The Areca Palm and the Snake Plant Part 2

In 2015 I bought a the Areca Palm tree and in May 2016 I bought a snake plant. The biological name of the snake plant is sansevieria laurentii and the biological name for the palm tree plant is Dypsis lutescens. I took a picture of my new plant in 

August of 2016:

Update on October 17th 2020: 5 years later I decided to take another picture.

In 5 years time the snake plans has grown 60 cm or 23,6 inches and the Areca Palm Tree grew more leaves but didn't get much bigger in length. I placed an offshoot of the spider plant next to the Areca Palm Tree in the pot to give this plant a fuller and mixed look. It is still in the same pot I placed it in 5 years ago. Maybe that's why it didn't grow much in length. They normally grow 6 to 10 inches (15-25 cm.) per year

Areca palm trees are commonly referred to as the Butterfly palm, and has many other common names. But, the butterfly palm is the most descriptive as to the areca's aesthetics. The leaves curve upwards in multiple stems to create a butterfly look. They are sometimes used as privacy wall or fence. The areca palm is sometimes confused with many other plants in the genus, because of the palm family name,"areca." The areca palm, above all other indoor palm trees, is most commonly found in households.

You can find your own Areca Plant here and you can find your own Snake plant here

                             

My avocado tree - growth in progress

The bothanical name of the avocado is Persea americana. In December of last year I decided that I wanted to grow an avocado plant.
I stumbled upon a video from Mr EastCoastMan where he shows how to grow an avocado plant and found out that the guy behind the video lives in Canada. Canada is even colder then the Netherlands, so growing a plant like he did shouldn't be a problem.
I bought two avocados which were produced without pesticides etc., biological avocados as they call them here. I peeled of the shell from one avocado, pinned it with two forks aside of the seed and placed it in a glass of water on the 5th of December 2015.
I watched it once a week, I refilled the glass with water every week but nothing really exciting happened but a month later, on 5th of January I saw a crack in the seed. Its a little difficult the see but in the center of the bottom there is a crack and it splitting open the seed almost in half.
I am excited about the process and I will keep you posted.

Update on January 13th: Its been 8 days since my last post and today I took a picture where you can see the new root coming out very clear. I picked another glass and refreshed the water completely.

Update on January 15th: I am going to refresh the water more often, look how hard it has grown in 2 days. Before I refreshed the water for the first time after a month I only refilled the glas with extra water.

Update on January 18th: Three days later and now there is rapid growth of the root system. I haven't refreshed the water or did anything yet.

Update on January 20th: I wasn't planning on taking a picture of the growing seed but here it is anyway, my avocado tree in progress is companied by a peace lily flower. I couldn't just throw it away just yet. And you can also see the growth of the root.

Update on January 31th: I had to refresh the water and throw away the peace lily flower. But look how it has grown, unfortunately I still see no leaves yet but the root system reached the bottom of the glass after 1 week since my last update. But It has been two months since I placed this seed in a glass with water, the leaves should have been there by now :/

Update on Februari 16th:  This morning I only refilled the glas with water but my avocado seed finally cracked open completely today. I think its because of the sun, it's shining all day and the room temperature rised up like its Summertime .... but still no sign of leaves coming out :/ The root grows longer and longer so I stay patient.

Update n Februari 20th: Yes Yes Yes, there is some growth showing within the crack, finally. Dont pay attention to the spiderplant leaf, I cut it by accident and decided to let it live further in water. In the crack in the seed you see some green coming up. But grows slowly but its there.

Update on March 20th: Finally a stem appeared. Its 7 cm tall and also the root system branced out. From the moment I placed the seed into water and waited until I saw a stem growing , 10 weeks had passed.

Update on March 30th: Its a fact, my plant is getting taller, The first leaves are showing.

The little tree is also getting really tal in a short amount of time. Within 10 days it grew 10 cm or 4inch. At the moment the stem is 17 cm or 6.69inch tall. Its tall enough to repot it into some soil but I will wait untill the leaves are bigger and bright.

Update on April 19th: bigger leaves , bigger leaves and 35 cm in length

If you want to try and grow your own avocado tree, try this AvoSeedo Bowl Set.

