Saturday, November 08, 2008

Houseplants in the house

One of the saddest days of autumn is the day I have to bring my houseplants back in the house. I just feel so sorry for them. They've been living la vida loca outside since late spring getting all the luxuries like sunlight and water. Once they come back in the house it's all over.




I try to water them. But I usually only realize to do it when their all droopy and pathetic looking. As for light, my house has a lot of windows, but none of them are placed very well for plants. Add that to the fact that we have to keep the plants up and out of the range of nibbling cats. I'm sure the all the plants consider my house nothing more than a dark, dry cave.

This year the plants had a great season outside. The spider plants are huge. The Girl's jade plant doubled in size. Even my poinsettia survived, which is big news. I've never had much luck with poinsettias. But now they're in the house. I spend the whole time bringing them in apologizing to them. Really. Ask The Man.



One of the plants we inherited from Grammy back in the spring was this guy. I'm not sure what kind of plant this is.

This would be the one plant who did not have a nice summer. When I went to get it, it's leaves were all bug chewed. It was scraggly and listless. I figured it would be a complete goner in two weeks once it came in the house. A few days later it started to flower.

Right now it has tiny towers of white flowers with purple speckles. They don't look like much in passing, but when you get close you can see how complex and beautiful they are.

Look how small they are!

My camera has not really been in top form since my baby cousin dug through a pile of coats to find my purse at the very bottom. Then she dug through my purse and found my camera. Then she threw my camera down a flight of steps. Lovely. I have to keep the battery compartment closed with a piece of tape. Whenever you turn it the camera creaks like it's in pain. But that was almost a year ago and it's still taking pictures. I asked the camera if it could take a super close-up of a flower so I could really see the purple speckles. The camera clicked and groaned and had plenty of failures. Finally we got this one.I think this plant is trying to tell me that it's a true houseplant and could I please never put it outside again. I think I can manage that.

4 comments:

chipper said...

oooo. very pretty. wish i had a clue what it was though :)

Nance said...

it's a weed.

just kidding!

grammy said...

I think this is english ivy.
I have had this plant before
but I never had it flower.
Good for you! Grammy

J. said...

Hi Grammy! An English Ivy? Sounds good to me!