Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New Houseplants!

Believe it or not, a few days ago a had no plants in my house. None. Not a single one. Everything I have is currently outside enjoying the sunny Vancouver summer. I figured it was about time to get my first Vancouver-bought house plants and ran to the best/worst place I could think of, HD. Like usual nearly everything was unlabeled.

I ended up with a selection of three plants. The place I'm in right now is a basement apartment and is really drab. Luckily, it's an entire basement and there are windows on all four sides of the house. I wanted some plants to add a punch of colour.

Side Rant (You can skip this part if you're not a cynical person):

This place is painted an ugly colour somewhere between light grey and brown. It's like grimiest attempt at white anyone has ever tried to achieve. Literally the entire place - ceilings, walls, trim, and the carpet/tile is a similar colour. Why?!?! I've been painting part-time for the last two months and every last thing I've painted has been beige or off-white. Please no more. Could everyone do me a favour and design with colour in the future? I need colour in my life and so do you. See example of colour below. Makes you happy doesn't it?


I ended up deciding upon Ficus elastica 'Burgundy', Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii Lemon Lime' and a polka-dot plant. I'll probably end up putting the Ficus outside. It needs bright light to retain the deep 'Burgundy' colour. Full sun is a bit too intense near the equator (although it will still grow) but here is seems to be ideal.

9 comments:

  1. I have one plant in my house...it's like your stripey one in the picture. I always thought it was called a spider plant or snake plant or something like that for some reason. Anyway, we'll see how long mine lives...

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  2. What a great selection. I'm glad to see you are nestling into your new place. :-)--Randy

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  3. Slightly off topic, but I saw you asked about a plant at PATSP, and since I'm not on twitter, you get my guess here - I think it's Castanospermum australe.

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  4. I LOVE my variegated rubber tree! It is so lovely. I have to "edit" my plants soon to bring them in, which is always a painful process. Enjoy your new "roommates"!

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  5. Nice looking houseplants. I do terribly with them - they all look sickly. But if I had these nice ones, just maybe....

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  6. I have the rubber ficus outdoors and it actually came back from all those hard freezes! It does live in full sun, but it gets plenty of moisture.
    Oh, and I agree with you on the side rant, but I suppose the majority of people looking for a place to live would be more particular.

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  7. @Dale, it probably is a spider plant. They're one of the classic house plants that are great and really hard to kill.

    @Randy, It just doesn't feel like home without some plants!

    @Ivynettle, Thanks, you definitely got it. I love that plant and I think I'll pick it up next time we go to HD.

    @Anonymous, It might be easier to edit your furniture. Just a thought. ;)

    @Stevie, I'm sure you could take care of them. I made sure to get ones that weren't picky. You should stop by HD and load up.

    @Rainforest Gardener, I heard they could take a lot of abuse. Glad to here it. It's good to know other people like some colour as well.

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  8. such cute plants...i need more color in my house too...mine is small, and all white walls...are you shocked? I wish I had one wall in livingroom that was mustard colored!!!!! :)

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  9. @Julie, How could you?!?!?! They're fine white if you've got an accent wall. That or punched up the place with some bright accessories. I don't mind mustard (usually), you should go for it!

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