Grow Your Own Avocado Tree, Evergreen, Perfect Avocado Tree Growing Kit for Every Avocado Lover with Plan Pot - Green & Green

Philodendron Monstera Deliciosa

On March 2th I bought myself 3 bigger plants to fill the empty corners in my home and one of them is the Philodendron Monstera Deliciosa. Pinterest inspired me to buy a Philondendron and I bought for myself an 80 cm tall and wide one. There are more versions of this type of plant around but the Philodendron Monstera Deliciosa has big leaves with holes in it. They are perfect for in your home or at the office and they are very easy to take care of and it also cleans the air.
I still have to repot it though. It came in a 19 cm sized pot but it needs at least a 23 cm sized pot. Finding the right flowerpot is my dillema. 
Watering the plant is a couple of times in the week. The soil needs to be a slightly wet without damaging the roots because of too much water in the soil. This plants also likes to grow in the shadow or half shadow.

When the 3 big plants arrived the living room immediatelly was full of plants so I placed this plant in the bedroom. 

Update on June 25th:

So its 3 months later and my plant looks like this now.

The leaves has spread their 'wings' I am not sure if it supposed to look like this but, its alive. Thats all that matters to me. Still I have to repot the plant though.

Spider plant "Atlantis"

Almost a year ago, in August, one of my first plants in my new home was a spider plant "Atlantis", a Chlorophytum Comosum. I bought it online for 5 euro.
On your left you see a picture of it. I only had it a couple of months in my apartment when I took the picture.

Spider Plants or Airplane Plants produce arched green and pale yellow stems that extend to be 12-18 inches long. When less than a year old, Spider Plants may produce tiny white flowers on the tips of wiry, upright stems, called runners during the summer. The runners are soon weighted
down with plantlets giving it a spidery appearance.



I took another picture in december of last year. You can see it on your right. I only had this plant 4 months in my home and it grew a lot in the meantime but I never repotted it since I bought it. However I bought a terra cotta pot cause I was planning on repotting it into this bigger pot. I also bought a smaller extra pot with holes inside to place it inside the  terra cotta pot. I read stories about terra cotta pots taking the water from the soil, i didnt want my plant to dry out. But you can see that its time for repotting, the leafs look droopy.

Last summer and autumn, soon after my purchase I received a lot of runners coming from this plant. I was very happy with it cause I didnt have to buy new plants to decorate my place.
These plantlets coming from the runners -- often called "babies" -- are easy to propagate, giving you an ongoing supply of plants.

This picture above was taken 3 weeks after repotting it.

I placed it in a hanging basked for a fuller look

In each new pot there are like 2 - 3 baby plantlets planted from the mother plant. Each pot is 12 by 13 cm or 4.75" by 5.11" in size. I placed a pot with holes inside of each pot, I don't want those plantlets to drown. In each pot there is 1" or 2.5cm space for exces water. 

The biggest baby plant on the right I planted in the beginning of November of last year. It was the first baby plant I cut off from the motherplant. I placed it in soil first while it was still attached to the motherplant  after seeing 3 millimeters or 0.11" big roots growing from under this plantlet and I waited 3 weeks before i finally cut it and planted it in its new pot. 

After watching it grow I just cut off all the other plantlets with tiny roots and placed them in a pot filled with soil around Christmas time. They are still doing great these last 2 weeks as you can see and I will keep on filling the pots with plantlets when the other plantlets have grown roots on the runners from the motherplant.

Update photo, taken on 13 january:

Next to the spider plant babies there you see a small dracaena marginata palm, I bought it last month in Ikea for 1 euro. Its approximately 1 feet (30 cm) tall.

Update photo, taken on 20 january.

I think I am a plants addict but I had to take another picture just to follow up on the growth of these spider plant babies.

Update photo taken on March 20th

This spiderplant is getting bigger and bigger.

Update photo taken on June 25th

Three months later and a lot has changed. I bought another spider plant and a new planter. This planter is like 30 cm big and 30 cm deep. The white basket was only 20cm deep and wide. I placed the 2 spider plants together and this is the result:

I placed the two plants into this bigger planter a month ago and I think my 2 plants are still adjusting to the new environment. It looks a little droopy.

