Plant HAUL! (original) (raw)

So I went from wanting a few more house plants to add a bit more variety to my collection, to having an abundance of them. I happened to check some local auctions and there just happened to be one with a bunch of plants in one lot. There were a few other lots, but those only had 2-3 plants in them and they were larger (a big schefflera aka umbrella tree, and a money tree, more spider plants, etc).

Not only were there 10 plants in the lot, but they all looked healthy, and a few of them were either duplicates or larger versions of plants I already have and enjoy.

I did spend a decent amount on the lot, considering my city, and that none of these are super rare or unusual, but price per plant worked out to less than 5$ a piece. And with the sizes of some of these, you would expect 20-30$ each for a few of them.

Anyhow, I did take photos, but it's overcast and the lighting is really poor, so some of them kind of suck, or they're blurry.

That's the whole lot of them. In the mix are:

Front row, left to right: An unusual "curly" ivy (species name unknown), a Cobra Fern (Asplenium nidus) which is a type of "bird's nest fern" it's not in the most amazing shape but it's alive and I hope to revive it, just above it in the dark pot in the middle of the table is a Thanksgiving Cactus (Schlumbergera) which is in really nice shape and something I wanted, back in front in the white pot is a green Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum), and finally a BEAUTIFUL standard Hoya aka Wax Plant (Hoya carnosa).

Back Row: On the left corner is a huge Hunter's Ivy or Devil's Ivy (aka Golden Pothos, Epipremnum aureum) one of the most basic house plants but much bigger than all of mine, next to it, and going right out of frame at the top, is a huge and insanely gorgeous Peperomia obtusifolia. I don't know if this has a more common name but it's the plain green variety with round leaves, next to it and a bit hard to see is an Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum) which is one of my favourite house pants, next to that and just behind the Hoya is another Spider plant (the striped variety which I think is the more popular one), lastly in the far corner on the right is a Dumb Cane (Dieffenbachia).

I'm not a huuuge fan of spider plants, but I might bring one or both to work. I haven't decided yet where I want to put all of these, but one concern is that either the seller or the auction company SOAKED all of these. And I mean DRENCHED. They are all sopping wet, and if you know anything about plants, you know this is generally not good. I did repot a few of them to make sure that they're in slightly drier conditions. Some of the pots are also HUGE. Like... WAYYYY too large for the plant sizes. So far I repotted the Hoya, the Thanksgiving Cactus, and the Golden Pothos. The large Pepperomia doesn't seem too wet, so I left that one alone. The Ivy was also okay. Many of the others are still too wet, and sadly I don't have enough dry potting soil or nicer pots yet for them. Hopefully they can just dry out and not rot.

Here's the repotted Pothos:

Here's the Thanksgiving Cactus in a pot that I found today (same day I got the plants):

Then here's the Hoya. The pot is gorgeous and it was a cache-pot over the spider plant. It doesn't LOOK that big, but it's in a 7 inch pot:

I saved the best for last. The giant Peperomia. This plant was the one I wanted the most out of the whole lot. LOOK AT IT! It's amazing! The pot is maybe about the right size, but it's a hideous purple/black plastic. I'll leave it for now, but I want to find a nice ceramic one. There's one at Home Depot that would actually be perfect, but it's more expensive than the entire lot of plants combined.

The leaves are huge. The average leaves are about 3 inches, and the largest one is closer to 4 inches.

Look how healthy and shiny it is!

Here's that "perfect but expensive" pot I mentioned:

I had bought a small one exactly the same about a month ago (you can see it in the previous post), and over the past few weeks I was actually really happy with how it's been growing, how it looks, and how completely easy and "unfussy" it is. It needs medium light, and very little water. If the leaves are firm, it's good, if the leaves are a bit soft (easy to bend) then it needs water.

I had also picked up a variegated version of the same kind of plant from Walmart (4.95$) but I don't know if I like it as much since the leaves are kind of crinkly/uneven. The colours and patterns, however, are really nice.

So yeah, I'm good on plants for a bit, but there are still currently 2 I still want: Satin/Silver Pothos, and some kind of Snake Plant.

I had a photo of the ivy, but it was too blurry. I'd like to try to ID it. It's not typical curly ivy (if you google it). Mine is more... deformed? The leaves almost form individual balls/spirals. It's a very bizarre looking plant. I'll try again for photos tomorrow. If I do, I'll just re-edit them into this post.

EDIT: I swapped the photo of the Thanksgiving Cactus for a clearer one. Then here is the strange Ivy with the curly leaves:

And a better photo of that lovely pot I used for the Hoya: