New Things Going on in The Garden

Hello everyone! As the month of May is coming to a close, a lot is going on in my indoor garden. I've been busy a lot lately so that's why I haven't been posting very frequently but I will try to be more consistent :) first up is the Cordyline plant or the Hawiian Ti plant also the Hawiian good luck plant:

This plant really likes this spot in the afternoon sunlight and I bought this plant about a month and a half ago from Walmart with a 50% discount due to some sun burned foliage. This plant is recovering well and I love the bold purple color! The next plant is a new addition to the indoor garden and here it is:

Here's my Prayer plant or maranta leucineura erythroneura. I love the patterns on the leaves. We know where the plant gets it's name from the leaves closing at night in the position like praying hands. I had a prayer plant in Texas but that was a green variety. This variety is more colorful and I love it! This plant likes moisture but not too much. I'm very excited about this plant. The next plant is another new addition from Lowes:

It is a Peace Lily or spathiphyllum. The plant was in poor condition so I recieved a hefty discount and only paid $1.60 for the plant. The plant was very root bound so I repotted the plant immediately:

This is the reason (I'm assuming) that the leaves were yellowing. I plan to get this plant back to good health. Peace Lilies are great purifiers of the air indoors which is a plus. The yellowing leaves were trimmed off and I'm looking forward to the new growth from this plant. Lastly but not least is a small update on my phalaenopsis orchid that I bought almost a month ago:

There's a new leaf growing!! I'm happy to see progress with this plant as this is my only orchid. I really like this plant and I'm very glad that I've found it. That's everything for now. I will try to post more often. Thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment. Have a great day! :)

My New Phalaenopsis Orchid

Hello everyone!! For today I would like to share my new find from Lowes and here it is:

This is a mini phalaenopsis orchid. I did find this plant on the clearance shelf and it was only $3.50 which is an excellent deal on an orchid since they can be a little pricey. The orchid does have some dead blooms but eventually they will fall off naturally. There are some buds that haven't opened yet and I'm very excited about the future blooms:

This plant is also in a spagnum moss medium which holds moisture that is beneficial to the plant plus I wouldn't have to water frequently as I would with a  tree bark medium. I hope you enjoyed this post about my new orchid. Feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for reading and have a great Monday!

Repotting Aloe Vera Plant

Hello everyone and happy Saturday! I have been looking at new options as well as usual options for houseplants for my gardening space and I recently bought this aloe vera plant a few weeks ago:

Here it is its pot that came with it. I could see roots growing through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot which indicated that this plant needs to be repotted very soon. I took the plant out if it's pot:

The roots are very compact together in a fixed shape as the plant's grower pot. The next thing that I did is loosen the root system so that they can acclimate to the new pot:

After this was done, the new pot was prepped with a layer of soil. Since Aloe Vera plants are succulents you can use a cactus or sandy soil as well. Going back to the layer of soil, be sure that the new pot is approximately 1/3 filled before placing the plant into the pot:

I went simple with a plastic pot. After this step, the Aloe Vera plant was placed into the pot:

The last step is quite easy, it is too fill in the empty areas with additional soil around and above the root system:

Once you're finished with that step, if your plant is very dry and need a watering, give it a thorough watering and let the excess water drain through the bottom if the pot. Here's my Aloe Vera plant enjoying the afternoon sun in my west facing window:

It looks very happy here! Thank you for your time everyone and have a great Weekend!

Repotting Schefflera Arboricola

Good afternoon everyone! I have spring fever since this is the first full week of spring. About two weeks ago, I did purchase a 'schefflera arboricola' or umbrella plant and here it is:

It is a really nice and healthy plant indeed! But it is showing signs of it outgrowing its current pot so now it's time to repot. I do have a pot on hand as well as some soil. I did take the plant out of its current pot first:

This schefflera does have a very healthy root system, I'm really impressed. Next the roots did need to be loosened so that the plant can grow into its new pot:

Once this step was done, I did set the plant into the new pot. Be sure that before placing the plant into the pot, that 1/3 of the new pot is filled with soil. After placing the plant into the larger pot, I added some more soil around the root system and eventually filled the pot almost to the very top:

After this was done, I gave the plant a thorough watering to get the roots acclimated to the new growing conditions. Here's the finished product!

My schefflera looks very happy in its new home and completely ready for spring. Thank you for reading everyone and have a great Thursday!

New Philodendrons

Happy Friday! Lately I've been looking around for new plants to add to my indoor garden and I did in fact find some great plants too. Here's a philodendron scandens micans plant that I purchased last week:

Please excuse the background mess on my kitchen counter but it's adjusting very well. This is related to the philodendron scandens but the leaves have a very nice velvety texture which is very cool about this plant. It is starting to trail a bit already. My next plant is a philodendron scandens as well:

But this is the plain all green variety. 3 years ago in 2011 when I lived in Texas, I did have one like this as well. I really like the the glossy leaves which looks very beautiful. These are very easy plants to maintain and I cannot wait for vines to form. I did forget to mention that I did name my philodendrons. The 'micans' name is Pearl and the green 'scandens'  name is Jack. I hope that you have enjoyed today's post and thank you for reading!

Repotting Dracaena Marginata

Hello everyone, for today I will be doing some repotting sessions with my Dracaena Marginata plant:

I did purchase this plant a little over a month ago and it has made a lot of progress. I did buy this plant for only $2 because it was barely alive and it also had a lot of dead foliage. The plant did gradually bounce back to great health and I'm very happy. I am going to repot this plant into this really nice orange planter:

With this pot, my dracaena will have more space to thrive compared to its current pot. To start off this process, I took the plant out of the old pot to examine the root system:

The roots are in good condition which I am really pleased about! Next, a layer of soil is added at the bottom of the new pot to give space for future new growth of the root system to grow:

After this step, the plant as a whole is placed in the container:

In the last step in this repotting procedure, I added a top layer above the root system. If the plant is in need of some water, give a moderate amount of water to the plant. Here's how the plant looks after its repotting:

It's enjoying the afternoon sunlight and I'm excited to see how my plant will do in the following months. I will post updates. I hope that all of you will have a great afternoon! Thank you for reading.

Reviving the Corn Plant

Good afternoon everyone! I would like to share my new growing space for my indoor garden: 

I really like the windows and the high ceilings in this space. These windows face west which gets evening sunlight but there are tons of trees outside of my windows which filters out some of the sunlight. I am planning to fill the space with new indoor plants. Last week at my local Walmart, I did find a new plant and here it is:

This is a corn plant (dracaena fragans) which is a beautiful houseplant. I did receive a 50% discount because the plant has some structural damage as well as lots of dead leaves at the base of each stalk. In the process of reviving this plant, I took the plant out of its pot to examine the roots:

 The roots were in OK condition but they also had some signs of root rot. I did trim the roots of the dead and decaying material. 

Next, I did place the plant into a new pot and set it in front of the west facing window to help it to acclimate to the new growing conditions:

I am going to let this plant rest for while and let it get used to its new home. Since the soil was very wet, I did not add any additional water to the soil mix to ensure that the problem of root rot will not happen again. This is my first ever corn plant and I am very excited to see the results of this plant in the future. Thanks for reading! :)