Category Archives: Pets

Oxalis Triangularis

Posted on 22 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Purple Haze.

I’ve had some plant shops suggest plants that were not green, but at the time all I wanted was to have some green in the apartment, so I never looked at anything that wasn’t green, until now!

This is an Oxalis Triangularis (also known as a ‘purple shamrock’ or ‘purple butterfly’). Like prayer plants, it moves! It closes up like butterfly wings at night and opens wide to the morning light.

I first saw this plant on Sydney Plant Guy’s videos (he was the first plant Instagram I followed and a bit of an inspiration) about a week ago. I was browsing Facebook Marketplace and BAM! This plant popped up for sale! Turns out it was being sold by Sirius, a guy I’ve bought some aroid pups off before (he lives just down the road from me). Was meant to be!

Whilst it’s good advice to wait a week before repotting plants from soil to leca, as usual I repotted it as soon as I got it home. Sure enough all the leaves closed, and stems drooped. Apparently this plant doesn’t like to be moved but I’ve had really good luck with moving everything to leca so far, fingers crossed it’ll be just fine!

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Welcome to the jungle

Posted on 18 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Plants I got from AJ at Growing Grounds: Peperomia Hope, Peperomia Parallel, Peperomia Xiang Cao, Pilea Peperomioides, Calathea Sanderiana.

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Growing Grounds

Posted on 18 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Dropped in to see AJ at Growing Grounds today! Picked up 5 pet safe plants for the art studio.

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IKEA Rudsta Greenhouse Project

Posted on 18 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Just an update shot!

Everything is growing bonkers in there. Every single plant has been pushing out new leaves. It’s getting hard to try and stop them from touching each other!

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Monstera Deliciosa Large Form

Posted on 18 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Sketchy.

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Tip: Do NOT use cheap paper. Just couldn’t get my shading right on this one.

I was browsing Facebook Marketplace yesterday and came across some free art supplies in Rosebery. She had a bunch of art pads and canvases to give away so I sent her a message, sadly (for me) the art pads were taken but the canvases were still available so I grabbed them! Score!

I also came across this gorgeous Monstera Deliciosa Large Form that was reduced from $80 to $50. I’ve seen a LOT of Monsteras for sale both online and in stores but none that I have seen look as pretty as this one. Most of the ones I’ve seen are super leggy (growing out of control and super spread out), and none of the ones Ive seen had perfect leaves (this one does!).

I organised to pick up the plant yesterday afternoon from Marrickville. I’d not been to Marrickville in ages and forgotten just how cool that suburb is. SO many shops, a lot of people, such a great community vibe.

The owner of the plant was super chatty (which was awesome!). She’s owned the plant since she was 14. When she moved to Sydney she drove it from QLD to Sydney in her tiny Nissan Micra. So awesome to have a plant story! The plants gotten way too big for her apartment so she’s sadly letting it go (but she does have some cuttings so the plant will, in essence, still live on for her which is awesome).

The plant fit in the Honda Jazz with ease thanks to the magic seat system (where the rear seats fold up so you can put the pot on the flat floorpan). Honda sold people on the magic seat system with images and videos of tall plants so I knew it would fit!

The plant is in a 25cm pot, which is huge, and she has a 90cm coir stake in there but none of the air roots seem to be attached to it (I’ll probably replace it with a 120cm stake and try to get the air roots to attach to the pole). I really want to convert it from soil to leca, and whilst I’ve had huge success in converting all my plants to leca so far, this monster monstera is WAY bigger than everything else I’m growing, so taking it out of the pot, then washing the roots of dirt is going to be a bit of a challenge as the kitchen sink is too small!

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My Alocasia Longiloba is flowering

Posted on 10 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Alocasia Longiloba ‘May’ (Hybrid).

What I thought (and hoped) was a new leaf sprouting out from my Alocasia Longiloba turned out to be a flower (if you look closely there’s 2 of them!). From all the research I’ve done it’s best to chop off the flowers on Alocasias as the plant takes a lot of energy to form flowers, and a lot of people have been left with really ratty leaves when letting their plants flower. I’ve not personally seen any deterioration of any of my leaves, and I’m just happy the plant seems really healthy in my care!

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Calathea Makoyana

Posted on 8 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Calathea Makoyana (AKA Peacock Plant).

Dropped in to see Alex at More Plants today and picked up another plant to live outside of my cabinet. This time I picked up a Peacock Plant (another Calathea) because A) It’s got a wonderful painterly pattern on it’s foliage and B) it’s going straight into the spare room which I’m setting up as an art studio and C) It’s pet safe, a good thing as Mia’s still chewing leaves!

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The power of manifestation, and good come to those who wait

Posted on 5 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Monstera Borsigiana Albo.

I’m plant obsessed, but I’m different. I’m learning how to breathe. To sleep on it. To sit on it. Do do as much research as I feel like, but to not pull the trigger, to not hit the buy now button.

Owning a Monstera is like a right of passage for plant lovers, but since getting into plants I’ve stumbled upon the variegated varieties and haven’t been able to avoid the desire to want to own one ever since. Specifically the Monstera Albo which looks absolutely stunning when the leaves are 50/50 white and green (half moon).

Variegated plants have been much sought after since Covid and lockdowns hit, often fetching thousands of dollars. They’ve become Instagram plants, and also quite lucrative for those who choose to grow them and sell cuttings.

The prices are coming down though, and I’ve seen cuttings for sale on Facebook Marketplace for as low as $150. I showed Mum a photo of an Albo, she’d never seen one before and it was love at first sight for her so I’ve since been on a mission to buy Mum an Albo.

I was either going to find a large one to buy for her (would cost thousands for a large one), or I could start with cuttings, but his morning I was watching a Monstera Albo YouTube video when I got a message from an old high school friend on Instagram. Turns out she’s a plant collector! We’ve been chatting, and she’s offered to give me a cutting of her Monstera Albo!

What a way to start the week!

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IKEA Rudsta Greenhouse Project

Posted on 3 March, 2023 by Justin Fox

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Yes. I caved. The ultimate goal is to have a Queen Anthurium with huge perfect leaves as the only plant in the cabinet. I bought a baby queen a little while back, and it’s pushed out a new leaf, but it’ll be years before it gets to the size of this one.

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Anthurium Clarinervium pushed out this cute new little leaf (how is this not heart shaped?!). It gets bigger every day. Fingers crossed it’ll be way bigger than the biggest leaf!

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Alocasia Cuprea pushed out this amazing new leaf!

Late night internet shopping is nasty. I had seen this Queen Anthurium for sale over a month ago on Rootd Plants. It was the last of the batch that no-one wanted as the leaves on it looked pretty banged up, but late the other night I saw it was still there and I pulled the trigger on it. It came quick and was packed well. She’s definitely pretty beat up. They have very sensitive leaves which many who keep them say not to touch. A small mark on a small leaf will become a HUGE mark once the leaf gets big.

I have every single plant in the apartment growing in leca now except this queen. I’m nervous about moving her over, but at the same time I’m a little less nervous as she’s not the perfect specimen.

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Pine and Sprout

Posted on 28 February, 2023 by Justin Fox

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I stumbled upon these amazing plant trellis made by a brother and sister duo in the US. Love at first sight! I had to have the evil eye trellis! Viv is NUTS about the moon (and she has a lot of plants!) so I bought her the moon phase and sun, moon stars ones too. Visit: https://pineandsprout.com

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