I now know how to keep plants alive and I’m too excited about it to keep it to myself! Here’s my first official houseplant tour.
A few years ago I shared my first little houseplants. Those poor things were short lived. Somehow after having my son, I slowly became better at caring for plants. I started to research them more, learn from others with plants, and find like-minded friends on this plant mama journey. It seriously sounds a lot like what happened once I became pregnant haha! I guess having a child changes you in unexpected ways! This is definitely not to say that you need to have human kids to keep your plant kids alive, but it just so happened to align with me slowing down and paying more attention to my green babies.
I’ve had the typical ups and downs with pests, learning about soil and nutrients, overwatering and under watering, and a general dislike of all succulents because I don’t understand how people say that you can’t kill them. That’s about all I do to them, minus my snake plant. I love that one so much.
Oh, and bare with me – this is my first official Houseplant Tour, so this post is a bit long.
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Houseplant Tour Summer 2020
Current Total Potted Houseplants
I currently am the mama & caretaker of 22 total houseplants, and you can see them all on this houseplant tour.
- Lemon lime maranta / Prayer plant (Maranta Leuconeura ‘Marisela’) [2]
- Golden pothos / Devil’s ivy (Epipremnum aureum) – [2]
- Spider plant – green (Chlorophytum comosum)
- Chinese evergreen / Aglaonema silver queen (Aglaonema commutatum)
- Red aglaonema (Aglaonema commutatum)
- Peperomia rosso / Radiator plant / Peperomia “Eden” rosso / Emerald ripple pepper (Peperomia caperata “rosso”)
- Sansevieria Starfish (Sansevieria cylindrica – compact) [3 + 2 babies in the pot with the mom plant]
- Rattlesnake calathea (Calathea lancifolia)
- Calathea zebrina / Zebra plant (Calathea zebrina)
- Hindu rope (Hoya compacta)
- Cronton (Codiaeum variegatum)
- Oxalis triangularis / False shamrock / Purple shamrock (Oxalis triangularis) – [2]
- Snake plant / Sansevieria / Sansevieria trifasciata (Dracaena trifasciata)
- Purple waffle (Hemigraphis alternata)
- ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) – [2]
- Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller)
Related post: 5 Houseplants that are native to Africa
The visual houseplant tour:
Current Plants in Propagation Station
I have learned how to multiply my plants and I’m trying really enjoy the process. My original pothos plant nearly died a few years ago so I had to take it out of the soil, separate it, and let it recover in water, so it was basically propagation. Here are the plants that I’m currently propagating:
- Lemon lime maranta (Maranta Leuconeura ‘Marisela’) – this propagation hasn’t been the walk in the park I thought it would be. I pruned the mama plant because it was taking up a lot of space, so I decided to use the cuttings to make new plants. I prematurely took the plants out of the water and planted them, and they were weak and unhappy as a result. So, I placed them back in water and they seem to be doing better. (This one is now planted in soil and doing just fine!) I also started another cup of cuttings to propagating, so I’m just watching them closely and waiting until their roots are more established to plant them in soil again.
- Monstera (Monstera deliciosa) – I purchased this clipping at the same time as I did my lemon lime maranta. I was told that it could not be rooted in water, so I purchased the recommended rooting hormone and spaghnum moss to help it grow. That didn’t work AT ALL. Plus, Little Boo used the plant like a baseball bat, and one of the two leaves never recovered from that incident. In a last ditch attempt, I stuck it in soil. It’s still alive, and it looks like a new leaf is about to sprout. If it does, you’ll hear all about it in my Instagram stories!
- Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) – I took 3 cuttings from my outdoor lavender plant and put them in water. 2 have survived. I was hoping to keep it as an indoor plant, but I’m learning that lavender doesn’t grow well indoors. They’ll eventually end up outside with me hoping they survive.
- Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) – I found a random piece of my pothos (a remnant from when I was propagating, repotting and combining different pothos that I already had) that had a node on it, so I stuck it in water! The two roots that have formed are really long, it might have been in the water too long at this point. I’ll be sticking it in the pot with my tiny pothos soon.
