Shall We Talk Plants? — Liaisons De Fleurs

By now I am sure we can all agree on the beneficial effects of having live plants both at home and at the work place. And if you are anything like me you might tend to over do it. (In my case I am actually trying to build a miniature urban jungle in my home. My goal: 200 living plants in my living room by the end of the year. Please don't think I own some kind of a mansion, I live in quite an ordinary sized condo in between Point Loma and Ocean Beach. I just decided not to let this stop me....The books moved to the bedrooms, the DVD's got moved to the hallway...and the plants started moving in.)

Of course while space wasn't my biggest enemy, my "Deadly Thumb" was. So in order for me to get 200 plants, I needed to start looking for virtually self-caring plants. Plants strong enough to survive my death vibe.

The first plant I added to the living room was this seven foot hanging Golden Pothos. I figured a well-established plant would be more resilient to the move to a new location and a different container. I also had in mind the very far corner by the patio window and I thought that it being already so tall, it would be easier to train it to climb up the ceiling.

I'm not sure if you have seen "The Desk Set" with Katherine Hepburn....but that's where my inspiration came from.

As I am learning, Pothos are super easy to take care of. They like a bright natural indirect light.

Water the plant when the first 1 " of the soil feels dry, but make sure you pour enough water to water the plant all the way through to reach the roots.

Temperature-wise, they are very similar to humans - they thrive in 65 to 85 degrees.

Fertilizer is not really needed for this plant as long as it is in a good nutrient-rich soil.

The second exciting plant I brought in I chose simply because we sell quite a bit of live succulent jewelry at the shop and one of my favorites is not always easy to find at the nursery... so I wanted to assure I would have a constant supply of it. This type of succulent is called " Blue Tear Sedum" commonly known as "Corsican Stonecrop".

First of all I love the grayish/ bluish tones of it and secondly, of course the tiny little rosettes - which looks amazing on rings and earrings!

At first I had placed three different 4" containers of if in a long wooden window box out on the patio, but I noticed that my patio was getting a bit too hot and way too sunny for these...so I brought the container inside and placed it on top of the bookcase to the right of the patio window. This was supposed to be a temporary move, but I noticed the Sedum started doing great and growing pretty quickly, so the bookcase became its permanent home.

Here is a succulent ring in which I use this type of sedum:

The third plant I added was a "Pachira Aquatica" or commonly a Braided Money Tree.

I wanted a plant with some height to place on the TV counter and for that I needed a plant that could do well in low light situations, especially considering the TV was going to block some of the light that usually comes through the window. Money trees are very easy to care for:

They like indirect light and can do well in low light. They like humidity so they are ideal in bathrooms. They need to be turned each week to grow evenly. They need soil drainage so make sure your container has plenty drainage holes or add them. They need to be watered every 7 to 10 days. They need to be fertilized quarterly and repotted every two years.