There's something to be said for smaller plants.

Bill M.

2 years ago

"Hi, my name is Bill and I collect plants"

"Hi Bill"

"The reason I made this meeting tonight is because I can't help myself"

"We know Bill, that's why we're here too. Together we'll try to help you, but you have to want it yourself"

"I know, but it's soooo difficult."

"Why don't you tell us what's bothering you Bill"

"Well, this is difficult, but I'll try. I've been an avid plant collector all my life. I can't begin to tell you how much money I've spent on plants"

"Yes, we understand, we've all been there, now, please go on"

"Every year, actually almost every month, week, ok, day, I see an different plant and think I gotta have that, or that one looks interesting, or a friend on a forum recommended something and I say to myself maybe I'll try growing it. Well, what typically happens is I get the plant, and it grows like crazy. It grows huge. The leave fill out, they spread, they take over areas I was hoping to put smaller plants in. Before I know it I'm out of room. I need larger pots, more soil, it never ends"

"That's happened to a lot of us Bill"

"Anyway, I'm thinking about rethinking my philosophy on plants. Maybe smaller is better. Smaller plants would be easier to arrange. Smaller plants would be easier, much easier to water. Smaller plants would be easier to spot mealies, or other detrimental insects. Smaller plants would take up less room. Wait a minute! If I had smaller plants, and they took up less room, I could buy more plants, more smaller plants, and fill thos"

"Bill - STOP! You're starting to regress into your plant addict self. Stop now and breath...take a drink of water... good, now you ready? OK, continue"

"Thanks - I was about to say that smaller plants being smaller could be reached easier and monitored easier and not have huge pots all around creating tiny little passage ways for me to walk or more the case recently, stumble through. I think smaller is better in this case doncha think"

"Bill - what are you going to do when the smaller plants grow. For instance, hoyas. They'll start out small, but in a season or two the vines will spread all over the place, effectively becoming a big plant. What will you do then Bill? Philodendrons tend to start out small Bill, but they too grow well under the right conditions and become huge. What then Bill? Have you thought this out?"

"Now you've got me confused - can I have one of those brownies please? Yeah those, thanks. So as I was saying - i just don't know. What are all of you doing about your plants? Unlike ancient Chinese practices, I can't bind their feet, so they continue to grow. Do you have any suggestions? What do most of you have and think?"

Well folks - what say ye?

Featured Answer

popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)

2 years ago

Well written, friend! I loved it! I'm saving this somewhere. I don't know why I can no longer press the "like" button for top posts. So here is me pressing it:

like like like like like

Does anyone here watch the series Intervention? Let me preface this by saying that I'm not making light of addictions whatsoever. But this was funny! Last night my kid came to me and said, "Your plant addiction is affecting me negatively in the following ways..." He had a list. The first on the list was, "The kitchen sink is always full of plants and I can't use it!"

He's not wrong! I have an addiction. My addiction was always primarily with outdoor plants. Those never really affected him at all. He used to say something like, "Do you have to buy a plant everywhere you go?" when I returned from the grocery store with yes, a plant! I filled my yard and have no more room really to plant anything there unless something dies. But over the past three years, I became indoor plant obsessed. I've done a tremendous job of acquiring. Most of my plants are small. But yes, some have grown tall and it presents new challenges for me. I do my best to rise to that challenge!

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Comments (21)

Meyermike(Zone 6a Ma.)
2 years ago
LOL!!1 I needed that. Very good council, but it just won't work for me. I am hopeless..
Bill M. thanked Meyermike(Zone 6a Ma.)
bob_15
2 years ago
Fantastic! Although hits a little too close to home for me…
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
superb ...

back in the day... i used to collect mini african violets ... you cant believe how many you can get under one light set up ....

ken
Patti Chicago Zone 5b/6a
2 years ago
great post!! I needed a laugh too. I know it is my income that keeps me from getting all the plants I want to have. LOL!!!! Maybe one day...
socks
2 years ago
Funny, Bill, very funny. Could apply to others who collect coins, ceramics, stamps,etc. I rein myself in pretty well altho’ Home Depot and Trader Joes are my weak spots. But I can get in trouble at Mountain Crest Gardens without leaving home.
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
I can say +1..can’t stop..they grow.. i prune and root..they grow..and fill all nooks. i expand to balcony.. after a decade i expand to ’winters in FL’ with balcony in due time…

now i travel between 2 locales with car full of plants: safegarding with cuttings for favorites..(lost a few!, reaquired)..

