Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with houseplant

Oh, so that's why I've been sweeping up so many leaves lately.

pemberkins — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:16:05 -0800

How do I save my house plants from a sudden pest infestation? One of my house plants has somehow picked up a host of what I suspect are aphids (pictures: 1, 2; correct me if I'm wrong in my ID). They're mostly accumulated on new growth, but the plant is losing both new and old leaves.

I've tried wiping the affected parts down to physically remove the aphids, but I end up knocking off more leaves than I clean, so this doesn't seem like a good long term strategy.

I would spray the whole thing down with a hose, but I don't have a hose (not even a sink sprayer!).

How else can I get rid of these guys? This plant has been with me for a long time, and I feel like a bad parent for letting it get this infested. I'd rather not have to get rid of it.

Mushroom Identification Help?

rmless — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:49:07 -0800

What are these mushrooms that are growing in my houseplant? Overnight these mushrooms seem to have sprouted in my Dracaena marginata plant. They are about 2 inches high and the caps are gray and ribbed with tan tips. They look a lot like limpets.
What are they and should I be worried about my plant?
Should I keep this one far from my other plants?
I am guessing this means I overwatered?
What should I do about them- dig them out or ignore them?
Can I eat them?

Half Cat, Half Gopher.

EmpressCallipygos — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:27:59 -0800

I'm seeking a good pest repellant for a houseplant -- except, that "pest" in question has four feet and says "meow." My cat has taken to snacking on the leaves of a strawberry plant I'm keeping indoors and trying to grow to the point that it bears fruit. I used to have six strawberry plants -- but my cat has been eating the leaves off them one by one and then spitting them back out, which has killed most of them off. I have only one strawberry plant left, and I'd like to save it from the Feline Ravages. Moving it out of reach isn't an option -- that's where I've moved all the OTHER plants he's been trying to eat.

Is there some kind of plant-friendly thing I can spray on the leaves that would deter him? I searched the old threads and saw Bitter Apple mentioned, is that best? Is there also a home-grown option Some kind of pepper spray, maybe? Or something else? Or would putting a dish of catgrass next to it instead to distract him be the best option?

Thanks.

A fungus among me

Post-it Goat — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:00:38 -0800

What are these horrible spores growing in my houseplant? Spore pictures included! Picture 1, picture 2. Help?

What kind of plant is this?

heartquake — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:43:35 -0800

What kind of plant is this? My friend has this plant that is a a bit Little Shop of Horrors. By day it is ecstatic and perky (like pictured in the photo link), and at night, it gets all emo and starts listening to Dashboard Confessional. Anyone know what kind of plant this is? image here

Please help me to identify this plant

cadge — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:04:13 -0800

What is this houseplant? I bought this large indoor tropical houseplant yesterday at Home Depot, but when I got home, I realized it did not have an identifier tag on it with care instructions.

Can anyone identify it so that I can look up its proper care?

Photo of its leaves
Photo of the whole plant

Name that plant!

iamkimiam — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:07:05 -0800

What is this houseplant? It was purchased at Trader Joes in the CA Bay Area. It has bright green leafy leaves with violet/purple centers (and the purple wants to bleed out to the edges in even lines). The leaves are big and heavily textured with scallop-like edges. The centers of the leaves seem to be rotting some bit, don't know why.

So...
1. What is this plant?
2. Is it poisonous to pets?
3. How can one take care of it?

Here is the link again.

Thanks!

What is the deal with my corn plant?

zembla3 — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:32:33 -0800

I recently purchased a three- to four-foot Dracaena Massangea, or corn plant. I have a moisture meter gauge that I use to determine whether my plants need to be watered or not (it has two metal prongs that you put into the soil, and a red, yellow or green light goes on to signal whether the soil is moist or not.) The gauge works great with all my other plants, but with the corn plant, the gauge never indicates that the soil is dry. I have now gone weeks without watering the corn plant, and the gauge still says the soil is sufficiently moist near the roots. The plant looks fine, but what gives? How often should a corn plant of this size be watered?

How to soothe a resentful orchid?

janell — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:45:16 -0800

Help! My orchid is cranky and I don't know how to help it be happy. The History: The afflicted orchid is a Cattleya cross (Trick or Treat). I bought it about a year ago, at a farmers market, when I lived in the bay area. At that point, it had a group of blossoms and was very happy ... until late May, when I left it alone in my apartment for four very hot days. The flowers shriveled up and turned black, I pinched them off, everything seemed to be fine. Two new stems sprouted and grew a pair of leaves each by mid-September.
Then I moved out of my very bright, diffusely illuminated apartment and lived in a very shady back bedroom at a friend's house for about six weeks. Growth seemed to stop, but the plant seemed fine.
Next, I drove across the country, with another two-week hiatus in a moderately lit room in the middle of the country. The plant never stayed outside overnight during the roadtrip, but it did experience a few mornings of sub-freezing chilliness before the car got warm inside.

