have more houseplants

After over a year of them staying alive, I think that I can say that I have more surviving house plants.

Today I was looking at my very floppy spider plant. I have never had one quite like this before. It is quite floppy and has been growing into a long chain of leaf clusters rather than into a clump. At the base of some of the clusters are things that look like they want to be roots.

I cut off a couple of chunks of the plant and put them in a glass of water. Hopefully these too will root properly and I can plant them and take them home.

While spider plants supposedly filter the air, the number of them it takes to do the job is ridiculous. Something like 60 for a 20’x20’ room, as I recall. Still, having a few around makes me feel like I can breath easier.

This morning I took five plant clippings at work. I thought that I was going to be able to take more, but I could only reasonably fish four out of the huge, contorted philodendron in the lobby. What a beast.

The other one came from one of the relatively new plants on my desk. I started that one last summer from a clipping given to me by a coworker and it has grown quite a bit since then.

The cuttings are currently in a glass of water on my desk. That seemed to work out well in the past. I have been reading lately about rooting in wet sand and am anxious to try that, but a glass and water are all I have on hand this morning.

Next I need to empty and clean the old pots and pick up fresh potting soil and fertilizer. These clippings should be ready to plant in a month or so.

I used to have a bunch of houseplants. Then, during a tumultuous period in my life they all died. I want to refill all of the old empty pots with new plants and keep them alive and happy.

Right now we have just one at home and six happy plants in my office at work.

Time to start making trimmings and getting new plants started. Philodendrons are an easy one to start with, so I am planning on making between five and ten clippings from plants at work. Once those are rooted, I will taken them home and get them in some soil.

I will also start actively hitting up friends with houseplants for clippings to start new plants from.

I need to pick up some potting soil soon, so that I am ready for the explosion of new plants.

And of course I need to continue watering twice every week and start regularly fertilizing.