102; Even You Can Grow Houseplants

A. Partial funding for this series is provided by a grant from Callaway gardens. I do a case and Callaway foundation. 0 0 0 0. 0. 0. 0. Iraq's welcome to even you can grow house plants. This is the second program of a 13 part series on growing houseplants on today's program we're going to be talking about selecting house plants and how to go about

determining which plants are best for you. I've written a book to go along with each program own the series. And this book is entitled even you can grow house plants. It goes into detail on the different things that we'll be covering in the program. And I also think it'll be a good reference for you if you have problems later ome of the series is over. Let's talk a little bit about what we'll be doing today. First of all do you know what a good plan. Yes. Can you pick out which plan is best in a plant shop or today's program. I'm sure that you'll be able to go in and determine which plan is best. The next thing we'll be doing is looking at plants that are easy to grow. Those plants that are very hard to kill those that you would want to buy for a person that kills every plant they get. Or if you kill all of your plants then these will be the plants that you'd want to have also. They were going to be looking at some more difficult plants for the advanced hobbyist. Then we're going to talk about some

decorating with plants. I know you a lot of people have plants but they don't use them within their home. And we're going to be talking about some different situations how to use the plants and different conditions as far as decorating. So let's get into the program and look at some of the things that we're going to be doing. First of all I know that each of you can tell what a very bad plant looks like because a bad plant really looks you know it's gone. It's they had it's weeping it's got bad color to it it's just completely gone. And it's very easy to tell this. But can you tell the difference between some plants that look you know fairly good but can you tell whether one is better than the other. This is really the secret to it it's not you know one of the very worst ones but what is the best. What should you be looking for. This is really the secret. Let's look at some different characteristics the first characteristic is high. Now you know what a plant gets tall and a leg. We tend to think of the plant having something wrong with it and one of the reasons for this is if the

plant is tall and leggy more than likely it hasn't been getting enough light or it's been treated wrong or something's gone wrong with it. Therefore if you buy it and it's already got problems then it could get worse. It's better to get the best plant possible and then go from there. Health toll should a good plant be. Let's look at another plant here a plant should be approximately two and one high eight times as high as the pot. In other words the pot distance and then it should not be over to a high five times. HAR. That's the real secret to the heights of planes. If you buy a plant that's taller than that then it's too tall and it wouldn't hurt it if it was actually a little shorter than that. So when you're looking at plants Remember you don't want to be too tall a nod over to a hive and really one to two is about the right height of the plants. So. Think about height when you look at a planet and remember that if it's too tall a lot of time something could be wrong with it so this helps you also in

using the plant within the home. Now when we're talking about the large tree type plants and taller things we don't go away as the container size but for small tabletop past plants we definitely would want to go by this rule of thumb. Let's look at another thing that you need to look at and consider and this is the color of the plant. You definitely want a plant that has a very deep color. In other words if the plant is not deep green color then more than likely something is wrong with it. Now the other thing you'd want to be looking at is whether or not the plant is a light green or pale color. When you see this pale color resulting then more than likely the plant is not getting enough light and it's not receiving the adequate growing conditions that it needs the deep green color is what we're looking for. So make sure you look now they are very good plains and make sure now the plant is not very gay to make sure that it's supposed to be green and but it's just a pale or faded out color. That would be the secret. Now the other

thing that you want to look at besides just the color of the plant would actually be the leaf and the shape of the leaf. Does the leaf have abnormal appearance. Does it curl. Is it irregular shape. Does it be Indian. Is it just malformed growth. This is something we would definitely want to look at when we're looking at plants because it's very important if they plant the leaf is curled then more than likely there is problems with the plant. So you'd want to you know watch these things and make sure that you don't run into any problems with that. What about the bushiness or the compactness of the plant. Now this plant this farm here is a fairly new fern in the way you could tell it is because it has started to spread out. It hasn't grown the nucleus they're all still bunched up in the center. This shows that the plane is actively growing but it hasn't spread out around the outside. It's still all in one place and it should be spread out all around the pot. If it's not

spread out then you kind of have a tendency to think that you know this plan is too young. It hasn't been conditioned. If it's cheap and the. Ok then go ahead and buy but if it's a very expensive plant look for the fullness and completeness that you would need in the plant. On many of the baskets of trailing type plants you would want the plant to be you know very thick or wide for upright plants. You'd want the foliage to be thick so that when you pulled you know apart some of the leaves and looked inside there are more leaves coming only inside. So this is really important that not just elderly but there are leaves on the inside that have the compactness and that nice. This is what's really important as far as plants are concerned. Another thing is you need to look at and this is in say damage on the plant. Here is where so many people live. They don't look at the underside of the lake. This is where most of the damage occurs is only underside

