c/botany-lovers

Tried saving a dying orchid with ice cubes and learned my lesson the hard way

Overwatered my favorite phalaenopsis for 3 months straight in my kitchen in Portland before a retired florist told me ice cubes don't work for tropical plants and now I just water it with room temp tap water every 10 days has anyone else fallen for that bad advice?

Went to the Chicago Botanic Garden yesterday and had a weird moment with a fern

I was walking through the fern house at the Chicago Botanic Garden yesterday and got totally distracted by this one Japanese painted fern. The way the light hit the silvery blue fronds made me realize Ive been ignoring the small details in my own garden for years. I spent like 20 minutes just staring at the patterns and wondering why I never noticed how complex ferns actually are. Anyone else ever get stuck fixated on one plant at a garden and feel dumb for missing it before?

Overheard a teen at the greenhouse say moss is just dirty algae

I was repotting ferns at my local nursery in Boulder last Saturday when a kid told his friend that moss was just dirty algae that ruins sidewalks. It made me think about how we used to press moss samples in old field guides and marvel at their tiny leaves. Anyone else have a younger person dismiss something in botany that you had to gently correct?

TIL I hit 500 houseplant species without noticing

I was organizing my plant journal last month and decided to count every variety I've owned. Turned out I hit 503 different houseplant species since I started collecting 4 years ago. It surprised me because I never thought of myself as that serious of a collector. Most of them came from trades with a local group here in Portland, not from buying. Has anyone else lost track of how many plants they've gone through?

Overheard a guy at the nursery talking about soil pH like it was rocket science

I was at Armstrong's in Riverside last weekend and this older guy told the cashier he tests his soil pH every single spring and fall without fail. Said he caught his azaleas turning yellow two years ago because the pH hit 7.1 instead of the 5.5 they need. I never even thought to check my dirt before, anyone else just wing it and hope for the best?

Heard a guy at the nursery say he waters his succulents with ice cubes, tried it on my jade plant for 3 weeks

I was at Armstrong Garden Center last Saturday picking up some perlite and overheard this older dude telling his wife to use ice cubes so they don't overwater. Thought he was nuts but my jade plant has been looking sad so I gave it a shot. Put two ice cubes on the soil every Sunday for 3 weeks and the leaves are plumping back up, no rot or anything. I think the slow melt stops the soil from getting soaked all at once. Has anyone else tried this trick or am I risking root damage long term?

Nearly lost all my seedlings at the community garden last Tuesday

I showed up at the Elm Street community garden around 7 AM to water my tomato seedlings. Some volunteer had hosed down the whole plot overnight without checking what plants were there. The soil was muddy and half my seedlings were flattened or drowned. Now I'm thinking about putting up a small fence or at least a sign... has anyone else had issues with overzealous watering at shared garden spaces?

Wasted $60 on a fancy soil pH meter that was completely wrong

I bought this digital pH meter off Amazon for $60 because I wanted to get serious about my hydrangeas turning blue. The thing showed a reading of 6.5 right out of the box, so I adjusted my soil with sulfur based on that. After three months of yellow leaves and no flowers, I grabbed a $10 test strip kit from the local nursery and found out my soil was actually 5.0. Has anyone else had a tool give you totally bad info like that?

Dollar store spray bottles work better than any fancy mister I've bought for my orchids

I kept buying those $15+ mister bottles from the garden center for my mounted orchids. They'd clog after a month or the spray pattern would get uneven. Picked up two of those cheap blue trigger spray bottles from the dollar store for $1.25 each. Been using them for 4 months now, no clogs, fine mist every time. One for plain water, one for diluted fertilizer. Anyone else find basic stuff works better for their plants?

Dropped $60 on a fancy moisture meter and it just told me my cactus was fine while it was literally rotting

Ngl, I thought I was being smart avoiding overwatering, but that meter didn't catch the soggy soil in the bottom half of the pot. Anyone else had a tool fail you that bad?

Shoutout to the guy at the Nashville Arboretum who changed my mind about native plants

I used to think natives were boring and messy, just weeds basically. But last spring I helped a friend plant a pollinator garden at his place in Nashville and saw a monarch caterpillar on a milkweed I put in. Now I'm slowly replacing my hostas with things like goldenrod and purple coneflower, and the bees are all over it. Anyone else make the switch from fancy ornamentals to natives?

I used to think ferns were boring until I found one growing in my driveway crack

So I always thought ferns were just basic filler plants you see at the nursery and walk past. But about two months ago I noticed this tiny fern sprouting right out of a crack in my asphalt driveway in Raleigh. I figured it would die off when the heat hit but instead it just kept getting bigger and greener. Finally looked it up and it's a resurrection fern that can survive almost full drought and then bounce back with just a little rain. Now I have like six pots of ferns on my porch and I'm watching how they curl up when it's dry and open up after a storm. Has anyone else had a plant they wrote off completely change their mind once they saw it growing in a weird spot?