My other baby plants are getting taller and taller. Its has been 8 and 6 months ago since I cut these babies off from there motherplant and placed them in their own pot. 

Get your own Spider Plant here:                                                  

The Areca Palm and the Snake Plant

In August of last year I also bought an Areca palm tree. The biological name for this plant is Dypsis lutescens. I didnt buy a hugh plant and I regretted that a little afterwards, I heard 
that it takes a long time before it will grow big. But I googled the growth rate on the internet 
and I found that it grows 15-20 cm or 6"-8" in a year. And that's fine with me. Last summer 
when I bought it , it was around 50 cm or 19.8" in length.I took a picture of my new plant in 
August:

And today I took another picture and I can't say that I see a difference in the growing stage but I am a patient person.

Next to the areca palm you see a snake plant. Its biological name is sansevieria laurentii. Common names for this plant are Mother-in-law’s Tongue, Variegated Snake Plant, Devil’s Tongue, African Spear, Bow String Hemp, Bowstring Hemp, Snake Plant, Good Luck Plant, Goldband Sansevieria, Viper’s Bowstring Hemp, Magic Sword, Laurentii Snake Plant.I bought this plant last month.

Update on March 20th: So I got impatient and I bought myself a bigger Areca palm on March 2th.This palm is 150 cm tall and 100 cm wide and its filling up the empty corner in my living room. I am happy with it. I also bought a ficus and a philondendron and post about this later.

Update on June 25th: After 3 months a took a new picture of my first Areca palm, just to see if there is a difference:

Pfff, it has grown taller, maybe 10 cm or 4 inch, thats nog much in 10 months time, Bit it also grew wider. I am still happy I bought that bigger plant

Spider Plant "Ocean"

In the last days of december I bought a mini plant, a mini version of the Chlorophytum Ocean. Its a spider plant but mine was like 4" big all around.
Spider plants form arching clumps of grass-like leaves and they get their common names from the baby plantlets that form on dangling stems. Spider plants also have tiny white flowers on long arching stems. Spider plants are one of the most adaptable and easy to grow houseplants that there is.
The Spider Plant "Ocean" has spider-like long stems leaves come from the plants’ center with usually white edges and a green stripe running down the middle. Its the opposite from the Spider Plant "Atlantic", they have spider-like long stems leaves come from the plants’ center with usually green edges and a white stripe running down the middle.

Spiderplant Ocean

I took a picture of my mini plant on December 31th after repotting it in a bigger, 5" pot. Its original pot was 2".
Today I again took a picture and I was amazed by how fast these plants grow.

Those light green leaves in the center weren't there 5 days ago. I guess that repotting in a pot 2.5 times its size after buying it did the trick very well.
I will have more updates when there is more to show

Update 31-1-2016: I have my spider plant for 1 month now and took another picture today. Repotting a chlorophytum into a bigger pot does wonders fora plant.

Update 20-2-2016: This plants grows like weeeed and I like the texture and its shape. I like it even beter than my Chlorophytum comosum Atlantis. The leaves are bigger , wider, this plant can really grow big I think.

Update 20-3-2016: Look how big this plant got in a month time.

Update 25-6-2016: Three months later, and I am still figuring out how or where to position this plant in its best way cause its getting bigger and bigger.

Get your own indoor spiderplant by a click on the image:

My Biggest Hobby

... is reading! And I finally have the time to just sit down, relax and read again after ... wayyy to long!!
At the moment I'm reading this book: "In my dreams" / "In mijn dromen" from the author Simone van der Vlugt, one (of many) of my favorite authors.
And I'm planning on catching up on the other books from her as well.

Fear no evil

Vallende sterren

Zaterdag zijn er vallende sterren te zien!
En dan zullen er zeker 10 vallende sterren per minuut te zien zijn door een hoop meteorieten en doordat de aarde met een hogere snelheid dan normaal door een stofwolk beweegt. Ondanks dat het bijna volle maan is en het licht het zicht zal belemmeren ga ik toch kijken ;)
Don't forget >>> 22:00u and make lots of wishes! ;)