Your houseplants and gardens - Yellow leaf means underwatered AND overwatered?! What a country!

r/houseplantscirclejerk, welp, there goes the rest of my day!
Hahaha! That's the only subreddit I look at.
It's so cathartic, since all my family are serial plant neglecters. Why's it so hard to Google basic care instructions?



I went to a local small nursery specialized in indoor houseplants- a real salt of the earth local business. It was a beautiful, instagrammable sort of place. I'm not into the houseplant trend, but I am on a "nature heals" sort of kick and am trying to invest in good houseplants and take good care of them.

All their young plants were about 7-15 dollars, and their more mature plants were mostly 25-50. Some of the older plants (think, 2 foot wide ferns, 4 foot tall palms) were already in proper ceramic or large terracotta pots and were up to 100 dollars. I ended up going home with two younger plants for 25 dollars total. They were both things you could never find at Walmart or Home Depot. I thought the prices were pretty good- but my family thought it was so unreasonable. It really depends what type of mindset you have. I guess.


I've got a teeny little string of turtles in a pot with no drainage. They always say no drainage is a bad idea, but I just put it in a mix of 50% potting soil to 50% perlite and I haven't had any issues yet.....?
 
I went to a local small nursery specialized in indoor houseplants- a real salt of the earth local business. It was a beautiful, instagrammable sort of place. I'm not into the houseplant trend, but I am on a "nature heals" sort of kick and am trying to invest in good houseplants and take good care of them.
:heart-full:

All their young plants were about 7-15 dollars, and their more mature plants were mostly 25-50. Some of the older plants (think, 2 foot wide ferns, 4 foot tall palms) were already in proper ceramic or large terracotta pots and were up to 100 dollars. I ended up going home with two younger plants for 25 dollars total. They were both things you could never find at Walmart or Home Depot.
Selections from #plantstore/#rareplantshop/#plantshopping just for fun:








I thought the prices were pretty good- but my family thought it was so unreasonable. It really depends what type of mindset you have. I guess.
What are they spending their money on, then?

I've got a teeny little string of turtles in a pot with no drainage. They always say no drainage is a bad idea, but I just put it in a mix of 50% potting soil to 50% perlite and I haven't had any issues yet.....?
I think you'll be ok if you wait to water until they're all raisin-y like what this woman does with her string of hearts:
 
Hey, look at this thing:
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I think I could cobble something together like it, but it'd be a bad choice with the light exposure and, more importantly, my cat's commitment to chaos.

HORNBACH WERKSTÜCK Edition 004 Green Hideaway
 
I'm be so scared of hurting the leaves.
That too, but man. Indoor trellis... maybe if the back of the chair were separate from the structure, so you could lean back.

I was reading older craft books and realized that moss poles used to be a whole lot more ubiquitous. There's a whole middle ground of fun plant stuff you can do before you're spray-painting succulents to sell at the hardware store.
 
If you have an Aldi nearby I saw a two sided grow lamp for $17 usd today. It doesn't look very tall, but it should do fine for a succulent or other short plant.

I'm going to get one tomorrow. I'll let you know what I think.
 
Hey, look at this thing:
View attachment 4817645
I think I could cobble something together like it, but it'd be a bad choice with the light exposure and, more importantly, my cat's commitment to chaos.

HORNBACH WERKSTÜCK Edition 004 Green Hideaway
Nowhere to really rest your back while sitting. I like the idea though. My take would be one of these round wicker chairs:
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Then grow some English Ivy up the side, weaving as it grows. The leaves and stems are thinner/smaller, and it doesn't crush like pothos do. It has to be comfortable, ideally, so you can take a nap inside it, and then wake up in a green ball. The english ivy would probably do ok by a bright window. Not a great plant if you have pets.
 
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The Aldi grow lamp.

It's bigger than I expected. The lamps are on goosenecks for maximum positioning. It has three modes for germination, growth, and flowering. You can't have the lamps on different settings. There's a timer with 3, 9, and 12 hour settings.

There's a clamp to put it on a shelf and a base to put it on a table.

For $17 I'm impressed. I may use this for an indoor herb garden rather than planting them outside in the summer heat.

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Finally get to be a homeowner soon and want to plant all sort of shit, is there any breeds of your run of mill veggies like tomatoes, potatoes, etc that you dont find in the store but are super good
 
Finally get to be a homeowner soon and want to plant all sort of shit, is there any breeds of your run of mill veggies like tomatoes, potatoes, etc that you dont find in the store but are super good
YES.
Etsy is good for seeds, but you need to check ALL the reviews to make sure you're getting a reliable seller. I've also heard good things about this site but haven't used it myself: https://www.rareseeds.com/
Another thing I recommend doing is looking up native edible plants and planting them around the area. You can eat them, yes, they're unique, yes, but also since they're native they already have a track record of being able to survive and they will likely have an easier time building symbiotic relationships with the local fungi in the soil.