Stumbled on a weird trick to keep my orchid alive...

I kept killing my phalaenopsis orchids even though I followed all the watering guides... then I tried putting an ice cube in the pot once a week instead of pouring water in. Has anyone else tried this or am I just getting lucky with this one plant?

Why does everyone ignore the pH testing step for carnivorous plants?

I was at a local plant swap last Saturday in Portland and saw three people mixing bog soil with straight tap water and no pH check. Those sundews and VFTs need acidic conditions around pH 4-5 or they rot out in a month. I keep a $15 meter from Amazon and test every batch of distilled water before I water my nepenthes. Has anyone else noticed beginners skipping this step and losing their plants?

Hit 150 houseplant varieties in my apartment last Tuesday. Never planned on this.

Switched from bottom-watering to top-watering my calatheas 3 months ago after losing 2 to root rot

I used to think bottom-watering was safer, but my calathea leaves kept curling and turning yellow, so I tried top-watering with a long-neck watering can and now the new growth is actually unfurling properly - has anyone else had better luck with one method over the other?

Just found out wild garlic spreads underground way faster than I thought

I was digging up a patch in my backyard last weekend and discovered one plant had runners going almost 4 feet in every direction. Read a study from the Royal Horticultural Society that said a single bulb can produce up to 60 new plants in just two seasons if left alone. That explains why my neighbor's lawn is completely overtaken while mine looked innocent last spring. I pulled out over 200 bulbs from a 3x3 foot area and I'm pretty sure I missed half of them. Anyone else dealt with this spreading beast? How do you keep it contained without going full nuclear on your garden?

Shoutout to the person who corrected my succulent watering

Been killing succulents for years. Someone at the garden center finally told me I was watering them wrong. Not too much water, it's the wrong timing.

Switched from grow lights to a south window finally got my jade plant to bloom

I had this jade plant for 3 years under a cheap LED grow light and it just stayed green but never did anything cool. Last month I moved it to a south-facing window in my apartment in Portland and watered it way less. Now it's got these tiny white flowers starting to pop out and I'm honestly shook. Who knew natural light and neglect was the secret? Anyone else have a plant surprise them after switching spots?

Here's a debate for you plant people: do you let your indoor plants go dormant in winter or keep them pumping with grow lights?

I heard from a nursery owner last month that forcing growth year-round with lights does more harm than good, but my neighbor swears her 3-year-old monstera only thrives because she runs LEDs 12 hours a day through January. Which side do you fall on and why?

PSA: Watering my pothos with fish tank water turned it into a monster

I've had this pothos for like 4 years and it just sat there, barely growing. One day I ran out of tap water and grabbed a cup from my betta tank during a water change. After a month the thing put out 6 new leaves, and now the vines are crawling across my shelf. The fish waste has nitrogen and stuff plants love, and I don't have to buy fertilizer. Anyone else try this with their houseplants or is it just a fluke?

Found a weird trick for waking up dormant orchid roots

I had this phalaenopsis orchid that just wouldn't grow new roots for like 4 months after I repotted it. The leaves were still firm but the old roots were all mushy and dead. Spent $12 on a rooting hormone powder and some fancy orchid bark mix but nothing worked. Then my neighbor who grows prize winning orchids told me to try putting a single ice cube on the top of the bark every morning instead of watering normally. Felt like total BS because everyone says ice kills orchids but I was desperate so I tried it for 2 weeks straight. To my shock tiny green root nubs started popping out of the stem near the base. Think the gradual meltwater tricked the roots into thinking it was rainy season or something. Has anyone else tried weird watering methods that turned out to work for stubborn plants?

Stopped by the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix last weekend and something felt off

All the agave were tagged with numbers instead of names, like a weird plant catalog. Did they change their labeling system or is this just a temporary thing while they update?

I was totally against those fancy LED grow lights until my Monstera started dying in January

Everyone in my local plant group SWORE by these expensive full spectrum lights but I kept saying my south window was good enough. After 3 straight weeks of gray skies in Portland my Monstera dropped 4 leaves and looked pitiful. I finally caved and bought a cheap $30 light off Amazon just to try it. Now the new leaves are huge with more fenestrations than ever. Has anyone else had their mind changed about something they thought was overhyped?

Two weeks of fighting a spider mite outbreak vs just buying ladybugs on day one

Found a nasty spider mite infestation on my 12 tomato plants. Spent 14 days spraying neem oil and wiping leaves every single night. Should I have just ordered ladybugs for $15 from the start or is the chemical route better for large gardens?