- The mama Sansevieria Starfish (Sansevieria cylindrica – compact) had to well-developed babies on it when I purchase it, and now two more have popped up and they are growing quickly!
My Favorite Houseplants Lately
Yes, I play favorites. It doesn’t impact my care for my plants, though. They all get stared at several times a day and probably a little overwatered just because I be all up in their faces haha! Here are my current favorites:
- Lemon lime maranta (Maranta Leuconeura ‘Marisela’) – it is very easy to care for and so pretty and unique to me! I love the texture and the pattern of the leaves.
- ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) – I’ve been really into researching plants currently, and I’m loving that a lot of my favorite plants originate in Africa. The ZZ was the first plant that I purchased based on the fact that it is originally found in Africa (I have since learned that snake plants originate in Africa, too). It helps that they’re super cute and even easier to care for!
My Least Favorite Houseplants Lately
- Purple waffle (Hemigraphis alternata) – it is sooooo dramatic. Keeping it watered and constantly running a humidifier/diffuser for it started the war with gnats in my home that is (hopefully) finally coming to an end. I was relieved when I thought it was just done. I was about to start planning a new plant for that nice ass pot it sits in. But it must have read my mind because it perked back up the next day. UPDATE – I’m bottom watering and it’s not such a horrible plant to me anymore.
Recent Houseplant Deaths
I have to keep it all the way real with y’all! Plants die, it happens. Most recently, my aloe vera – I think it has actually been dead for a very long time, but I put it in soil after watching an aloe vera care video. I had semi-high hopes. When I recently checked the plant, it didn’t even have roots. I was able to find a new aloe vera at Home Depot, but I want an even bigger one soon.
I believe I have another one on it’s way to the grave, too – that purple waffle mentioned above. I’ll keep y’all updated. UPDATE – it is in a bottom watering ceramic pot now and is actually doing quite well!
Another recent plant death is my poor Bonnie spider plant, which is a curly variegated version of the spider plant. I purchased it as a rescue from Kroger and they discounted it for me because it looked questionable. When I got it home, it was worse than I thought. I cleaned it up and pruned a lot of it and removed it from the overwatered soil it was in. Maybe I should have let it dry out before whacking it and repotting it, but I was excited to see it looking nice. And again, I didn’t know how bad of shape it was in until I removed it from the pot that it came in. The poor thing didn’t last a week until the parts that didn’t look so bad turned into mush at the base just like the majority of the plant was when I first got it.
Recent Online Plant Purchases
I’ve been buying plants online, y’all! Here’s a list of what I’ve found. I may share the unboxing videos at some point, and if I do I’ll update this post and share the links here. Buying plants online made me anxious, but I will be trying again by purchasing from Black-owned online plant nurseries in the future.
- Bros with Hoes – BWH Plant Co
- Rattlesnake calathea
- Calathea zebrina
- Hoya compacta
- Planterina
- ZZ Plant
My Houseplant Wishlist
I have a lot of plants on my wish list, but here are 5 that I reaaaaaally want right now. Also, to be someone who feels like I only kill succulents, there are quite a few succulents on my wish list. But they look amazing, and I’d love to care for them and enjoy their beauty in my home! I’m obsessed with snake plants, which is the succulent that I know how to keep alive, and I want so many different varieties of it.
- Whale fin snake plant (Sansevieria masoniana)
- Whale tail (Senecio vitalis crested)
- Cylindrical snake plant / Dracaena angolensis / African spear / Brazil Saint Barbara (Sansevieria cylindrica)
- Bonnie spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) – I found and purchased this one as a rescue from Kroger over the few weeks that I put this post together, and it died within a week! Now it’s back on the wish list.
- Pilea peperomioides / “Money Plant” (Pilea peperomioides)
- Dried silver dollar vine (Xerosicyos danguyi – dried out)
I hope you enjoyed my first houseplant tour!
What plants are you currently loving or dreading? What plants are on your wishlist? Let me know in the comments!
I love houseplant tours! Thank you for sharing your plants :))