House Plants

looksee

Is there room for a house plants thread? Identification, care for etc. I could not find a dedicated thread so here goes.

I'll get things started with this Nepenthes/ Pitcher plant that I bought last year. When I bought it it had about 10 pitchers on it, each about 2" high. I was told to put rainwater into the pitchers and to water it frequently. I subsequently read that you should not put water into the pitchers but that it should be watered 'when the compost is 25% dry' whatever that means.

Fairly quickly the original pitchers shrivelled up at the neck. I started watering it considerably more, replacing the water in the transparent bowl that it was in whenever there was no water visible - which has been every day. I also mist it with rainwater. I am still not sure about putting water in the pitchers, but I have not. At the moment it has five new pitchers, the biggest is over 6" and the others are around 4" long. There are more coming, they grow quite quickly once they start. It is hanging in a sunny window. I find it fascinating.

boardtc

I have a 1.5 sq m area in the hall surrounded on 3 sides by stairs railing which has extra tall space available and decent but not direct light. What would be a good houseplant to put there? I would like to get something that is a good size already.

Have you experienced a house plant that has lasted 10+ years in a big space? Any comments are appreciated.

Is there a better place to post this query?

Ms2011

Something in the ficus family might be good in that space, they come in various sizes, I have one about 3ft at the moment.

Yucca also come in larger sizes and are almost impossible to kill.

Julia_G

Regarding the nepenthes. We love ours too, it also hangs in the window and is doing well. It's about a year old (or rather, we bought it about a year ago). At some point, the pitchers have all shrivelled, but I am assuming that is just the normal cycle and new ones will come in? At the moment, ours are all shrivelled, but new leaves have grown and the hook-like ends of them are growing and climbing, and I expect new pitchers will grow soon too. Aside, we are going to propagate ours soon. Have you tried that?

Regarding the previous post: We have potted ficuses dotted around the house, some in very non-direct light, they work very well. Nice to get ones already a few years old and have substantial growth and nice shape.

looksee

Yes, all mine have shrivelled at the neck, I am leaving most of them for the moment. There are a lot of new babies coming. I did cut off a few pitchers that had shrivelled a lot or were hanging in groups. I am not watering it as much at the moment though I did repot it into a bigger pot. It appeared to be in ordinary compost, I put the whole thing into a compost and moss (mostly green moss) mix. It seems to be flourishing on it.

Julia_G

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901677#Comment_121901677

We do keep water in our pitchers. The information regarding this is so mixed online, but we spray ours and the water gathers inside anyway, and I guess in their natural environment, they will get plenty of water inside the pitcher, so we don't stress about it. I had another look at it today and looks like the first pitcher of the season is coming 🌱