27 December 2012

dryness

I continually have to remind myself to leave the plants alone.
Those that don't like much water, that is. The little rabbit-foot fern is light enough, when dry, to sit on the keyboard without depressing a key (I put it there for a dark background to set off the lovely foliage).
I've found that during winter the ferns like to stay very dry and are happy with frequent misting or humidity treatments in the bathroom instead. I only water the little one once every two weeks, and the big one once a month. It seems perfectly happy with that (I don't know why I keep taking pictures of this plant as it pretty much always looks the same, but I think it's so pretty!)

The jades are pretty much on a biweekly schedule now, too. In summer they might get watered once a week, but I bet won't need it more than that.
The other plant that hardly ever seems to need water is the Sansevieria. I swear I've only watered it twice since I bought it- and that was mid-nov, so it seems to need water once every three weeks on average. I test it by sticking my finger in the potting medium and if it's still moist, leave it be. When it's dry it gets a good soak and the water that drains dumped out after twenty minutes. Such a very un-fussy plant. I do occasionally mist it.

The Norfolk Pine and dragon-tree Dracanea also get watered once a week only.

2 comments:

chrisa511 said...

It is such a beautiful plant!! I need to get another fern..next time I'll buy one in good health though, not one that's half dead off the rescue rack :p

Jeane said...

Some of my best plants were rescues off the reduced-price rack :)