones that come into the school! This plant bites back! It causes an uncomfortable effect if bitten. At very high levels, it could be toxic.

Sounds like this lily lucked out!

-Ivy

I found this stock photo, an old engraving. It’s my first lead in The Case of the Mystery Plant. This picture most closely resembles what I bought at the garden center a few days ago. It’s called:

Hoya Carnosa, also known as the wax plant. This is a pretty common house plant, but I still have my doubts. They don’t look EXACTLY the same…But, I must remember that my plant isn’t at full health, so it could be droopy. And marbling and other traits can make plants of the same species look different.

This is a picture I found featuring some beautiful cactus flowers. The plant cascading down in the background looks like a happier version of my mystery plant. Imagine that, but smaller and droopier. That’s what you get for a bargain, I suppose. It’s looking better by the day, though, I swear.

As my plant gets healthier, I’ll be able to better judge what species it is. Until then, the search goes on.

I like to frequent the “distressed plant shelf” at my local home and garden center. This is where all the wilted, neglected plants are put when they no longer appear well enough to sell at full price. House plants can be expensive. I usually try to clone mine in order to propagate them, but sometimes it’s fun to buy new species off the shelf.

Often, the plants put back on the clearance shelf just need a bit of TLC. I often find orchids on these shelves that are not distressed at all, and are even very healthy. They come in and out of bloom throughout the year, and many people simply throw them away when they are done producing flowers. Orchids are a long lived plant that can bloom throughout its lifetime. I found a little marbled ivy plant, and something I’m not familiar with.

Beautiful leaves, but note the brown edge in the upper left corner.

Mystery plant :)

Anyone familiar with this one?

The ivy plant had a bunch of crumpled brown leaves. It looks totally healthy other than that. The other plant I got was intriguing, but looked much worse off. It had a large amount of soft, rotten leaves, and the pot itself was stuffed full of dead leaves, as if someone had been putting them there on purpose. Bad form, anonymous green house employee! Leaving dead leaves on your potted plant’s soil will encourage mold and fungus to form. Clip off dead leaves and throw them in the compost, especially those that have a high moisture content (read:green leaves).

I removed all the dead leaves, and the plant immediately looked 100x better than before. It looks to be some type of succulent, the leaves are thick and glossy. There is a film on the leaves, and mineral buildup, it looks like this plant was getting hard water, and too much of it.

Here’s a close-up:

I’ll update once I figure out what this thing is

-Ivy

Dear Ivy,

I’m learning about plants and love the Pothos plant. My question is this: I looked up your blog saw how to clone a Pothos so I did it. It’s not dying, but it’s not growing the roots yet out of the nodes and do I have to wait until Spring or Summer to do it ?

Thanks,

Mike

Dear Mike,

Have patience, indoor gardener! Put your clipping in a sunny place, and keep it well watered, and the root will grow.

When a clipping is still part of a rooted plant, it relies on the root system to absorb water, and the leaves to catch light to make food for the plant cells. When you suddenly make a clean cut and separate the piece from the plant, this upward flow is still in motion. The clone will use the open channels at the end of the stem to continue to circulate fluid to the leaf. Eventually, the root grows out and takes over the job of absorption. The original cut of the stem will callous over.

It does not matter what time of year you do this. All plants will have a burst of growth in warm months, when photo periods are longer. This is an advantage in Spring or Summer, when a plant will grow more per day, as it gets more sun. Remember, though, these plants are tropical, and come from a place where they don’t have Spring or Summer. They just have a wet season and a dry season. As long as they are at your house temperature indoors, they will be in a growing state.

This whole process can take weeks, but eventually you will have a plant that can be planted in soil. Once that matures, you can take clones from it!

Keep trying!

-Ivy

I swear I was going to bring it in… soon.

I just needed some time!

Oh, the carnage…

Sorry, little guy...

This is what happens when you leave your tropical house plants outside, and the weather turns. I had started bringing other plants in, in preparation for Winter. I supposed the Pothos would be sturdy enough to deal with the initial cold snap.

I was wrong.

Oh, dear.

There are a few steps even the most novice gardener can take to avoid pitfalls like this one.

