Houseplants, revisited

The Houseplant Census of 2010, hosted by Mr. McGregor's Daughter, is timely for me because there have been a few changes in the houseplant population around here, even since my last post on the topic a few months ago. First, for the happy changes:


My bulbs are blooming!! And the other two should join them soon! I have now figured out which hyacinths were planted where: the two 'Woodstock' ones have revealed themselves, so the 'Blue Jacket's must be flanking them. They already smell wonderful and are bringing a great touch of spring to the house!


My overwintering coleus has also grown to the size of a small shrub. By counting each bulb individually, at this point we're up to 5.


Here's a look at my main stash of houseplants; I use them as a window dressing for the large bay window in our front living room. They make a lovely screen that keeps passers-by from being able to look right in, but they're not an unfriendly set of snapped-shut blinds or curtains. What you see here is my cutting of my night-blooming cereus, some of the re-potted aloes (counting as one), three bromeliads (two are obscured a little to the bottom right, but I'm counting them separately because they're totally different types of tillandsias), an arboricola, and my largest spider plant. So far up to 12.


Here's the momma night-blooming cereus, looking spindly but still putting out some new leaves. No signs of buds yet. Up to 13.


Now for some of the sad changes. In my office window there is a purple passion and my Christmas cactus (repotted recently in the cacti/succulent soil), OK, looking fine, although please excuse that ugly valance--it's been low on the redecorating priority list. But then, in the basket below them is this tragedy:


This is/was my oldest purple passion, and I killed it by repotting it! Last weekend I finally trimmed it down and put it in fresh, new, nutrient-rich potting soil after leaving it in salt-encrusted old soil for years, and look what happened! To make matters worse, I had another purple passion die during the annual Christmas tree exile, probably from overwatering although it had recently bloomed and I'm telling myself it was a natural post-bloom death. Either way, I started this winter with three purple passions, and I'm now down to one! So counting that and the Christmas cactus, the census count is 15.

Lastly, but not pictured, I have one more spider plant and my two baby aloes from the repotting. I'm counting them separately because they are in individual pots. With those three, the grand total is 18.

That is, until seed starting...