Calathea Makoyana (AKA Peacock Plant).
Dropped in to see Alex at More Plants today and picked up another plant to live outside of my cabinet. This time I picked up a Peacock Plant (another Calathea) because A) It’s got a wonderful painterly pattern on it’s foliage and B) it’s going straight into the spare room which I’m setting up as an art studio and C) It’s pet safe, a good thing as Mia’s still chewing leaves!
Monstera Borsigiana Albo.
I’m plant obsessed, but I’m different. I’m learning how to breathe. To sleep on it. To sit on it. Do do as much research as I feel like, but to not pull the trigger, to not hit the buy now button.
Owning a Monstera is like a right of passage for plant lovers, but since getting into plants I’ve stumbled upon the variegated varieties and haven’t been able to avoid the desire to want to own one ever since. Specifically the Monstera Albo which looks absolutely stunning when the leaves are 50/50 white and green (half moon).
Variegated plants have been much sought after since Covid and lockdowns hit, often fetching thousands of dollars. They’ve become Instagram plants, and also quite lucrative for those who choose to grow them and sell cuttings.
The prices are coming down though, and I’ve seen cuttings for sale on Facebook Marketplace for as low as $150. I showed Mum a photo of an Albo, she’d never seen one before and it was love at first sight for her so I’ve since been on a mission to buy Mum an Albo.
I was either going to find a large one to buy for her (would cost thousands for a large one), or I could start with cuttings, but his morning I was watching a Monstera Albo YouTube video when I got a message from an old high school friend on Instagram. Turns out she’s a plant collector! We’ve been chatting, and she’s offered to give me a cutting of her Monstera Albo!
What a way to start the week!
Yes. I caved. The ultimate goal is to have a Queen Anthurium with huge perfect leaves as the only plant in the cabinet. I bought a baby queen a little while back, and it’s pushed out a new leaf, but it’ll be years before it gets to the size of this one.
Anthurium Clarinervium pushed out this cute new little leaf (how is this not heart shaped?!). It gets bigger every day. Fingers crossed it’ll be way bigger than the biggest leaf!
Alocasia Cuprea pushed out this amazing new leaf!
Late night internet shopping is nasty. I had seen this Queen Anthurium for sale over a month ago on Rootd Plants. It was the last of the batch that no-one wanted as the leaves on it looked pretty banged up, but late the other night I saw it was still there and I pulled the trigger on it. It came quick and was packed well. She’s definitely pretty beat up. They have very sensitive leaves which many who keep them say not to touch. A small mark on a small leaf will become a HUGE mark once the leaf gets big.
I have every single plant in the apartment growing in leca now except this queen. I’m nervous about moving her over, but at the same time I’m a little less nervous as she’s not the perfect specimen.
I stumbled upon these amazing plant trellis made by a brother and sister duo in the US. Love at first sight! I had to have the evil eye trellis! Viv is NUTS about the moon (and she has a lot of plants!) so I bought her the moon phase and sun, moon stars ones too. Visit: https://pineandsprout.com
Sitting perfectly on my coffee table.
What a perfect specimen from more plants.
IKEA Rudsta Wide.
It’s been a month since I started my plant journey so I thought I’d document an update on what I’ve learned so far.
Previously a brown thumb guilty of killing every single plant I’ve even been given or bought I went into this hobby with trepidation, but I was determined to “get good”. As an over-thinker and someone who’s naturally obsessive compulsive about anything I choose to get into I’ve definitely spent countless hours on worrying about stuff I didn’t need to worry about, as well as money on stuff I didn’t end up needing, so here’s a list of observations:
1) Research – As with most hobbies in life, there’s always someone succeeding in doing it their way vs the highway. IE: there is no right or wrong. I’ve spent a few hours a day down the YouTube plant hobby rabbit hole and I’ve now gotten to a point where I’m starting to calm down, ingest less and take everything said with a grain of salt.
2) Keep your hands out of the tank! – I’ve been a keen aquarist most of my life and one of our biggest tips for beginners is to keep your hands out of the tank! When you’re new to the aquarium hobby you’re so into it that you’re constantly putting your hands in the tank to adjust the scape, or constantly playing with water parameters in an attempt to find the perfect conditions for your fish. All of this fiddling is actually doing more bad than good (more stress on your fish and slowing down the maturity of your tank), and I’ve found the same with plants (IE: stop fiddling! Let the plants acclimate to your conditions).
