Ever since first owning pet cats I’ve had the worst luck with plants. Our house is set up so that the only south facing windows are on in the main living room where the cats have full access. I look at our families’ house plants, and decor pictures of homes online and think it is not too much to ask to have a plant in our house. BUT these cats are hell bent on killing anything we have out. Bishop’s taste for plants goes so far that he will even eat fake plants! We had a fake Christmas tree up for a month and good chances if you were looking for Bishop he’d be over pulling down branches to his mouth range and chomping away on them. We are always amazed at his spidey sense for any plant life that may enter the house. One time I carried a leaf into the house with some mail. The leaf got lost in the shuffle of mail and I forgot about it. A little bit later I watched as Bishop strategized for 5 minutes about how to get on the pillar speaker where I placed the mail. Finally after figuring out which piece of furniture to launch himself from he got there, and then piece by piece flipped each piece of mail off the speaker until he found that leaf. He’s like the Princess and Pea.
This of course means we have to be careful about what plants we have (if they are pet safe) and where we can keep them. The above gif was just a quick capture to show how I placed the plant out and less than 30 seconds later he was trying to devour it. I of course put it back in my studio immediately.
AND, what they don’t eat, I skillfully and promptly kill myself. I suspect that our house is VERY DRY. This has been a very hard and cold winter. I’ve been running a table top humidifier (just beside which is conveniently placed a Cigar Cooler, working as a humidifier for cigars) around the clock and yet everything I touch shocks me. I’m guessing that is a sign that our aprilaire system attached to our furnace is long dead.
I’ve managed to kill 2 air plants. After the first one, I made sure to do plenty of research and yet the second airplant was dead within 3 months as well.
Last week after CRAVING some greenery (read: cabin fever) I went to Lowe’s and searched for a plant I might be able to keep in my studio. I was kind of hoping for a string of pearls, but they didn’t have any so I walked away with this lemon button fern. I’m telling you! From one weekend to the next, more than half of it’s leaves are already dried up and dead! It says “medium” for water so I’ve watered it once and spritzed it with spray a few times. I know some plants have a hard time trying to transition from the perfect “atmosphere and climate” of a greenhouse to real life. Maybe some of the weaker leaves are dying and will give strength the other branches?
I just want a plant that lives.
Meanwhile my mom had THREE orchids that are blooming away!
Have you tried succulents? Some of those are really pretty.
I am a plant killer too, but I think Bill might be worse. He killed my two new air plants while I was in New Zealand. I pretty much stick with air plants and succulents for inside, and tomatoes and other easy garden plants outside.
Yep. I have cacti to keep the cats from eating my greenery. They do quite well and my terrible felines don’t even try to nibble on them. Mickey once launched herself several feet to a wall mounted shelf to knock off and eat some roses a friend got me, so I can feel your pain!