Beers at The Rosebery Hotel with Richie.
Had such an awesome week catching up with old friends. Got a call from my bestie Liz, Kristi came around to pick up a massive artwork of hers from Maroubra and beers at my local pub with an old school mate. Life’s so good!
Dropped in to IKEA to grab some Ribba picture frames (they were on sale!). I swear, they’re so good for the money. $10?! You literally couldn’t make a frame any cheaper!
This is the photo that’s had the most comments (monstera and elephant ear have since been moved out of the cabinet).
The cabinet is very much a Work In Progress but as it is I’ve already gotten so much love from the plant community. Over time I’ll be sure to figure out which plants I love the most, and want to show off the most. Some plants will outgrow the cabinet too and need to be removed (or chopped?!). Either way I thought I’d collect some of the great positive comments and post them below.
“Museum quality!!!!”
“This is hands down one of the best cabinets I’ve ever seen!! ”
“Wow !! Literally stunning ”
“I love the beautiful evil vibe. Gorgeous collection”
“I’ve got two milsbos myself and seen the hundreds of posts on the Facebook Ikea cabinet group but THIS is the most amazing cabinet spread I’ve ever seen. Goals. Kudos to you. I’m saving this for reference”
“Perfection ”
“that looks so badass-it’s insane ❤️❤️”
“This cabinet looks so sexy lol”
“This is a dream! ”
“I think this is my favorite”
“Love it. Finally someone who gets decor and plants and how to blend them together”
“that cabinet looks so suave in your house!”
“Wow, they look so dramatic in that black cabinet and that lighting!”
“my god that is gorgeous!”
“that cabinet is exceptional”
“I love your aesthetic ”
“I want to be you”
“GAHHHDAMMNNN ”
“I. AM. IN. AWE.”
“It looks absolutely stunning!!”
“Just came here to say that setup looks beautiful!”
“Your Rudsta cabinet looks fantastic. It was my inspiration to start one myself too”
“Wow, your cabinet is beyond dreamy”
“My favorite cabinet I’ve seen. It’s awesome ”
“omg goals”
“Truly awesome! Because of your post I spent 600 bucks today, on a new plant cabinet and accessories ”
“Words can’t describe how much I love this post and your set up!”
“Looks perfect! We’ll done. Beautiful plants and composition!”
“Such a rad share with the photos and overall journey! Stoked to hear all about it”
“Your greenhouse is beautiful! Well done! The use of space is fantastic!”
“I love how you played with height and size to take advantage of the entire space of your cabinet! Well done!!”
“Stunning. It’s a work of art”
I potted this elephant ear into leca on the 28th of January. Hardly any roots.
24th of February. Insane root growth in just one month!
It’s been 2 months since I started my plant journey. I have every single one of my plants in leca. All the alocasias, anthuriums, calatheas, the lot!
I’ve had HUGE success with all plants, and amazingly I haven’t killed a single plant yet (old brown thumb me would have killed any plant in a week!). I think it’s testament to how amazingly easy growing plants in semi-hydroponics is.
As someone who’s previously most likely killed every plant by overwatering, leca makes drowning plants virtually impossible, so no issues at all with root rot. Also a huge bonus, you never get fungus gnats (very common pest for those who keep plants in soil) with leca.
The hardest part of transitioning from soil to leca has been cleaning the roots. Soil is really really messy, and some plants have very fine roots. You need a lot of patience to do a really good job of removing soil, perlite and bits of bark out of the roots before potting up a plant into leca.
Unlike some who transition from soil to water first before potting up in leca I have always gone from soil straight into leca. Despite being advised not to transition certain plants to leca, or to wait a week to let the plant settle into my place before I transition I usually transition the plants as soon as I get them home.
Much like washing aquarium substrate I clean my leca until the water runs clear, then chuck them in a large container to soak for 24hrs before use. I use only filtered water and GT Foliage Focus (5ml/litre) in all of my plants. I top up the reservoirs one/twice a week with the same GT Foliage Focus solution.
No more moisture meters, or having to stick your finger in dirty soil to check if a plant needs watering or not. I simply pick up a pot, if it feels heavy I leave it. If it feels a bit light I simply lift the net pot out of the cache pot to check the reservoir, if it’s low I add a bit more nutrient solution and… that’s it!
Anthurium Dorayaki X.
Anthurium Complex Hybrid.
Monstera Albo.
Monstera Peru.
A little while back I reconnected with Fifi, an old high school friend. She reached out to me on Instagram to tell me that if she had known that I was into plants she would have given me a lot of plants as she recently culled her collection!
Fifi offered me a cutting from her Monstera Albo (at $300 a cutting and going for thousands full grown it’s one of the most desired rare house plants since the pandemic). She refused payment, she even refused to let me pay for the shipping! This afternoon I got an SMS to say the parcel was dropped off at a local newsagent. I dashed out the door (this time I made sure I didn’t lock myself out!) and when I got home and opened the box I not only found the Albo. I found 3 more amazing plants!
Fifi sent me a gorgeous Anthurium Dorayaki, love it’s round shape. An Anthurium Complex Hybrid which she had grown from seed (her friend hybridised this to produce really dark leaves) and she also threw in a Monstera Peru (I love it!).
I’ll admit that I’ve spent the past month or more looking at Monstera Albo cuttings for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Good things come to those who wait? Maybe it’s my awesome RNG? Either way I feel blessed!
PS: You can follow Fifi on Instagram. She also makes awesome art!
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!
Plants I got from AJ at Growing Grounds: Peperomia Hope, Peperomia Parallel, Peperomia Xiang Cao, Pilea Peperomioides, Calathea Sanderiana.
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!