here’s how i manage the growth rate: small pots all on wicks when i am not resident.

they consume much less water with subirrigation and grow compact. wicks are not as good for larger pots: i set up those on top wicks with water jugs.

i try not to buy monsters 🤣, but some slip in (like my philo subinsisum: i cut the vines and reroot tops duscarding the base or letting it grow much smaller leaves).

eventually some do get very big and luscious and then they collapse when i am away ..

but i am prepared with doubles 😁…

eventually i hope for more space …and a greenhouse .. and outdoor garden..and maintaing strong back! and knees! i need to start to tai-chi soon..i am exercising of course: step ladder with water jugs is handy.

i repotted all biggies into plastic with ceramic holding pot outside ( easier to lift out).

i am adjusting as i go…repot as i can..there’s always more to buy to try new more challenging things..🙄😏..

i am still somewhat in control, as i manage several other hobbies and i won’t give up travel!

but yes, ‘small-er plants‘is key! ( i trimmed my 8’ ficus lyrata over 7 years back to 6-ish ’ and grew 5-6 new ones 🤣 to 5’ , but that’s managable! )..

unfortunately most of people we know are not interested in plants (city slickers! family people, workaholics..the usual ).. but on occasion i managed to give away the biggest and handsomest (to save them from near demise) 😁👍.

life is good!
stupidlazydog CT zone 5b/6a
2 years ago
Love this thread, i don't feel so alone :-) My kitchen sink almost always has plants in it. My family gave up on complaining long ago. On trips to Florida I have been known to come home with plants packed in suitcases along with the dirty laundry.

My mother was an indoor plant fanatic, my father was an outdoor plant fanatic, so, you see, I was doomed from the start. I like both. Since we've been in the same house for 40 years now, I have slowed down on planting outside. It's weird seeing trees and shrubs that were really small when I planted them and are now huge. 10' (or more) Rhodies, a God knows how tall dawn redwood, a 25' lacebark pine, the list goes on and on.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
2 years ago
How amusing, Bill, thank you!

Very few plants can't be trimmed and kept to a maximum size determined by the human. Consider bonsai trees that are hundreds of years old of species that are big trees when not mechanically manipulated and constricted into a small pot. I try to avoid gathering any more entities that fit in the can't-be-trimmed category, like palms, or simply unavoidably large plants like Monstera and fiddle leaf fig.

If something truly outgrows my house, I should be able to find somebody who wants it. Somebody gave me some GIGANTIC plants yesterday and they won't even fit through a doorway. Some surgery will be required to enable them to escape frost by coming inside.

IME, small pots are not easier to tend or water. They dry every 5 mins, and it's so easy to dribble way too much water on them. They are usually dangerously top-heavy too. Little plants end up tumbling around often when I'm around them.

But I LOVE minuscule plants, so I usually group them together in bigger pots that are more stable, don't dry so fast, and allow more plants to gather closer to a window.

Hanging pots also help expose more plants to the great rays of sun near a window, using the space above where table-top or floor plants are occupying.
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
Let’s see new aquisitions, purple! preferrably against the door that they can’t get thru!

invasion of green matter🤣😱!
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
2 years ago
OK, here's a Yucca. It's at least 7 ft. tall.

Snake plants (Sansevieria).

Rubber tree plant (Ficus elastica)
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
My kitchen sink almost always has plants in it.

==>>>

here is the ultimate ...

you garbage pick a kitchen sink ... drag it home.. build a structure for it.. and have a kitchen sink in the garden ..

and dont laugh to hard.. ive seen it multiple times.. usually attached to the hose ... you dont really need to plumb it ...

you cant believe how wonderful it is.. to stand upright when bare rooting or potting a plant ...

what was the topic??? ... lol...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=kitchen+sink+in+the+garden&iax=images&ia=images
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Wow! , @Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL

yucca is hardy, you prolly can dig it in! no need to drag it in..

