I thought it would be cool to show some side by side comparison of when I bought my plants and what it looks like today. Especially before I leave this current apartment some of the plants might kick the bucket. (Please, please don’t plants….)

In the beginning of my plant hobby I didn’t take photos of plants I just acquired, but eventually I got the hang of it and took a bunch of photos. Some of the photos don’t have the best background so I apologize for that, ahaha.

I think the award for surprising me with the best growth goes to the avocado plant. That thing just took off this summer. If I hadn’t repotted it I believe it would have died because it just needed more space. Which sort of scares me because the next pot size up is gonna be the peace lily’s pot….

But that actually might be a good thing because I want to get a different planter for the peace lily eventually I just didn’t want to pay for it yet.

Second place would be my global green which is growing, but also struggling because of me. I think the issue is I let it dry out too long before the next watering and I get a couple yellow leaves.

My favorite plant at the moment is my rattlesnake calathea. I never thought I’d be able to keep it alive this long, especially after I took it out of the terrarium.

The hoya carnosa pushed out 1 leave after I bought it, and while checking my plants while getting them prepped for the photo I noticed it had a new stem and a bunch of leaves on it. I gasped and happily, loudly, let my husband know it was FINALLY doing something.

On the flip side my bear paws is exploding with growth! Give it sun (direct, all day if possible) and water it when the leaves begin to get soft and slightly squishy and bam, you got a bunch of growth.

I was nervous about buying it so close to the move but I’ve moved it around a bunch of times and played with the paws that I’m not worried with it in the car, if I package it right, ahaha.

My sansevierias/dracaena are doing great, but my samurai literally looks the same in the photos but I swear it did push out a couple of leaves, but the oldest leaves did shrivel up and I pulled them off.

I’m very lucky that I don’t somehow lose more leaves with my plants. I under water plants so well I almost lost my rainbow hedgehog the first year….

But I haven’t done that with my monkey tails and I love them so much. I can’t wait until they start springing more tails! They look great and I’m excited to repot them together. (Seriously hoping to find the golden rat tail – I really enjoy that style of cacti.)

When we’re settled in Arizona I’m going to pot the two tails together. They’re STILL in the same potting mixture that they arrived in…don’t tell anyone, ahaha. I have 2 little unknown succulents that I want to pot together. I think they’ll be fine together but they definitely need a soil refresh.

The first plants I bought myself were the yucca and the dracaena and they’re going strong. I’m hoping to put them on the balcony after repots or soil refresh. The dracaena is extremely root-bound already so I need to find a bigger pot for it….like a lot bigger, it has roots coming out from the top of the pot.

 

I’d say the saddest plants in my collection are my kiwis and I HOPE it’s just dormancy….a bad time in dormancy. I feel awful and crossing my fingers it’s not ME that’s killing them.

They’re part of the original succulents given to me and they got me into houseplants.

I’m also considering potting my kiwis together once they’re out of dormancy or whatever they’re currently in. I’m trying to condense planters to make room for empty space ahaha, or to make room for plants I actually really want to get.

The scindapsus exotica has really started to turn into a plant instead of a two leave “plant” I bought in January. Every time it pushes out a new leave I’m so excited to see what it does. I really want a full plant but I don’t think at this time I’ll buy more of the exotica to fill it out. Another plant that makes me happy when a new leaf emerges is prince of orange philodendron. That little man is a cutey! Gets me every time.

I love my collection and can’t wait to see how they do in Arizona. Hopefully they can handle the dry heat and super, super, super low humidity that probably doesn’t exist realistically ahaha.

Next week is the final week we’re in this apartment, and it’s a little bittersweet, but I’ll be a fun experience with my husband. I am planning on getting a family photo of them all! I’m curious to see how many plants I leave Arizona with. Is it going to be more or less? I’m gonna say more….