First: Know where your plant would thrive in the wild. Pothos, for example, would thrive in tropical or subtropical areas where the temperature would never dip below freezing. Apply this knowledge to your plants’ environment. I shouldn’t have let him stay out in the cold. If you have a sweater on, or you turned on the heat, your tropical plant is probably uncomfortable outside. It can’t metabolize in low temperatures, and sweaters just don’t work on houseplants. Bring him on in.

Second: (Here’s the rule I broke…) Keep an eye on the weather forecasts. If the weather man tells you it’s going to dip below freezing, he’s probably right.

Into the compost you go…

So I’ve been gradually moving my houseplants back in from their long Summer vacation outside. I’m determined to keep any would-be freeloaders OUT of my house. This includes anything that could cause problems with the rest of my plants. The main one I’m concerned about is spider mites. Ugh, those tiny red moving dots are a bad sign, people.

I found something that caught my eye, and decided to keep it for a while, just to see what would happen. (If any of you readers have children who are very curious and inquisitive, and always getting themselves into trouble, they will probably grow up and do things like this.)

I found it on a leaf, so I plucked the leaf, and stuck it in a jar.

What the heck is this thing??

It was very small. Maybe the size of a pencil eraser. Here’s a side view.

It looks like a creature from outer space. I mean, come on.

So this little guy was stuck to a leaf, inside a jar, in my house. Needless to say, I really scoured the other leaves of the plant to see if there were any more. I was alternately hoping it wasn’t harmful, and just trying to google the heck out of it to figure out what it was. I love little garden challenges like this. Name that bug!!

After I had had it for a while, I was looking at the jar, turning it over and examining the little creature, and… IT MOVED.

It stood up!

Pretty weird lookin’, huh? Even a little creepy… It’s worth noting that when I first found this, it looked very different. It was almost as if it was changing right before my eyes. At first, it looked like a sort of round caterpillar. It was orange and soft and leathery feeling (yes, I touched it). After I had it for a few hours, it started to look glassy and became hard to the touch. The more I bothered it, the more it moved around! I decided to leave it alone, and time flew by. The jar sat on my table for several days. No change in the creature, and no more movement. I feared I had bothered it to death!

I put it outside on my porch thinking it was dead. My friends told me to dump it out back and forget about it. After leaving it outside for a while, I brought it back in. Another week went by, and I assumed it was dead. I was going to toss it in the compost. Then, as I was writing my blog one day, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.

There inside the jar, hopping around, was a fully mature ladybug!!

It had been pupating that whole time! The soft leathery caterpillar was a larva, and he needed to change into an adult! And he did it on my kitchen table!

Here’s a blurry pic through the bottom of the jar:

You can see the mature ladybug in the center of the picture, clinging to the leaf. He has his white eye spots :)

I wanted a picture of the mature lady bug, but as soon as i opened the jar, he crawled out onto my hand, and 3, 2, 1 - LIFTOFF!

He flew away in the direction of my back garden, into the late Fall sun.

Leftovers:

I'm not sure if this is technically called an exoskeleton, or a chrysalis, or what. But either way, it's where the change took place, and it's empty now.

This is why we garden. These little experiences are why we keep plants in our lives. They help connect us to a story that is larger than ourselves.

-Ivy

I think I might be one of the only girls in the world who enjoys a bouquet MORE when there’s a spider in it

I arrived home to a bundle of wild flowers on my desk the other day. How sweet and awesome is that? I then texted the responsible party with a thank you, and he replied:

“Did you see the little guy in there?”

Upon a closer inspection:

Oh, he's in there, all right...

A little closer…

Liiiiiitle closer…

Aaahh!

Too close!

Hi!

Check out all those eyeballs!

This is a type of crab spider. They have long front legs and short back legs. They tend to hide in flowers and snag passing bugs. They don’t often turn up inside houses. He stayed in the bouquet for a few days, long enough to catch an annoying gnat that had been buzzing around my office. I tossed him out into the compost with the flowers once they had wilted. I’m sure he’ll find his way to some more wild flowers.