of the lake. The six feet only underside and they suck the juices sail and therefore leave this pale color that you're observing. So you would want to do that. Now many of us tend to look only upper side and when you look at a plant always turn it over and look at the underside of the lake this is the thing that is really important with looking at a leaf. All right. Another thing that you would want to notice and this is carefully observe the plant to make sure that it doesn't have such as these mealy bugs that are only plant these mealy bug kind of white cottony in appearance will spread all over your different house plants in your home if you bring a meal on a plane and say that you will help Own your plants will spray it and develop into all of the different plants that you might help. So make sure that you check the plants very thoroughly to make sure that it doesn't hail. Another thing to

look for when looking at plants is to look and see if it has leased spots or any kind of disease on it as you see here in this plane. You can see here were the leaf spots have already taken out part of this tissue you know where it is slowly dying. So make sure that you observe the legs. Usually the leaf spots can be observed from the upper side of the leaves. But also look at the underside of the leaf to determine whether or not it does have a serious problem because disease organisms can be very important. Now we've talked about Leaf diseases. There is another disease that you ought to be thinking about and that would be in the root system of the plant and what about the only way to really know whether or not the plant has root problems is to take and knock it out of the pot. Tap it around all its side. And knock it out of the pot and slide it out of the pot. The very careful with it now many of the store keepers or places where you buy plants may not want you to do this so check with them before you go to

knockin the plants out of the pot because they might want you to pay for it then. But if they're a good shop they won't mind showing you the type of root system the plant has. As you can see here this root system is very poor. A good root system would really help. Plenty of white routes around the outside here they would be very turgid and they would be Green looked like they're growing with a lot of small roots around the outside. Another plant that we might compare with they want to show you the difference between good roots and bad roots would be this plant here. And I think you can very easily see the difference in the root system of this plant or they're very why they're actively growing their young feeder roots coming out and the plant is just you know in much better condition than the other plane and if you bolt this plant with a good root system then you know it's going to last and do much better for you then. The plant that we looked at earlier that did not have a good root system so make sure that you do check the root systems of the plants and ask before you do it.

And I'm sure that most of these places will be glad to let you look at the root systems and see what you know plants they hail so you know there are a lot of things that determine whether a plan is good. Now let's look at some of what I would consider the easiest and best plants to grow. There are many different kind of plants that are good to start with and if you had problems with plants I would strongly recommend that you take all you know growing some easy ones. Now where do you find these easy planes. Where are they located. Well you could buy plants at a greenhouse. You can buy it at a florist shop. There are special foliage and house plant stores there garden centers and many times you'll find roadside stands as sailplanes. Now how do you know which places a bit what you really need to do is to go in and look at the prices. That's what everybody wants to do. But the most important thing is to look at their services. Look at the other equipment and supplies they hail. Check around and find out from some of your friends and neighbors what kind of service they've

had from the shop because of the plant cost a little more and they hip you keep that plane alive for a much longer period of time. It's actually more economical for you than it would be to go somewhere else and buy a plant that didn't have that. Quality that it might you know you could get for a cheaper price. So make sure you look at the quality this is very important. OK now we talked a little bit about buying a home. You're going to have to you know look at a lot of things to determine which place is best. Let's look at the easiest plants to grow. I think the easiest plant to grow is this one. They spat the filum or the one that we call the mother in law's tongue or the snake plant. It's a very easy plant to grow. It's a plant that well the person it kills everything can make this plant. So I think you definitely want to try this one if you had problems. It's a very good plant. And one of what I would consider the best dozen plants another plant that's real good is the ass but destroy the ASPX a distro is a very good plant.

This is sometimes known as a cast iron plant because it is just about as tough as cast iron and it will take those low light conditions and it's a relatively inexpensive plant for the size of the plant. So this might be one that you would want to look at as far as obtaining another plant that goes along with this top dozen plants is the name or the Chinese ever growing the egg. Naima is a very tough plant in the reason it's so good is because so many people tend to over one of their plants and this plant will take some over watering. Remember the egg or the Chinese evergreen would be one of those in if you tend to over water everything that you'd want to obtain another plant in this this group would be the cistus sis is wrong the Folia or the great body of very good players. It's more of a trailing and a running plant. But it's very tough. It takes those tough