Ficus will need good light though..but it’s in great shape! worth taking careof.. if you pull the trunks together a bit with twine (not too tight, you can tighten later), it’ll look better and take less real estate. i do it with mine to keep them narrower next to the windows.

now sansi..you can stick into any dark corner and forget about it until spring..just keep it dry..

i would tie it up all around with like lng shoelaces..to keep it from falling sideways.

nice haul!👍
getgoing100_7b_nj
2 years ago
+1. There is so much to lament about my plant addiction. The latest is me bringing a box packed with 4 inch pots with at least 2/3 different plants/cuttings of my fave plants (that I had started well in advance) in my checked in luggage to my mother in India so I can share the goodies with her. She is recovering very painfully slowly from an angioplasty/stent placement procedure for the last couple of months and could not muster up enough excitement despite us hitherto sharing the plant mania. She is telling all and sundry about it.......Guess what - I forgot to bring my laptop and my electrical toothbrush....I was too busy making sure the plant left out in the balcony are ones that would take at least a light frost and are reasonably protected and the ones indoors have wicked reservoirs or are well watered to last 33 days or more that I plan to be away. Let's face it, it's like any other addiction, just like reading or watching TV/browsing the net is, even if these are not as destructive as say alcohol or stronger stuff. And I agree, smaller isn't better. They dry out faster, will die when you are away or just lazy with watering, will fall or even fly away in the wind (I have lost a few to winds taking them with them to lands unknown).
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
2 years ago
Thank you, Petruska! I'm not finding anywhere that says the Yucca is hardy below Z9.
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
I guess it depends which Yucca 😏. we have it here in landscaping in JC (Nyc). can you ID

yours? or was it grown as a houseplant locally in AL?
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
2 years ago
It's Y. elephantipes/gigantea. The person who gave it to me lives nearby and said she has always taken it inside for winter.

I don't know that smaller is better or that bigger is better, they are just different. I've never felt overwhelmed by a small plant and wondering what in the world I'm going to do with it over winter.
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Oh, well..you took it in..now what to do?! 😏

will the friendly people be visiting it too?

you coulld chop off couple of feet and root it to reduce size! it’s kinda tall 🙄 and needs sun indoors: how many of yr plants will need to move then? it’s a good size for 2 story atrium 🤣..

it says it can take light frost: but yr temps are lower then that , right? unheated greenhouse would do, but you dont have one?

may be you can house it elsewhere? or build a protection shed like for palms?

i see a problem…

quote:

You can grow spineless Yucca outdoors if you live in USDA zones 9–11. Although it is a desert plant, it can tolerate temperatures as low as 30 °F (-1 °C), so a light frost won’t damage it.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
2 years ago
Thank you so much for your feedback and trying to help! I do have a tiny GH with heat but the ceiling of it is not as high as that tree. You're right, each winter blesses this location with just enough nights that are just cold enough to damage tropical plants. Kind of a tease because the incidents are so spread out over a few months and most of winter is so pleasant and not frosty, most nights of most winters.

DH offered to construct something but w/o a source of heat, I'm not sure it would be enough. I need to figure something out soon. A frosty night is not yet specifically scheduled yet, but will happen sometime soon.
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
Well, not to sidetrack this light-hearted thread..but the haloween looms..and lots of straw bricks will be discarded and/or available cheap : you can stack them around the pot (perhaps cut them in two?) or cut them loose: straw is an excellent insulator so long as it’s dry. so just need a plastic tarp to cover. i’ve seen people use beach umbrellas to cover the top (secured if course 😁). so long as neighbors do not object.. may be make it look like a scarecrow? haloween witch …?

just having fun ,sorry, can’t resist..

witch under umbrella?! with a pile of punkins..and then leave it be ..as if forgotten..

the tips can freeze, of course, but then cut a few off for rooting!
petrushka (7b)
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Looked up weather ahead on wunderground : dec-jan-feb. listed for Dothan AL, but that’s approx as south as Opp? similar?

very handy site! Recommend!

i see 38f in dec, 39f in jan and goin on 40f in feb for nightlies: that is all doable , no frost at all. not sure why are you woried then?

palm zone pushers will have the best tips.

search palmtalk.org

in So FL they wrap old-fashioned xmas lights ovet pot and trunks and mist the plants if it drops below 32f.

easiest is to set up rebar cage , wrap with chicken wire and fill with straw/ leaves.

but that presumes all Palm leaves will be covered..

of course for fruit trees they are worried about trunks and branches mostly, not tips.

you might want to spray the leaves with dessicator : helps with wind / frost damage .

There's something to be said for smaller plants.

popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)

Comments (21)

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