It’s always about this time of year that I start to feel like winter can quit any time, preferably sooner rather than later. And yet we still have a couple more months of cold and snow…
Home Depot had a sale on money trees, so I picked up a few. Since there’s no green outside, I’m bringing it inside instead.
It’s surprising the number of household plants that are toxic to cats and dogs. Whenever I see a cool looking plant, I’m always googling to see if it’s safe to bring home. Most of the time, I’m disappointed.
Money trees, African violets and peperomias are all pet safe, and so that’s what I’ve got around the house. And, of course, my lemon trees I’ve been growing from seeds. (They’re toxic to cats, so I keep them where my furry friends can’t get at them.)
African violets and peperomias are pretty hardy, but money trees are ridiculously finicky about the moisture content of the soil and their leaves are constantly falling off. It doesn’t seem to matter how much or how little I water them, sooner or later they just wither and die. Drives me crazy.
If the latest money trees from Home Depot don’t work out, I’m giving up on them.
I have much better luck with the African violets by comparison, although I missed giving the ones below their weekly drink a while back. At least they’ve kept their leaves…
The little peperomia on the above right (well, not so little any more!), is actually home grown. When one of my cats knocked a petal off, I put it in some water to see what would happen. The stem put out roots so I planted it and it’s growing like crazy – much faster than my store bought ones. Google told me peperomias were hardy plants, and it was right!
I’ve also managed to save an African violet leaf that I accidentally broke. It also put out roots, so I planted it a few weeks back. Nothing much happening so far, but at least the leaf is still green. I’m taking that as a positive sign.