conditions. It stands up to the. Dryness in your home. It stands up to over water under water so it's a real good plant to hail. So this might be one that you'd want to choose another one that you might want to look at is maybe not quite as tough as some of the others as far as low light but it's a real hard one to kill. And that's the Wandering Jew. And this could be one of the Sabrina varieties of the treta scansion varieties. They're all good. If it goes to dying you just broke off a few of the tails and it roots very easily and it works very good as far as growing and taking care of it in your home. Let's look at another one of the plants that you might want to take a look at and use. This plant is the pepperoni and the pepper all MIA. So this is a critically pepper only it is the variety name of this and it's also one of the very tough plants to use. So if you've had problems you know and want something it's more of a tabletop that doesn't get too

hot but yet it's a real nice pot then the pepper all mia is a very good one to try and I think that it would do very good for you it's also very good to propagate. So it's one that you know you could very easily utilize within your home. Another plant that you might want to look at in this plant is the pasta is the botanical name. This plant is more of a trailing type plant and it has beautiful mottling in the foliage and it's a real tough plant to utilize it to keep within your home. And I think it's one that you would want to try especially if you've had problems growing it because of not enough light. Another plate that you might want to look at is the Philodendron. And this is the Hartley Philip denote the Hartley philodendron as a leaf the shape of a heart. And it's a bonding type but it does grow good in those low light conditions. We found a lot of time in this gardens and small planners because

anyone can take care of this plant and it does an excellent job. So this would be one that I'm sure that you would want to try to grow and try to take care of. Now let's look at a couple of other plants that also go in this top dozen plants and one of these plants is the sin Doni impose a fillip or they never taught us or Arrowhead plant as it's sometimes known they send only M. has an arrow shaped leaf. It comes down into opponent has an arrow shaped leaf of very beautiful plant they use. Many times it's found in the small dish gardens and it grows to a big size also and it's very easy to get started so this might be one of those plants that you would want to try to grow. A very easy a very tough plant for those rough conditions. Now another plant that goes right along with this is the spent the fill up. The spout the fill up is a real good plant for the beginner. A very inexpensive type plant you can buy from the very small one to the large one and it's sometimes commonly known as

the peace lily because of the white bloom that it has in it are very good upright type plants to hail another good plant that you might want to consider looking at is what is commonly called the corn plant. There are many of these and their silliness and there are many different kind of draw. This one is a very tough one takes those very low light conditions and it's one that you might want to consider that are saying those are very good and good for those low to medium light conditions that you have in your home and is an excellent plant to utilize and take care of. Very good plant another one that you might want to consider is the David Bach E.. The David Bach via is commonly known as dumb cane. A very good plant sometimes will grow up to be as high as four to six feet. So if you can buy a small one or propagate your own and then let it grow on up to a big mature size and it's a beautiful plant all the way through its growth. Now let's look at some other plants that you might want to consider that are just a little tougher to

grow with a little harder to grow. You know we talked earlier about the geranium the geranium is a very hard plant to grow during the winter months and you know people were during the winter because it tends to straight grow out of size they get too tall. But man the main thing most people keep them over the winter for is just so they can have cuttings. You know the next spring to go out in their yard. So this is all you're doing. Then the geranium would be OK. But it does have to have a lot harder light intensity and it just doesn't tend to look as pretty during the you know winter months. Another plant that's hard to grow that gets out of size really easily is the aluminum plant or one of the poly is because it has to have a higher light intensity. And it just tends to wander all over the place and get stretches and gets very long. So this is a plant that you would have to really follow and you know pay close attention to if you're going to try and grow it. Another plant that people love because of the different colored foliage

is the Crow. The quote has many different shapely has many different colored leis. But if you'll notice it has to have a lot of light or it's going to lose the bottom leaves. So make sure that you give this plant enough like if you'll notice what I've been talking about many of the plants that are harder to grow require more like. And in most of the cases we don't have enough light in our home to really you know to grow the plants like we should. Another plant that's a little more difficult to grow for many people is the farm. And one of the main reasons why the fern is hard to grow is because the fern loves high humidity and too many people think about the fern is staying way it you don't want the fern to stay wet all the time you just want to provide immunity for it. This is just a few tips and you'll find many others in the book about different plants. Now let's go over and talk about another subject that I think will be of interest to you and that is decorating with plants. How do

you how should you start if you're going to decorate your house or apartment or your room with plants. The first thing you need to do is to get your notebook out that we talked about earlier. Take this notebook and droll a completely room layout so that you know where everything is located within that room. The windows the doors the major front to tear and everything else that you might have so make sure that you draw all the scale layout. Now there are several problem spots that we have as far as you know growing plants and one of these problems thoughts is near windows. Most everyone tends to put all of their plants near the window and this is good especially for how light plants plants that have to have a lot of life. But remember that light shining through the winter can burn many plants if it shines over say an hour during the daytime. So keep the plants out of the direct sun or have some sheer curtains or something between them so that the light will shine on them. But remember for decorating the if you

