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I never really cared that much about plants, especially the non-flowering kind. Now, a year after I got a poorly made vivarium for my frogs that is turning into a mess, I'm building a new one that's more naturalistic and includes tropical plants from the biomes (or similar) where the frogs originally came from. I got a basic plant package, but it included a couple of things that are known to take over a viv that I'm just putting in planters in my bathroom. Then I was fantastically lucky enough to have two different people send me a wonderful selection of much more special plant clippings.

Now I find myself really getting into it. Calathea, Pilea, Anthurium, Philodendron, Syngonium...I'm starting to understand why people end up overplanting their vivaria, so many beautiful choices! (My favorite has to be Schismatoglottis for the name alone.)

I'm also becoming a huge fan of epiphytes like bromeliads, orchids, and some vining plants. Bromeliad axils are where dart frogs tend to like to lay eggs or just take a little bath, so they're highly recommended in any viv. I tacked a couple of Neoregelias to the cork background using florist wire, and now they're putting out all these roots right into the cork. I also have an Epidendrum porpax orchid that I'm trying to get to grow on some cork in my terrarium, which is just a small 10g tank built like a viv where I'm growing the plants.

I'm trying my hand at growing a pineapple from the top of another one. So far it's alive and growing. I've been told it may take another year before we get a pineapple on it.

My sister gave me a cut from a rhubarb plant. It's basically a weed. I brought it home, planted it, watered it...and it's dead now.

I am neither an indoor, nor an outdoor gardener.

I've had hit or miss luck with plants, extra frustrating because both my father and great-grandmother are/were like The Plant Whisperers. I pat myself on the back that the herb garden I was given for Mother's Day and the snap dragon around Easter are both still alive and thriving. Also, Mr. Z's Taiwanese money tree, which we got as an itty-bitty thing when he started his new career is a huge floor-plant that comes about to me chest 6+ years later. And the new bushes we planted this spring are not dead.

To me, this is plant victory.

Dave said:

My sister gave me a cut from a rhubarb plant. It's basically a weed. I brought it home, planted it, watered it...and it's dead now.

I am neither an indoor, nor an outdoor gardener.

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You'd like my wife. She's not allowed around the garden because she managed to kill a cactus.

New house includes some planter boxes for some edibles. I'll let you know how it goes...

Tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, pumpkins, arugula (though we don't need to PLANT anymore, its basically a weed), peas, all sorts of stuff.

I am a better-than-average gardner, but I don't garden. Just don't enjoy spending all that time even enough to reap the rewards, though I will help out with my wife or someone else who wants a hand.

@Dave , I recommend you try a marble or golden pothos. It's the only plant Kati hasn't managed to kill, and she bought this plant 15 years ago.

--Patrick

Celt Z said:

To me, this is plant victory.

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I'd say so!

PatrThom said:

Just don't enjoy spending all that time even enough to reap the rewards

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Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that. My problem is more that I don't have the energy anymore, but I've also never been big on working in the sun. And I tend to lose interest after I've started a project. There's no way this new interest would have happened without the frogs, and probably not even without the generosity of the two guys from a forum who sent me plant clippings. (One set was in trade for about 20 of my tadpoles -- long story -- and the other was just a really kind gift from someone who wanted me to have more vivarium-friendly vining plants than the pothos. Speaking of which...)

PatrThom said:

I recommend you try a marble or golden pothos. It's the only plant Kati hasn't managed to kill, and she bought this plant 15 years ago.

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Absolutely. Golden pothos is one of the plants I got that every dart frog keeper uses for various things but I was warned against putting it in a vivarium. It's sitting in a bucket of damp sphagnum moss right now, not even soil, and it's growing like mad. Another hardy specimen is the Wandering Jew (seriously). There are some really pretty varieties, but it will also, per its name, go everywhere and spread roots all through the substrate. It's also surviving just fine in the moss. If you get these at someplace like Home Depot, they'll probably already be started with a good root ball, which will be far easier to acclimate and keep alive than cuttings can often be.

We've got patio tomatoes, jalepenos, mint, cilantro, basil, and a curry tree. I basically try to grow salsa. Right now I am trying to figure out what/who is snatching my green tomatoes. It's either: neighbor, bird, squirrel, chipmunk, or bird. I will solve this horrendous crime!

We finally had a deck that got sunlight this year, so we put together a container garden with several different flavors of mint - orange, chocolate, Moroccan, pineapple (won't be doing that again), spearmint, and peppermint - some pole beans (I got one bean), pole peas (got a handful of peas), various kitchen herbs, tomatoes (they were labelled as romas, but they're definitely cherry tomatoes), and strawberries; as well as some purely decorative flowering plants (two honeysuckles that didn't flower this year, two star jasmine that have doing awesome, a lavender plant, and two wisterias - one of which may even survive. We also got a couple of those double hook shepherd's crooks and lashed them to the corner posts of the deck railing with stainless steel cable ties so we could get some hanging baskets, but then ran out of money before we could get any hanging baskets. Maybe we'll get some nice fall flowers. And I think aside from the strawberries, mint, and herbs, we'll forgo edibles next year.

ZenMonkey said:

....... Calathea, Pilea, Anthurium, Philodendron, Syngonium...... (My favorite has to be Schismatoglottis for the name alone.)

.....

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<points>
The words thread is over there lady.


... I have nothing else to contribute to this thread.

nice to see you around again @ZenMonkey

One thing I love about Tomatoes, is that the best ones we've had weren't the ones we planted. They just appear near our compost pile and they end up being the best of the crop.

Yoshimickster said:

One thing I love about Tomatoes, is that the best ones we've had weren't the ones we planted. They just appear near our compost pile and they end up being the best of the crop.

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Fish fertilizer will make your tomato plants huge and leafy. Use a fish fertilizer until your plants are giant and healthy.
Potash fertilizer will make them explode with tomatoes. Once you have huge, healthy tomato plants, give them some potassium and you will get an avalanche of tomatoes.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Fish fertilizer will make your tomato plants huge and leafy. Use a fish fertilizer until your plants are giant and healthy.
Potash fertilizer will make them explode with tomatoes. Once you have huge, healthy tomato plants, give them some potassium and you will get an avalanche of tomatoes.

--Patrick

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Knew about the fish fertilizer, didn't know about the potassium, thanks!

A friend of mine is a goddamn mastermind of indoor gardening, but I'm not so certain his 'crops' are the kind you eat, or look at, or are even legal in this state.

Ravenpoe said:

A friend of mine is a goddamn mastermind of indoor gardening, but I'm not so certain his 'crops' are the kind you eat, or look at, or are even legal in this state.

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I've always wanted to do that, but I'd have to move so much stuff around it just sounds like such a hassle.

Yoshimickster said:

I've always wanted to do that, but I'd have to move so much stuff around it just sounds like such a hassle.

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I've always wanted to do that, too. Not because I thought I'd earn money doing it, or because I want it for myself*, but just for the challenge of making some absolutely primo stuff...kind like how a person my brew up their own gourmet batch of mead, for instance.

--Patrick
*I've never smoked anything. Ever. Why ruin the streak now?

PatrThom said:

I've always wanted to do that, too. Not because I thought I'd earn money doing it, or because I want it for myself*, but just for the challenge of making some absolutely primo stuff...kind like how a person my brew up their own gourmet batch of mead, for instance.

--Patrick
*I've never smoked anything. Ever. Why ruin the streak now?

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Good for you, more to put into cookies!