somewhere along

the way of time, I managed to go from killing plants (unintentionally forgetting to water, being grossly afraid of worms, and not seeing the light) to actually growing them and keeping them alive, now for about 4 weeks. They actually take a lot more care and work than I ever thought or knew, like what kind of soil, how much light (low light/medium/shade/indirect), how much water, how much humidity, what kind of water (spring/distilled/tap), and do they tolerate water on leaves? Just so much to consider and then watering and checking for bugs (black mites on my tillandsia/red mites on Peace lily) and keeping new plants away from the already known good plants. I think I am making lots of mistakes, but this new gardening thing makes me happy and takes me away from the rest of my life (which is pretty much working and seeing my family on the weekend and sometimes a few hours with friends, while in some sort of constant physical pain like neck pain/headache pain (cluster/migraine/sinus). Anyhow, my long time friend of over a decade, EJ, started me off with 2 tillandsia airplants about 2 months ago. Around the same time (not sure before or after) I also got the idea to decorate my cubicle with a real live plant. I went with the ZZ plant after talking to a Pike Nursery employee about my not having a green thumb, and getting a plant to stay alive in a cubicle with no windows and really dry air. I will have to do a later post about the condition of that plant. Here's the before:

and the after. The two went down to one survivor, the left small one. After soaking them both in water for 1.5 hours after taking them out of the mailbox, I noticed rather big (bigger than a pinhead) black bugs on the large one. Not really knowing what to do after rinsing them off 4 or 5 times and more just reappearing, I tossed it in a bag and threw it out. What a waste, I know! I would've known to look up insectides today, because I did today for another tillandsia I just recently acquired. I'll talk about that one later too. The little one has roughly doubled in size but was suffering in a new cubicle from really dry air. Airplants really do need a lot of water, at least in my less humid surroundings. I could spray everyday and they would love it...I know, I just do. I took it home for the Christmas holiday to care for it and try to get it feeling better. It's looking better than before but I just noticed some tips are drying brown. Luckily it has a new-found friend Mr. Rabbit.

After this encouraging start with gratitude to EJ for helping my life be better, I now as of a month ago, have a whopping total of...wait for it...17 plants!!! (indoor houseplants, airplants, and terrarium plants (open and enclosed) non-succulent because I only have an east window in my apt. More photos and stories to come. I hope you followed along even if there are bumps in my sentences.

#gardening #terrarium #airplant #tillandsia