House Plants

Are house-plants too boring for Show & Tell? My Christmas Cactus is blooming, so maybe that will keep the "show" from being too boring. I think he's mixed up on his seasons, though. He made a half-hearted attempt to bloom about Thanksgiving time (which is the "proper" time for a Christmas Cactus, I think), but a week or two before Easter he started popping out buds again and hasn't let up blooming since! Anyway, each of these plants has a "story" so I thought they might make an interesting Show & Tell.
The first plant on the left is my over-35-year-old Philodendron. Grandmother sent me a dollar for my 6th birthday in 1971. I can't remember why I decided I wanted to buy a plant with it, but I did. For a few years Mother "helped" me take care of it... and then Grandmother had it for awhile. I remember we got it back when I was in about the 5th grade... and I remember being so impressed that I had such an "old" plant! Ha. It grew long and flourished on top of Mother's piano or on a bookcase over the next few years, and I took it to college with me... and then to my first home when I got married in 1985... and here it is, welcoming you into my new home! I thought I had lost it a few years back... it had gotten so spindly and was down to mostly vines and just a few leaves. I took it apart and repotted it and nursed it carefully, and you can see that it came back for me. If you're looking for an easy-care house-plant I don't think you could get one much easier than a Philodendron! It wants a new pot now, so I hope to get to that soon.

The next plant is what we call an "airplane plant". See the little airplane "flying" down below? (The philodendron vine kinda overlaps it.) This plant was a "start" from a plant my family received for my great-grandfather's funeral in 1979. No, I haven't had mine that long. I think Mother gave me this start... oh, 6 or 8 years ago. It seems like it's had a hard time getting established for me. I am hopeful that it will enjoy the light in our new entry-way and will finally flourish for me.

The third plant belonged to our next-door neighbor 4 or 5 years ago. She was our pastor's mother. She had a green thumb and loved plants of all kinds. When she passed away (at age 93) her daughter-in-law (our pastor's wife) gave me her Christmas cactus. She told me she had given "Grandma" a start off of hers, but Grandma's always bloomed more often. She attributed it to Grandma's green thumb... but it has continued to bloom more often for me, too, and I don't think I necessarily have a green thumb. I enjoy the plants I have (I only have 2 or 3 others besides these), but I wouldn't say house-plants are a hobby of mine or anything. So we don't know why this one blooms more often than it's "mother"! Kinda strange.

Visit Kelli's House for more Show & Tell posts.