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I have quite a few what I call “shelter plants” in our house, our pergola, and the shade-house that protects the western side of our house from the harsh sun in summer.
These plants can be quite expensive, and if we don’t look after them right, they can be a little too temporary.
I prefer my plants alive, and I don’t like to waste money. So here’s what I do.
First of all, some plants are cantankerous. It doesn’t matter how hard I try to get cyclamen to reshoot, they never do. Staying away from hard to manage plants is the best step!
To grow my collection, I bought the cheapest little plants, easy ones that would manage my lack of spare time, like palms and ferns. I brought them home and potted them up to give them room to grow, which they obligingly did. I continued to repot them up into bigger plants that would have cost a whole lot more. Some of them, like clivia, can be carefully divided to grow again, and even to give away. Free plants!
Giving them the right environment helps too. My one luxury was a couple of maidenhairs in the bathroom. Sure enough, they started to wither. But now they love it on a shelf in my north-facing window, with a little holiday during heatwaves.
The pretty zygocactus in the picture above was a $3 pot on the bargain table. When I got it home, I realised it had 3 little plants in it! I potted them all up, they grew beautifully, and now they live happily in my shade-house. What a magnificent display they give me every year!
There are some fails, yes, but it doesn’t matter because everything is an experiment, I haven’t invested a lot of money, and enough goes right to encourage me to try again.
Joni Page 