I’ve spent hours researching humidity and how to raise it. I’ve done a lot of research on humidifiers, pebble trays, water fountains, misting and more. In the end of the day all I needed to do was add some weather stripping and more plants. My cabinet sits at 75-80% humidity for most of the day and night but drops to 60-65% for a few hours a day when the harsh afternoon sun hits my apartment (or when I open the doors which I do once a day to let fresh air in).
3) Overbuying stuff – In my excitement from late night research sessions I’ve hit the buy now button on stuff I just didn’t need, namely: Clear acrylic corner shelves (cost me a LOT to get these shipped to Australia but I have no room for them!), a water fountain (I just don’t need it!), an extra fan (one is plenty), 7 extra magnetic spice racks (again, no room for them!), a tonne of different pots (this actually isn’t necessarily a bad thing!).
4) The good stuff – I have bought a few things that have made my journey so far so much more pleasurable: A moisture meter which I use on the plants I have in soil so I know when my plants need a drink. LECA! As someone who’s killed every plant from overwatering, LECA is like a God send. In fact the plants that have all shot out new leaves are in leca. A water filter: Our water has chloramine in it (it kills fish!), so I figure it can’t be great for plants either.
One month in and I’ve not killed a single plant, nor had any signs of pests at all (yet!). I’ve run out of room in my cabinet which has, for now, stopped me from buying more plants (but trust me, the urge is strong!). I’m seeing so much new growth that plants may have to be moved out of the cabinet WAY sooner than I realised.
I am loving my new hobby and it’s a huge bonus that the online plant community is a LOT more positive than any other community I’ve ever been a part of (Much more positive in Facebook groups than reddit, but hey, reddit is… reddit!). Ultimately I’m finding more peace (in life!) with the hobby. Watching new leaves unfurl is SO rewarding!
Obsessed!
Found a guy (Sirius) on Facebook marketplace who was selling baby alocasias. I could clearly see in his photos that he was growing them in leca (semi-hydroponics) which is perfect as that’s what I’m using for most my plant cuttings which are doing amazing (lots of root growth and some have even pushed out new leaves!), best of all he lives literally 10 minutes down my street!
I swung past to pick up 4 plants, but walked away with 7 (since I took the lot he sold them all to me for $10 each).
Super nice guy who shared a lot of advice. The best tips he gave me was to note that alocasia’s are very hardy plants (despite what many say), and that insects/pests (particularly spider mites) are almost unavoidable and basically part of the hobby (again, similar to pests and algae issues in aquaria). He also said that alocasias don’t particularly need super high humidity and that he kept all of his at 60-65. I was previously freaking out when my humidity hit 60 (most of the day it’s at 70-80 in the cabinet).
He has more plants to sell, but I’ve legit got no more room in the cabinet now (especially with the rate things are growing at). I somehow doubt that’s going to slow me down from buying more plants though!
Plants: Alocasia Black Velvet, Pink Princess, Green Shield, Green Velvet and Melo.
PS: Follow Sirius on Instagram: @hemanlikesplants
Walked over to More Plants again today (yes it’s a walk away!) and picked up a couple more plants for my cabinet. I caved and bought the Alocasia Longiloba ‘May’ (Hybrid), which I fell in love with the first time I visited the store 3 weeks ago (SO surprised it was still there!). Also bought a Philodendron Billietiae in an attempt to fill up the top half of the cabinet.
Coming together nicely! Still have some cuttings from the garden in there that don’t suit the aroid theme. Will most likely remove them at some point.
Got roots?! Leca is amazing!
Meow!
Viv and I woke up in Maroubra this morning and got packing. I left my car at Rosebery, but we managed to pack up my PC, speakers, cat litter, cat food and… Mia in her Audi TT!
As expected, Mia pretty much cried all the way over, and some more once we got here, but she was exploring, she ate some wet food and get this… she used her new kitty litter too (the litter shaped like a plant)!
It’s 5pm now and she’s finally conked out on the couch. Looks like we’ll be fine :)
Queen Anthurium.
The goal is to successfully grow and own a mature Queen Anthurium, a rare (VERY expensive) plant that has amazing foliage.
Of all places, a Diablo Immortal Australia Clan member sent me a screen grab of a baby queen for ‘quick sale’ by a guy named Atian Tsai on Facebook. I was willing to jump on it for $150, but then I found out the guy selling it was in QLD. Old mate then told me that Atian sends orchids from QLD to WA so shipping shouldn’t be an issue. I reached out to Atian, transaction was made and I now have the plant!
Atian sent me a LONG message to say how hard baby queens are to keep alive. It was pretty gloomy and doomy, but the plant arrived in great condition. The humidity is sitting really nice at 80+ in my cabinet. I’m feeling hopeful!