Let's be clear, I'm NOT a housplant person. I like them and all it's just that my house is so crowded that there's really not a lot of good space near windows for plants. In the summer, houseplants get ignored unless they come outside for a summer vacation, in the winter, they get neglected because they're usually stashed in out of the way places. In short, houseplants usually die at chez outlaw if they need things like water. However, when I saw Aglaonema 'Valentine' at
Watsons this summer it was love at first sight. I talked myself out of it but when I saw one later at
Molbaks I wasn't so strong.
Those beautiful green and pink leaves are great, almost like a Polka Dot Plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) on steroids.
A few houseplants come with me to work for the winter and seem to do well there under the fluorescent lights. Hopefully this lovely lady will be happy there where it will get a little more attention than she would at home.
Or maybe I should just take it with me to the tropics where it could grow outside in the ground!
Since that's not in the cards, let's just hope I can keep this beauty alive inside this winter!
Some other tender outside kids also winter inside my classroom in the winter.
Begonia luxurians looking unhappy being all trussed up. By the way, that red dog in the bottom right part of the picture is Clifford after whom someone named her Magnolia macrophylla.
Begonia maculata ' Polka Dot'
I hope all of your tender plants are inside and safe for the winter. It's starting to feel a little cooler these days.
Yep same here, all tender plants are inside now, including those two begonias as well :) our begonia luxurians is in a similar state as yours, should perk up in the spring again,
ReplyDeleteI think you made the right choice buying that plant, it's lovely and since you've seen it twice and you didn't forget it, it was meant to be :)
Sometimes love works that way! Our first frost knocked down all of the tuberous begonias so now they're decapitated pots of soil in the basement.
DeleteOh, I have my pelargoniums inside too. They were growing in the garden pots all summer. I love their color: white, pink and red. Your Hypoestes has very pretty leaves!
ReplyDeleteGlad that your pelargoniums are safely inside. I love the smell of their bruised leaves & love taking cuttings of them. Mine are still outside in pots but before we get really cold weather, I'll drag them inside.
DeleteWe don't really do houseplants at the nursery and I don't at home BUT I have that Begonia 'Polka Dot' cause I love it!! Tonight we are supposed to dip to freezing for like an hour and then prob won't see it again for a few weeks. Texas weather. You just never know... I would imagine on Thanksgiving it will be 80 degrees again. You just have to kind of roll with it here. I like your purchase of the 'Valentine'. I love pink, it would be one I would find hard to pass up as well....
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how we break our own rules for the love of some silly foliage? Crazy Texas weather you've got there!
DeleteFrost already huh? We dodged the freezing bullet last weekend...but how long can that last? Glad you picked up your Valentine...and I noticed a picture of Clifford the dog in the back ground of the Begonia luxurians photo. He's the namesake of Clifford our Magnolia.
ReplyDeleteClifford the big red dog is a favorite. His ears do look like Magnolia macrophylla's leaves. The frost thing was kind of weird- the temp got to 30 in some places and upper 20's in others but I didn't notice a lot of actual frost crystal coverage. The tuberous begonias went and the top couple of leaves of the tallest banana, some of the tropaeolum tuberosum got cut off just as they were beginning to bloom (late this year.) Now it's warmer and wet. Last night the rain POURED until early morning.
DeleteI'm so over winter, already.
DeleteNormally I don't do houseplants either, but this year I had a bunch of succulent planters that I put on top of the gabions in the gravel garden that I needed to bring in, so they (and an Abutilon) are now wintering over in a south window and a bright upstairs bathroom. The succulents are doing ok, but one of the pots ended up getting inundated by Mexican feather grass seeds, and now has lots of tiny grass sprouts in it. That will need sorting out at some point.
ReplyDeleteI hope your Aglaonema 'Valentine' does well at work. Those are beautiful leaves, I can see why it was hard to resist. We had frost crystals on the grass, but I didn't see any anywhere else. Now I have lots of mush to clean up.
Oh Alison, if you just leave the mush, the earth will eat it up for you. I'm trying to convince everyone that I'm not a slob and a lazy gardener, I'm simply doing my part to save the planet by utilizing natural and organic garden practices. Anyone buying that? Didn't think so.
DeleteHope your Mexican feather grass/succulent sorting doesn't drive you crazy!
House plants, shmouse plants...the outdoor plants are currently taking up all available indoor space. Where, oh where to put the Christmas tree...
ReplyDeleteHow about a nice naked jade tree with some tillandsias stuck in it? It'd fit on your dining room table and save you lots of space and work. Seriously though, we seldom bother with a tree anymore because I'm such a grinch. Could you decorate one of those outdoor plants spending time inside?
Deletei'm not much of an indoor plant person either, but I don't have the excuse of a crowded house. It's just that my nurturing instinct is left completely cold by stuff that's inside. Fortunately that does not apply to people, or I would have had to keep my kids out in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI'm barely able to keep a few tender oudoor things alive in the little glass room, basement and one sunny room upstairs for the few months they have to be inside. Somehow the houseplants at work get tended pretty well.
DeleteGlad that your lack of interior nurturing instinct doesn't extend to people - Chicago gets really cold in the winter! You would have had kidsickles.
My polka dot begonia has not enjoyed the migration indoors and is dropping leaves daily. Is it your first year with yours--any pointers? Polka dot, please don't leave me!
ReplyDeleteThe first year, i took the plant out of its tiny nursery pot and crammed it into a cutsey pot not much larger and it grew like the dickens all summer and winter. To reward it, this spring I potted it up into a bigger pot & put it outside where it moped all summer and got leggy, not very pretty and the tips of its leaves got brown and dry. I took it in this fall while it was still a bit warmer outside (Mid September) and it's putting out a lot of growth but also dropped some leaves. I don't get it. I've had better luck with transitioning some plants inside if I do it while it's still about the same temp. outside. This is supposed to be a pretty rugged customer so don't give up!
DeleteOh, thanks for those tips! Makes sense that the drastic temperature change would be hard to handle--I'll try to bring things in earlier. My begonia might be suffering from the too big pot situation too.
DeleteI have some houseplants and they're living well, but they aren't my "passion". I must admit my pelargonias had a bad end...
ReplyDeleteI think you need a lemon tree in your classroom... ;)
ReplyDeleteLovely pink and green plant, but I best of all I love that polka-dotted pot!
Nice post Aglaonema Star
ReplyDelete