THIS is exactly why you should thoroughly inspect ALL plants that come in to your house. Be they your houseplant coming in from Summer vacation, or a fist full of flowers picked out of love. I’m actually having some issues in my house right now. I’ve been bringing in the most sensitive of my house plants inside, as cold weather is on its way. The influx of plants matter has brought with it a tide of pests! So far, nothing truly harmful. Just some beetles that had been living in the soil. It’s easy to survey the pot, and check the leaves for hitchhikers, but what to do about the subterraneans?

There are a plethora of containers to choose from to keep a plant in your home. There are as many types of containers as there are plants! In this series of posts, I will pick a material and describe the pros and cons. Hopefully, this will help you decide which pot to pick.

First off, the oldest and most easily recognizable:

Terra Cotta

Literally meaning “Baked Earth”, terra cotta is a natural clay. It has been used for thousands of years as pottery. It is probably one of the cheapest pots to buy (next to cheap plastic) and, as I will argue here, probably the best. Terra cotta is a clay, and is porous. This means that it will provide moisture with an easy channel to evaporate from the soil of your plant. The picture above is taken from the ground, looking up underneath my fish tank plant stand. I wrote an article about this a while back. There is a light affixed to the base of my fish tank, and I put potted plants under there. This particular plant is a small Douglas Fir in a medium-sized pot. Terra cotta can be painted and sealed to change the look of the material. A few years back, I got a terra cotta pot and painted it blue. I then sprayed it with a sealant. Oops. Should have done that the other way around…

Water evaporating through the pores of the material has seeped through over time. The sealant on the outside has kept the paint from falling away, so the result is a crackle effect.

I think it’s kinda cool

Here’s a photo of the same effect on an unpainted, unsealed pot:

The white marks are where salts and minerals have clung to the pot after the water has evaporated. This is harmless. It can be scrubbed off if it bothers you, but I kind of like the look.

Terra cotta is all natural, so you don’t have to worry about any chemicals leeching into the soil. If you drop one and break it, you can put the bits in your compost. (Disclaimer: Broken baked clay can cut you. Smash up the bits, and always wear gloves and shoes when you garden!) Because it allows water to evaporate, as well as drain from the bottom, (there are almost always drainage holes in terra cotta pots) there will be a slightly smaller chance of mold and fungus growing. If you tend to over water, or if you have a plant that really needs that well-drained soil, terra cotta has your back!

I will now attempt to use a picture that does not do Mother Nature justice to tell you how Mother Nature has it all figured out.

A perfect example of "Terracing"

This was an outcropping I saw on my recent hiking trip. The picture above is of a rock over hang that was covered with lush forest plants. There were ferns and mushrooms on top, and along the edge there were hanging plants that had creeped their way over the edge, to take advantage of the unobstructed light available there. The one hanging down in the center is called Creeping Jenny. One of my favorite ground covers. It also makes a great addition to planters.

“Terracing” refers to the use of height and dimension to create an arrangement of plants. Usually, in well-planned gardens and planters, you will see the tallest plants in the back, and sturdier, lower growing ones in the middle. In the front, it’s best to put ground covers, creepers and hanging plants. This provides an unobstructed view of all the plants involved.

Mother Nature: Gettin’ it right since time began.

-Ivy

I know all of you who have a love of gardening also love the wild and natural world. I went hiking recently in the Hocking Hills region of Southern Ohio, and I want to share some pictures of a little critter I met, and a beautiful example of a flower. It is important to know native plants and animals that will appear in your garden, so that you can identify them and know what effect they will have on your cultivated plants.

Hello there!

This furry little guy is the larva of the Banded Tussock moth. Also known as Halysidota tessellaris. The turfts of hair on his front and rear are also known as “lashes”. How cute He fell from a high branch of an old sycamore and landed right at my feet. I gently picked him up and set him back on his way up the tree, but not before snapping a few pics of him.

Later on in our hike, we came to an old bridge, and under the stairs leading up to the bridge, there were these tiny beautiful flowers. I had to do a little research to figure out what they were, but now that I know, I’m going to try to plant them in my yard next year.

This is called Jewelweed, or touch-me-not. Its Latin name is Impatiens capensis, and it’s known as a natural antidote to Poison Ivy when it’s crushed and rubbed on the site of irritation.