You Might Call Me Crazy!

1 Corinthians 3:6 

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 

I love plants. Seriously love plants. Now that I don't have small children at home or indoor animals, I can have as many plants as I want. Thankfully, my husband loves them too.  :-) 

I found a great deal on some large tropical house plants at my local grocery store so I bought several to place around our living room. The problem was that two of them had super dull looking leaves with what looked to be dried water residue and dirt all over them. I sprayed them down outside with the water hose but they still looked dirty and dull. Sooo, I went looking for solutions and found the perfect one on Chemistry Cachet.

Alexis, the chemist @ Chemistry Cachet, recommends cleaning house plants with a solution of milk and water mixed together in a spray bottle. Super simple to make and if you follow the link, you can get exact measurements and read all about why milk is good for your plants. She also recommends an Epsom Salt solution as a natural fertilizer. I'll be trying that in a few days. 

By the way, I read an article that said it's good talk to your house plants because as you talk to them you are breathing out carbon monoxide and that's beneficial to them too! I felt a little odd at first but once I got going, I had all kinds of things to say to Spike (above) and *Optimus Prime (below). Actually, that's when I decided on their names. Spike is obvious. He's spikey and I had to keep telling him not to cut my fingers! 

*Optimus Prime, on the other hand, has leathery like leaves that are absolutely gorgeous! He reminded me of a transformer toy with how his leaves transform from solid green to display striking streaks of red, orange, and yellow.

 *Optimus Prime (he's a Codiaeum variegatum, aka Croton plant) had the most dramatic 'transformation' in the cleaning too! See what I did there? hehe :-)

He has a lot of leaves! And they are fragile despite being leathery in feel. I found that if I bent one too far while trying to get into the ridges to get all the dirt out, the leaf would 'snap'. He calls for a gentle touch. It took me about an hour to water and clean these two plants but in the end it was well worth it!

Do you have any indoor plants? Have you named them? Do you talk to them? 

I would love to chat about your plants and any successes or failures you've experienced. 

~Happy Gardening~

*no copyright infringement intended - just naming my plants after a toy that my boys loved playing with when they were young.