Plants Are The New Black

My family and friends thought I was going to end up a crazy cat lady. Over the years I've showed good form. I have ALWAYS had a cat. Generally more than one. I watched two of my cats give birth right next to my bed. I even found a stray/wild kitten outside our house, bribed it into our house with milk and kept it. It scratched and bit me but I loved it. I love cats. I had two cats before I got pregnant with my first son. One of my cats died during that pregnancy and I never replaced her. I spent my time working and when the nesting started I made my son a beautiful nursery. When I was pregnant with my second child I bought my first plant.  https://plantsarethenewblack.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/my-friend-fern.html This was the beginning of the end. You see I have an addictive personality and once I caught the planting bug I was hooked. My nesting this pregnancy was VERY plant focused. I spent my time and money on plants. Indoor plants. Outdoor plants. Things to put plan

Do you have a fiddle leaf fig? Is it dust collector? I tried misting the leaves with water and then wiping them. This worked but I would have to repeat this regularly. I saw this trick on pinterest and thought I would give it a go. All you need is a clean cloth and some coconut oil. First I dusted the leaves. I put a small amount of coconut oil on a damp cloth. The coconut oil was a little hard so I add some warm water. Then when the cloth was cool I wiped each leaf on the top side only. Before: After: Two weeks later: One month later: The leaves still look super shiny and the new leaf is the biggest one yet!! I will definitely do this again. Now I just need to grow a few more big leaves.  #growbabygrow Note sure if this works for other plants? Let know if you've tried it. Over two months later: While not as shiny still looking stunning and best of all no dust!!

Our Begonia Erythrophylla is one of our favourite indoor plants. Did you know Plant Mums are allowed to have favourites? She is so easy going and she has forgiven us quickly for our many mistakes. We particularly love her thick glossy leaves and how quickly she grows. Will you keep reading if we keep listing all the things we love? She is a little extra special because she is a plant that belonged to J's Great Grandma. We have grown a lot of plants from this original plant over the last few years all from a single leaf. This plant is over 25 years old. Amazing isn't she. I can't wait till mine looks like this. Here are some others that all started out from one leaf. Want to know how to grow your Begonia from a single leaf? https://plantsarethenewblack.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/begonia-babies-how-to-propagate-begonia.html

The Maiden Hair Fern. This is the plant that began my journey. It was a birthday gift before I was ready to be a plant mum. I killed it. Apparently it didn't like living next to the heatpump and never being watered. Who knew? When I decided to start my plant owner journey I replaced the one I killed. I felt like I needed to try again. We have been friends a couple of years now. I call this fern a friend because I haven't cared for it like a mother. I haven't been the best friend either. She is a bit like that friend you had as a teenager that you had an awesome time with for awhile. It was amazing but then you didn't see each other for ages. You decide to try and hangout again to revive those funtimes. Sometimes it works. Sometimes the friendship(plant) dies. My fern friend and I still hangout but she has suffered over the years. She has had plently of leaves do this. And this. My fern nearly died multiple times. I pulled off all the re

"I've killed every plant I own". Yep! That was me too. People would gift me a plant and it would die so quick.  Then I started to love the idea of pot plants and succulents. "But isn't it a waste of money if they just die?" I was thinking that too. Then I considered how much I spend when I buy flowers AND I expect them to die eventually. This made me relax a little about potentially killing any new plants I bought. And YES I've killed a few plants in my first two years of being a plant mum. However, I'm slowly learning the right place for each of my new plants to live and thrive. This is my fiddle leaf fig I have kept it alive over two years AND it has grown new leaves each spring. YAY!! One of the easiest plants I own is this Begonia Erythrophylla. It copes with low light and bright light. Has suffered through both underwatering and overwatering. Thankfully it is super happy now I have figured out that it seems to prefere bright light