Other Things That Grow Here

I have a deep love for all living things and one of my fondest loves is plants.  I find them fascinating.  The variety of ways that they grow is astonishing.  In addition to all of the edible plants that I grow in the garden, I host a number of plants in my living space.  Most of them have a story and some of them were gifts.  A few are experiments that turned out well and at least one was a rescue from a discount grocery store shelf.

My indoor plant collection began with a lovely little creature named Clyde the Cactus, a name bestowed upon him by my mother.  Clyde was a single "finger" of a cactus wearing a top hat and glued on googly eyes that I bought from a grocery store when I was 15.  I never figured out what kind of cactus Clyde was, but over the years he has grown many extra "fingers".  Clyde has never once flowered, and seems to do well no matter where in the country I am living (Clyde has multiple cross country moves under his belt).  I call him the friendly cactus because his "thorns" curve back on themselves and don't poke like most cacti.

I have several Christmas Cactus as well.  One of them in particular is very sentimental to me.  It belonged to my grandmother and I am certain it is much older than I am.  It still flowers every year, sometimes multiple times a year and is a lovely explosion of color in my house during the dreary winter months.

Another very old plant that I have is this Jerusalem Rope.  It belonged to the mother of a friend and was something of a family heirloom.  I asked for just a cutting, but she decided to give me the whole plant.  It's vining growth habit is very long and heavy and I didn't want to break it's branches so it currently lives with it's long vines wound around it's pot on the shelf.

I have a  Rosemary plant that I rescued from a gift basket that was being neglected where I worked.  This lovely creature has grown nicely over the years and is my most successful attempt at keeping rosemary alive. (I may have accidentally killed a couple of these over the years)

One of my experiments that is turning out well is my Pineapple plant.  I saw online that you can grow a pineapple from a pineapple top, so I followed the instructions and lo and behold it works.  I think I will need a fairly large pot for this plant eventually, but for right now it is slowly growing in a sunny window in my kitchen.

An experiment I am continuing is growing sweet potatoes.  I had an extra sweet potato left over from my thanksgiving meal prep a few years ago and it sat around so long that it started to grow new vines.  Last year I found an extra space in the garden and planted it for the summer.  It only ended up producing a couple of edible potatoes, but I decided to keep the experiment going and let one of those potatoes grow again for planting this year.  If I can get enough slips to make a decent crop, I may start devoting one of my garden beds to sweet potatoes.

I have several plants that were given to me by various friends.  There is a Jade plant, a Ficus, a Philodendron, and an Aloe plant.  All of them are thriving and some of them are starting to need more space.

 

I also have a couple of Orchids that were both rescued that also seem to be thriving in their sunny spots in my windows.

There is an English Ivy that is taking over the top shelf in this sunny window and it seems as though it is telling me that I need to find another place for some of my other plants to live.

Finally, I have a Norfolk Pine that is beginning to dominate the west side of my living room.  This is my Christmas tree substitute and I decorate it every winter.  Eventually I think it will outgrow my home.  Hopefully I will be able to find it a good place to live when it gets to that point.