have plants that require a lot of light then go with those that. There are the women that have to have the highlight. Another very problem area that we help is for as you know decorating with plants is concerned is doorways and what do you do in a doorway. Have the you treat plants in a doorway as far as decorating. One thing you have to remember about doorways is traffic going in and out and you've got to get a planted stuff that can take the abuse of people rubbing against it or hit it is they go in and out. Another thing that you have to consider about doorways is plants that can take the cold dry off during the winter time. They can also take the dry hot air during the summer months so you know it takes a special kind of plant near a doorway as compared to other places within your home or within your apartment so make sure that you really you know look at this and try to consider many of the other kind of plants you want to look at some other things as far as plants are concerned. Decorating is. Maybe you

have a dark corner or something. And what do you do with this. How do you take care of the plants that are in these dark areas. Well the best thing to do is to rotate those plates if you have a pretty little plant in the coner and it's not getting enough light. Leave it in that dark space for about two weeks. Then I for two weeks then move it near the window where it's getting more light. Then approximately over two weeks if you rotate the plants they can take the darkest corners in your home or in any room that you may hail. So remember the rotation. This might mean you need to buy a few extra plants but I'm sure the plant stores will be happy or you might even could probably get some of your own plants. Another thing that I think you would really want to look at as far as decorating with plants and that is is to look at rotating the plant if it's near a window or a light source. The plant will sometimes tend to lean toward the plant so when it leans toward the plant then what you need to do is ever so often

take and turn that plant around so that it will start growing back and straightness. Also it makes the plant more uniform so make sure that you know you do turn the plants as well as rotating from higher to lower light situations. This is very important as far as keeping up with plants. Another thing as far as decorating with plants is concerned. And that goes back to our flowering plant and that is there's a good rule of thumb to follow a flowering plant always takes more light than a plant that's not flowering. So if you do have the dark coner think about putting a solid green plant or you know one of these earlier plants we talked about as far as easiest plants to grow but the flooring plant is just going to have to have more light or all the blooms are going to fade and fall many times I bet you both plants that were in full flower brought home what happened within a couple of weeks. Every one of the flowers fell off of it. The main reason for this

is keeping it to weigh it or the light not enough light because to keep it flour and to keep it in bloom it has to have the light. And this is very important. All right let's look at a couple of things. As far as projects and things that you'll need to be doing in keeping up in your note book one of the projects that's in our book that you might want to do is visiting a plant shop. It goes in the detail of every little thing that you need to look at it and keep records of it. Also keep up to date with your plants and if something goes wrong with the plant put it in here so that you can keep up to date with what is going wrong. Another project that we hail that we're going to be covering and that project is how to make your plants look better. In other words how you can get this plant ready for a show. Maybe there's a fair or a plant show or flower show coming up that you'd like to enter your plant in this show. And it goes in a tizz you how to fix the plant so that you can get it to bloom when you want it to. It also shows you what kind of shape that plant shows are looking

for. And this would hit you you know as far as getting your plants ready. So there are a lot of things that you can do as far as projects are concerned. Another thing that we want to look at as far as selecting plants and that is remember it doesn't hurt if you select the best plant in the world any of these that we talked about. If you don't care for it and provide the proper care then you're going to run into a lot of serious problems. Let's look at a few things that we've looked at. We look first of all at the growth in the size of the plant the bushiness compactness of the plant the color deep green color. Not too tall. Dick the deep green color then we wanted to look at the root system and see if it has a good root system. Look for insects and diseases. And remember that most of the 6 work only on our side of the leaves. They don't do their work on the top of the Lisa look underneath the plant. Pick it up and look underneath the plant so that you know whether it has problems. Then we would want to thank about one of the

easiest plants. And if you do have a problem with some plants or something that has crossed some of these I think that you'll see that they're going to really do a good job for you. And I tried some of these. Did any of the plants that we haven't talked about or the plants that you had problems with. I think you're going to be able to find your way through all the horde you'll be able to adapt these plants to your home and your environment. Our next program we're going to be talking about several things. One of these is how do plants grow. How does a house plant grow and what you can do to really make the plant grow better. Because there's a lot of things that you can do. Tippett TIR is another thing that we're going to be covering and what kind of tip you should provide for all of your plants high and low. And what is ideal for that plant growth. So this is very important. We hope that you picked up a few things from this program that will really help you as far as growing plants. I see their time is up. Remember even you can grow house plants.

Partial funding for their series is provided by a grant from Callaway gardens. Ida Kazan Callaway foundation.