The Problem: Now, in CT, my orchid is cranky. One of the two new stalks has withered away, and the biggest stalk (the one that had the flowers on it when I got it) looks sickly. Instead of smooth, AskMe-green, the large leaves are developing longitudinal ridges/wrinkles and a more leathery surface. There is also a yellow cast to those two leaves.

Maintenance Info: Throughout my orchid-ownership, I've been feeding it with 20:20:20(aq) every 7-10 days, with excellent drainage. The pot gets pretty dried out between waterings. The instructions that the farmers-market-guy gave me included misting the buds and blossoms every morning, and I continue to give the plant a light mist every day even though there are no flowers.
I suspect that the light level might be the problem, but I don't have a lot of window options, and the brightest (north-facing) windows come with hot winds from the heating system. Right now, the plant is in a east-facing window that isn't drafty.

Am I doing something wrong, or is the orchid punishing me for moving it? I'd love specific suggestions on how to restore this plant.

Help me find a fancy office plant

antimony — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 09:09:38 -0800

I'd like a showy plant for my desk at work. Something that really turns heads, and is like no other plant in the office. It can be high-maintenance, since I am generally pretty good with plants. I have a cool fluorescent light two feet off my workspace, with room for plants underneath. I am willing to mail-order from specialty nurseries if necessary.

I need the hookup on some green

dead_ — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 11:40:46 -0800

Recommend some houseplants to me. I want to spice up my apartment with some foliage, but I have a tendency to often forget my poor plants, or on the flipside, sometimes I pay too much attention (flood, anyone?).

So I'm going to buy some new plants, but am utterly ignorant.

Recommend some nice, low-maintenance houseplants for me. I have a large row of windows facing south and also a skylight, so the place gets plenty of indirect sunlight.

I'm a yellowthumb today.

Big Fat Tycoon — Thu, 04 May 2006 21:26:28 -0800

Plantfilter: What is this fan-like plant and how can I keep it from not turning yellow? Someone gave me this plant but has no idea what it is. I've been trying to identify it with random searches on Google, but it's a fool's errand. The closest I've come is thinking it was a daylily, minus the flowers, but it doesn't have the white crown that would indicate it was that plant.

Here are some pictures:

The entire plant

The bud of a new plant growing from an old leaf

As you can see, it seems to grow blade leaves in a row or axis, so that each section of it looks fan-like. I think I might have overwatered it, because many of the tips are turning yellow and emitting a brown sap. I was told that I could take the new leaf that's growing from the old leaf and plant it separately.

Given this information, is it possible to figure out what this plant is before I managed to murderalize it?

What kind of houseplant (or tree!) is this?

itchi23 — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 08:10:26 -0800

What kind of plant is this (or this or this.) It's a seven foot tall indoor houseplant that blooms these very sappy and strong smelling flowers every winter. It's sort of a palm-tree - but I have no idea. I inherited it from a previous tenant, and I've since moved and brought the plant with me to a new place. I don't know much about it, except that my cats chew on the leaves. I don't have any other houseplants, and don't know much about how to care for it. I also may be moving cross-country this August, and I want to know
a) what kind of plant this is,
and b) how would I move it x-country w/o damaging it. I may be moving to a warmer climate where it could potentially be outside most of the year and really flourish, so I don't want to kill it.

Tall Houseplant Recommendations

andrew cooke — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 11:50:30 -0800

recommendations, please, for tall houseplants that need little watering (we're sometimes away for a week or two), like the warmth (summer is warm, winter has central heating), and don't mind the shade (in summer there are blinds outside to keep the temperature down)? someone just recommended ficus alli to us, yet they are described on that page as "sun loving" - what's right? also, once bought, do we need to repot them into something larger? if so, what soil do we need? anything else plant-clueless people should know? thanks! if weeks without water is just crazy, we'll need to make other arrangements for watering, but the other conditions can't change, and we're still likely to water only intermittently.

Healthy Plants

brownpau — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 11:21:41 -0800

Plantfilter. And I mean that literally. I seek recommendations for my next potted plant, and I want one which can filter the air. More inside. I have two empty pots at home, former abodes of two kalanchoes who met an untimely violent end, and now I feel ready to plant something new in their place. I'm looking for something which is (1) safe for a cat who might nibble, (2) able to survive indoors on relatively low maintenance, (3) an air toxin filter to aid my downtown studio life. I currently have a Norfolk Island Pine, a coleus, an african violet, some catnip, and a tiny new kalanchoe growing from a salvaged cutting, well out of the cat's reach.

(Oh, and no spider plants, please; I know they're filters, but their cat-safeness is dubious, and their propensity for propagation is problematic.)

MeFi Green Thumbs, got any recommendations?