Here are some resources to find out what's local to your area (assuming you're in North America) so you don't gotta dox your location:

California (only gets its own section because of the California/PNW divide)
Pacific Northwest
Desert West
Midwest
North-Middle
South
Northeast

Bonus:
 
Finally get to be a homeowner soon and want to plant all sort of shit, is there any breeds of your run of mill veggies like tomatoes, potatoes, etc that you dont find in the store but are super good
Grocery store selection is so limited you could go to your local hardware store and find fun varieties on those big Burpee seed displays.
Here are some sites that I use for my seeds, This is by no way a complete list as there as probably a dozen other reputable sites that I know of, but I haven't gotten around to ordering from them yet.
https://www.rareseeds.com/ :always have something new and unusual, prices are a little high but the product is good. Pay attention to directions for starting seeds for some of the more unusual plants, some might need the seeds soaked or stratified(frozen for a few weeks) before they'll germinate.
https://migardener.com/ :owned and operated by a guy who goes by the same name on youtube, has plenty of informational videos. Seeds are reasonably priced, and his selection is more "standard" but he has a good selection to pick from.
https://www.superseeds.com/ :good variety haven't had any problems.
https://www.vermontbean.com/ : focuses more on bean varieties, but has a respectable selection of other plants.
https://www.totallytomato.com/ : As the name implies they specialize in tomatoes, have a lot of varieties I haven't seen anywhere else.
https://www.hrseeds.com/garden-vegetable-seeds :smaller shop run by a guy who grows peppers and tomatoes, has quite a few weird and wild varieties. He's kind of niche but you might find something that interests you.
https://chilepepperinstitute.ecwid.com/ : Run by New Mexico State University they breed peppers and are responsible for the creation of some popular varieties.

Avoid Amazon and Ebay for seeds, its lousy with chinese scammers with photoshopped images.
 
Finally get to be a homeowner soon and want to plant all sort of shit, is there any breeds of your run of mill veggies like tomatoes, potatoes, etc that you dont find in the store but are super good
Ground cherries are my favorite fruit and not available in any stores.
Any heirloom beefsteak will taste much better than anything you can buy. If you live in a cold area I highly recommend Moskvich tomatoes.
 
couple of questions, with a bit of luck one day i can reciprocate with answers. i'm just headed into year two of having a garden, basically total novice.

do any of you guys use plant identifying apps and if so what do you recommend? i have one called candide which is OK for some things but mostly claims everything is a money plant/tree. i'm too broke for that to be true. it would be nice to have one i can use for efforts to track biodiversity, would be fun to geek out.

also, any suggestions for outdoor flowers in a permanently shady spot? i planted summer bulbs there last year and they never flowered but did in sunnier spots. there are spring bulbs out there right now having a riot.

i've attached some thread tax, this came with the house so i can't claim credit but its fucking awesome and i can't wait for it to flower this year.

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I need a responsible adult in my life because I am not it. do I have room for a dozen more plants? no. Do I have pots for a dozen more? nope.

meanwhile

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Alocasia Polly

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Alocasia Hilo Beauty

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Philodendron Micans

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Dorotheanthus Mezoo - Baby Sun Rose

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Peperomia Raindrop

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Sansevieria Gold Flame

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Waffle Plant Snow White

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Disocactus Anguliger - Ric Rac Cactus

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Airchryson Tortuosum

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Regal Red Japanese Painted Fern

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Japanese Painted Fern- Athyrium niponicum
 
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do any of you guys use plant identifying apps and if so what do you recommend? i have one called candide which is OK for some things but mostly claims everything is a money plant/tree. i'm too broke for that to be true. it would be nice to have one i can use for efforts to track biodiversity, would be fun to geek out.
Google Lens has worked out great for me and is free. It says your flower is a "Blue Passion Flower" and you can get another one for $13.49 at Spring Hill Nursery, lol.

I need a responsible adult in my life because I am not it. do I have room for a dozen more plants? no. Do I have pots for a dozen more? nope.
I'd give you some of mine if I could.
Also, your images broke. plz fix, I wanna see.
 
I copy pasted from my email. give me 5 minutes! they show for me- sorry about that!

sigh. yeah, I don't know.
 
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couple of questions, with a bit of luck one day i can reciprocate with answers. i'm just headed into year two of having a garden, basically total novice.

do any of you guys use plant identifying apps and if so what do you recommend? i have one called candide which is OK for some things but mostly claims everything is a money plant/tree. i'm too broke for that to be true. it would be nice to have one i can use for efforts to track biodiversity, would be fun to geek out.

also, any suggestions for outdoor flowers in a permanently shady spot? i planted summer bulbs there last year and they never flowered but did in sunnier spots. there are spring bulbs out there right now having a riot.

i've attached some thread tax, this came with the house so i can't claim credit but its fucking awesome and i can't wait for it to flower this year.

View attachment 4853817
Nice passion flower, Without doxxxxing yourself it would be helpful if we had some information about your area, such as your growing zone. I've planted, and know people who have planted heucheras, ferns, hostas, and bleeding hearts in shaded areas. The first three last most if not all of the summer, while the bleeding hearts only flower in the spring.
Google Lens has worked out great for me and is free. It says your flower is a "Blue Passion Flower" and you can get another one for $13.49 at Spring Hill Nursery, lol.
ninja'd
 
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