Let’s Talk some Friggin Plants!

I have been really into plants lately.

Honestly, in the last 3 weeks, the number of plants that I have has quadrupled.
Wait, is quadrupled the original number x4? Or the original times 4 then that sum times 4, and then that sum times 4… AKA original number to the 4th power?
Math is confusing…

Let’s just say, I have a lot of house plants.

I have joined this bandwagon late. Apparently, at the beginning of the pandemic indoor plants really had a renaissance. But I was too busy trying to finish up the school year for the girls and then decide how we would do the next school year. Oh, and I took refuge in my own cross-stitching renaissance.

Now, in true Maria fashion, I have named them all. I mean, I have named our Roomba-her name is Roberta, her cousin a Braava named Scrubbie, etc…I haven’t named the car, but I already have a name for my pretend orange Mini Cooper: Cinni-mini! If only I could get my husband onboard.

The plants got their names by:
1) Being a favorite character;
2) Character in the book I was reading when I got the plant;
3) One of the girls gave the plant its name;
4) Sometimes it was just what I thought of when I saw it.

So this is a look at all my plants, a little about its arrival story and its name/namesake 🙂
Are you ready?
We will count as we go.

Upstairs bathroom

1. Calathea Vittata = Bernadette, Where’d You Go Bernadette one of my favorite books, the audiobook is read by Kathlene Wilhoite and she is AWESOME
Common name: a prayer plant

2. Echeveria ‘Crinoline Ruffles – Fern, One Crazy Summer 

3. Aloe ‘Doran Black – Vonetta, P.S. Be Eleven

4. Crassula Arborescens Blue Bird Variegata – Delphine, Gone Crazy in Alabama
Common name: Blue Bird

Entryway

5. Sansevieria Trifasciata ‘Futura Superba’ = Kaa, The Jungle Book
Common names: Mother’s in law tongue, snake plant

6. Dracaena marginata = Tsunami, the little tiger named him after a character in the Wings of Fire series
Common name: Dragon tree

7. Philodendron Lickety Split = Xavier, when I got him, I had just finished The Poet X and this is Twin’s real name

8. Hemigraphis alternata = Xiomara, the protagonist in The Poet X
Common names: Snow White Waffle, Red Ivy, Purple Waffle Plant

Front room

9. Oxalis Triangularis = Holly, PS I love you
Common name: False Shamrock

10. Coffea arabica = Lorelai as in Gilmore Girls
Common name: Coffee plant

11. Sansevieria Fernwood = Ivy, because one of the two girls wanted to name some plant ivy, so I thought this would be a good one. It is the exact opposite of an ivy plant I couldn’t resist.
Common name: Fernwood Snake Plant

12. Scindapsus pictus = Sylvia also an Etsy purchase and I couldn’t have had a more excellent expense purchasing a live plant online.
Common name: Silver Satin pothos

13. Peperomia Polybotrya = Geppetto, Pinocchio need I say more?
Common name: Coin-leaf peperomia, Peperomia raindrop, Raindrop peperomia, Coin plant, Chinese Money Plant

14. Drosera spatulata = Seymour, As in…Feed me Seymour…I should have named him Audry 2 but…A carnivorous plant, who doesn’t think of Little Shop of Horrors?
Common name: Spoon-leaved sundew

15. Euphorbia lactea ‘Cristata’ = Finn, one of the girls named her
Actually, two plants grafted together
Common name: Coral cactus

16. Peperomia Peppermill = Oxen Yottle, the dragon named him/her

17. Codiaeum Petra – Amanda, one of the girls named her
Common name: Joseph’s coat

18. Peperomia Dolabriformis  var. glaucescens = Truffula, The Lorax because when I first saw her she reminded me of a Dr. Suess ‘character’
Common name: Prayer Pepper

19. Cryptanthus osiris Bromeliads (Earth Stars) = Animal, The Muppets not literary at all!
Common name: Earth Star

20. Aeonium Arboreum = Starla, she just looks/looked very star-like when I got her.

21&22. Aloe Vera = Theodore and Theo, The House in the Cerulean Sea
Common name: Aloe

23. Dieffenbachia maculata – Hassan, An Abundance of Katherines
Common name: Dumb Cane

24. Jade plant = Archimedes, a nod to John Green (An Abundance of Katherines)

Kitchen

25. E. aureum ‘Golden Pothos’  = Lily, Lily & Dash Book of Dares, book 1
Common name: Devils Ivy

26. Gymnocalycium mihanovichii = Talia, The House in the Cerulean Sea
Another grafted cactus
Common name: Ruby Ball Cactus

27. Epipremnum aureum = Cinder, The Lunar Chronicles series This is an unrooted cutting I purchased from Etsy, I was worried. But she is doing well.
Common name: Marble Queen Pathos

28. Chirita – Minerva Mcgonagall, Harry Potter series
She is in the African Violet family and a bit of a mystery to me, but I love her nevertheless 🙂

Conclusion

I have twenty-eight plants. That does not include the couple I am trying to propagate OR the three I have purchased since I wrote this a week ago.

Do I want more plants…yes.

Maybe I should join some kind of 12-step program. But there are people out there far more plant-obsessed than I.

I would say, my ‘immediate want’ is something to go in these:

I just think that it is going to take something bushy/string may be a String of Pearls or String of Buttons (variegated would be better, but I don’t think we get about indoor light to keep the variation going) a miniature Joshua Tree something along those lines.

Can’t you see it!

So, have I bored you enough with my plant collection?
I have really been enjoying them. They have given me something new to look forward to every day, and after more than 12 months in this house…I need something new. 🙂

Have you gotten into anything recently? I’d love to hear about your ‘new’ obsession hobby.

 

P.S. Come back, my next project is…maybe something cooking-related. I am not sure.