Category Archives: Plants

Just an update!

Everything inside the cabinet is growing strong. Have yet to kill a plant and yet to have any sort of pests either. I’m still upset that I’ve lost the jungle vibe by removing plants that just got too big (they’re all doing great outside of the cabinet though despite it being winter in Sydney atm). It’s looking more like a grow out cabinet now than a true display, but hey, nothing much I can do about that!

I removed the Queen Anthurium from the cabinet though. Not because it got too big, just because it’s the one plant I’ve not ben able to grow right, and I got sick of looking at it’s imperfect leaves.

Rex Begonia.

Queen of Hearts (Homalomena ‘Maggie’).

Alex from More Plants (my local plant store) is back from her 3 week trip overseas so I thought I’d drop by yesterday to say hello, and of-course, to buy some plants!

I ended up buying 2 plants I never thought I’d ever buy, and know very little about, but hey the cabinet is full of aroids and Mia is very much leaving all the plants outside of the cabinet alone, so I figured that A) I can add more plants to the lounge room where I spend most of my time and B) I can start looking into keeping plants other than aroids!

5 month update.

The Anthurium Dorayaki X that high school friend Fifi gave to me as a little baby late March has grown 3 new leaves and the latest leaf is absolutely MASSIVE!

5 months into the plant hobby and I’ve yet to kill a plant (this makes me happy!). I’m really unhappy with how the cabinet is looking though. It’s lost the jungle vibe as I’ve had to move my Alocasia Watsoniana, Longiloba and Frydek out as they’ve outgrew the cabinet.

The Queen Anthurium was my dream plant. I have 2 of them, one which I got as a baby and another which I bought with one large beaten up leaf. Both have grown new leaves but none of the new leaves are perfect. The large one has grown what would have been a much bigger new leaf, but for some reason the whole bottom half of the leaf is completely missing!

I’m aware that you’re not meant to touch new Queen Anthurium leaves as this can cause marks and imperfections when the leaf matures. I swear that I didn’t touch the new leaves at all, but the damage seems to have been done as the leaves were unfurling. Super upsetting and frustrating.

The cabinet was looking really empty so I moved a couple of cuttings into the cabinet; a Monstera Peru and Albo (which an old high school friend so generously gifted me!). Both had shown no new growth at all since I got them (about 2 months ago) but just a few weeks in the cabinet and amazingly the Peru is about to push out 2 new leaves and the Albo has a new leaf unfurling! I put it down to the cabinet having higher humidity and also warmer temperature (we’re heading into winter in Sydney Australia).

I also bought 3 more babies for the top shelf; a Philodendron El Choco Red, Gloriosum and a Thai Constellation. They’re still in moss at the moment but I’ll transfer them to leca (like all my other plants) when the roots develop a little more.

Whilst I’m upset that I’ve lost the jungle vibe of having huge leaves in the cabinet, it’s not all bad! The plants are all getting more light now (especially the plants at the bottom which were living in a lot of shade under the huge leaves of the Longiloba and Wastoniana), there’s more air flow in the cabinet and the plants that I moved out seem to be doing just fine outside of the cabinet (no new growth but no negative signs despite it much lower humidity and much colder temps).

And it’s fucking huge!

Just a 3 month update on my IKEA Rudsta Wide setup!

I’ve had to remove some plants as they’ve outgrown the cabinet (this was inevitable as I’ve had such amazing and constant new growth!). I removed my Billietiae as it’s branching out too wide and my Watsoniana (which was my hero plant centre of the display) as it was getting way too close to touching the light and starting to burn.

I’m really bummed that I have to move the Wastoniana out as not only did it look amazing in my cabinet, but I also know it won’t thrive so well in much lower humidity outside of the cabinet (stable 80-90% in the cabinet vs 50-65% in the apartment).

On a positive note, moving these 2 plants out has given me a bit more room to re-organise the plants for better air flow and more light. I’ve upped my Viparspectra P1000 lights to 30% power now (I started at 20% for the first month and have had it on 25% the past 2 months).

Everything in the cabinet is doing well! Still no sign of any pests. My big Queen has shot out a beautiful new leaf (I bought it with all leaves looking pretty beat up) and my baby queen has shot out 3 new leaves. Everything is still in leca. No issues!

I’ve gone a bit plant crazy (also inevitable?!) the past month and plants are starting to take over other rooms in my apartment. It’s the hobby that keeps on giving, right?! Seeing new leaves shoot out every week still blows my mind and will most likely always bring joy and never get boring!

I’ve yet to kill a plant (touch wood), but I have had an issue with a massive Peperomia Xiang Cao. I’ve been quick to move all my plants to leca. The nursery that sold me the Xiang Cao warned me that it’s a plant which has very fine roots, so moving it to leca might be difficult. She was right as it’s got root rot as I didn’t manage to get the roots cleaned up enough. The stems were going black and I took too long to take action on it (I was naively thinking that it would dry out and be fine if I placed it closer to the window). I’ve cut it up now in an attempt to save it, and have all the healthy stems in water in hopes that roots will form.

I’ve also set up a rice fish pond on my rooftop. I didn’t want to get back into the aquarium hobby, but a low-tech, filterless pond (with plants as filters) is a good side step. Having some rice fish in the pond means I now make use of my rooftop as I have to go outside and feed them daily.

Just reflecting; starting my plant journey 3 months ago with the IKEA cabinet has given me such a great head start. Initially I started using leca to avoid overwatering (as that’s how I killed my plants when I was a teenager), but now I have 3 plants outside of the cabinet in soil, and where I was super nervous about keeping plants 3 months ago I now feel much more confident and that my plants are not just surviving, but thriving.