Walked over to More Plants again today (yes it’s a walk away!) and picked up a couple more plants for my cabinet. I caved and bought the Alocasia Longiloba ‘May’ (Hybrid), which I fell in love with the first time I visited the store 3 weeks ago (SO surprised it was still there!). Also bought a Philodendron Billietiae in an attempt to fill up the top half of the cabinet.

Coming together nicely! Still have some cuttings from the garden in there that don’t suit the aroid theme. Will most likely remove them at some point.

Got roots?! Leca is amazing!

Weatherstripping added to the plant cabinet to keep the humidity up.

Humidity is staying steady at 75%! Not bad at all! The more fussy/rare plants should do AOK!

Fan for airflow tucked away in the bottom corner.

The day after I got my latest plants (from Growing Grounds) into the cabinet I was devastated to find that the large Anthurium was all droopy. The substrate was dry. Not enough water? Were my lights on for too long (timer has them on for 12hrs), or are they too powerful (I had them at 20% power)? Was the plant in shock from the move? Was there not enough humidity? I went down a huge rabbit hole thinking that a lack of humidity was the issue THEN my hydrometer turned up and it turns out that the humidity in my cabinet stays pretty stable at 75%, so all that research I did on potentially getting a humidifier for the cabinet was just wasted time (but hey research is fun!).

The other 2 plants (Alocasia Watsoniana and Amazonica) are doing fine, but it looks like I may lose a leaf from the Anthurium Clarinervium.

IKEA greenhouse cabinet finally has some plants in it!

Need many more so I can up the humidity (I’ve installed a fan in there for air flow and also added a fair bit of weatherstripping to keep the humidity in as the aroids I’ll be growing love high humidity). Got to replace all pots and vases with black pots too of-course!

New plants from Growing Grounds: Alocasia Watsoniana, Alocasia Amazonica and Anthurium Clarinervium.

I want it all.

One of these is mine (I’ll post pics of my haul tomorrow!).

A little while back I stumbled upon a YouTuber who goes by Sydney Plant Guy. He has some awesome indoor plants with HUGE leaves. I was curious to know whether he ever sells his plants, or cuttings, and in one video he mentioned that he does at a place called Growing Grounds.

I then found a video of him visiting Growing Grounds and interviewing the owner AJ. I checked out the Growing Grounds web site and pulled the trigger on 3 plants for my cabinet. I chose to pick up the plants (so I could check out the shop!), turns out the shop is where AJ lives, and she’s converted the long driveway into her garage into a greenhouse, which was AMAZING!

AJ was awesome, super chatty and helpful. Loved her energy. Turns Alex, the owner of More Plants down the road from my new apartment, is one of AJ’s best friends! It’s all making sense! Everything is fitting in nicely! It looks like I’m in great hands.