There I was the other morning looking at my house plants and decided they needed some water. So off I went with my jug to get some.
Then I went after the Baby Bio plant food to give them a good start, now that Spring is on the way. I went into the cupboard to get the bottle to give my plants a nice drink (not gin or brandy I must say) and started to open it. Anyone who uses it will probably agree that after time the inside of the lid becomes caked in dried-on gunge. It also has a child proof top. When it’s been opened a few times it would put Houdini to shame – it’s quite a job with all the gunge dropping off the neck of the bottle and onto the surface around it. Of course, I came to open the cap and as usual it got stuck.
How much food do House Plants Need?
There I was, twisting and pressing down on the lid to try and get the blooming thing open. All the while muttering under my breath, all the things I was calling it!
Eventually, after a lot of twisting and pressure, it did open. Too much in this case, as when I did get it open, the whole lot of the lid and the plastic dropper thing came out in a great big splurge. It proceeded to empty the nearly-full bottle of Baby Bio into the jug, and anywhere else it could splash.
For a minute I sort of stared in disbelief. I’ve used it for many years and not had that happen before. Ah well, there’s always a first time. We all learn something new, even when we are oldies. But believe me, there was a lot of plant food.
Going by the amount that came out, a bottle would see me out and pushing the daisies up! When you think that all you need is few drops a week when weather warms up, so it would last forever. By now the water in the jug is the colour of strong milkless tea, a sort of dark brown. I did wonder if I used it on my plants would they become drunk after having a ton of fertiliser plonked on them. I used just a little bit and did manage to save some. How long for I don’t know, but the plants look happy enough so far.
Friends in my House Plants
I don’t know if you good people out there have house plants or not, but I have a few dotted around.
I have an orchid that my best friend in Yorkshire gave me for a birthday present – the one in the very top photo. Sadly she died with a brain tumour, but would you believe, that after many, many years it’s still going strong and flowers every year for me. It sort of keeps her memory alive, as I see her every time I look at it.
It has gone rather long-in-the-tooth shall I say, with a long sort of stem that is trying to make it into a skyscraper of sorts. I know you can cut them down, shorten the stem and re-pot it. But I’m not so brave as to go wielding the knife at it the poor thing. So, so far it still has its trunk, if you know what I mean.
Another friend of mine recently bought me a white one which is lovely. So I hope to goodness that will also last me many years to come, a sign of another friendship. Did you know that an orchid can give you many years of flowers if you look after them and don’t over water – which is no good for them at all.
A good talking to…
I also recommend giving your house plants a good talking to, which does seem to work, daft as it sounds.
Two years ago this Summer I got a pretty gerbera houseplant with really colourful, pretty flowers on it. It flowered and flowered all Summer and then some. But when the nights started drawing in, it seemed as though it knew it was time to draw itself in.
It lost its flowers and started to look pretty sorry for itself too. As Winter approached, Jane kept looking at the sorry specimen it had become with a lot of frowning, plus a lot of ’that wants to go on the rubbish dump’. While I thought ‘I know, I’m so sloppy and sentimental about everything including flowers but I’m not throwing it away when it has flowered all Summer for me’.
As a result, I started talking to it and telling it that if it didn’t shape itself and look lively that a fate worse than death waited for it! Would you believe, not long after that, a tiny green thing was seen pushing its little nose up through the compost. Then another one and another.
So I did what I could and praised it to high heaven so that it felt wanted and cherished. After all that talking to, it flowered all through the Winter and is now sending another bud and fresh leaves out. It justifies all the times that my lot have made fun of me when they see me muttering away to a plant in the kitchen.
When to Chop?
My friend also gave me a house plant begonia cutting about three years ago which I love. Well I would do, it’s yellow, one of my favourite colours.
Every so often it starts having a growth spurt, which is what’s happened now. The leaves have sort of shot up out of the base of the plant, so I can look forward to more flowers.
The trouble is I can’t bear to cut them back, which is what it needs to create strong new growth from the bottom. It’s so full of flowers on the ends of the stems that I can’t bear to cut them off. After all, what if it feels hurt when it’s attacked with a pair of scissors? Oh the poor thing I so hope it doesn’t.
I told you we were all mad in our house, well now you see what I mean!
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