Hi Everyone. I'm Susan and I live in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and I inherited my love of plants from my grandmother, who lived in Rodden, Illinois, and from my mother. I was raised in rural northern Illinois which has incredible soil, and I grew up a free-range child, so I love the outdoors and plants. I HAVE to have plants in my life. I have approximately 90 houseplants and I love almost all aspects of plants. I'm excited to find this group.

Susan

Susan, from NE, Florida. In my opinion a house isn't a home without 'green life'! with you...I HAVE to have plants in my life as well!
Do you garden outdoors also?
What is your favorite houseplant? If you can pick just one! I know I can't...Kind of like the kids, or the fur kids...Hard to pick just one fave!

again and Happy Gardening!

Susan Do tell us (some of) what you grow. Do you put a lot of your houseplants outside in the spring? Any tricks to growing all those plants that you would like to share with us? It is apparent you have good success.

Or do you like me, fuss with houseplants in winter and outdoor gardens in summer. I plan on growing heirloom veagables. watermelons, peeppers,tomatos, some squash/ect.

Susan! Happy to have you here!

Hi & welcome!

We're glad to have you join us. We'd love to see pictures of your plants.

Wow, what a huge welcome from so many members. Thank you. Hopefully I will be able to upload some pictures in the near future. I'm not very savvy with technology, but my teenager usually figures things out for me. I actually have over half of my plants at my office at work and the rest are at home. No, I don't have a favorite, but I have a very special Christmas cactus at home that came from my grandmother's plant she used to have in her country store window. It was her mother's plant, so that made it my great grandmother's plant, and my daughter is now the fifth generation to have plants from the original/mother plant. If our home caught on fire, it would be on the "try to save" list once the humans and pets were out. I definitely move a lot of plants outside in the warmer weather. I don't know that I'm extremely successful with plants ; I just don't give up easily. I definitely have caused the demise of many plants, but more succeed than fail, and I'd be lost without this passion in my life, so I do my best. One thing I am diligent about is collecting rainwater at home. I store it in buckets with lids at home, and I carry it to work in jugs. I only use tap water IF I run out of rain water, and I have even gone so far as to melt snow inside the house. Did I mention I'm passionate about plants---hehehe. My daughter would say I'm obsessed. I do try to grow a few veggies each summer, and I have outdoor annuals and perennials as well. In Oklahoma, heat becomes an enemy at points, and it's hard to keep a lot of stuff going. I hope I answered more of your questions. I'm really excited to communicate with all of you and learn more and share my passion and ideas. Thanks again for the great welcome.

Susan, you sound just like most of us. If we told the truth, we have all "killed" our fair number of plants but have (hopefully) learned from our mistakes. I think that is so neat to have a grown a plant from generation to generation. I would never be able to use rainwater. I just have too many plants but it just shows your dedication to your plants for you to use it.

drdawg,
How many plants do you have? In the summer I have to use the hose for most of my outdoor plants but I use rainwater as much as I can. I use over five gallons a week easily on my houseplants, so I have to work at saving the water. Please tell me more about your plants if and when you have time.

Susan

Over 500 orchids and over 300 other tropical plants (potted or mounted). 200 more tropical plants (staghorns and fiddle leaf ficus) are due in when the weather warms, which will/should be next week. If you like, Susan, you can check out my website to see what I grow and by reading the opening page, you'll know a lot more about me as well.

I keep a bird of paradise and a vaigated ginger, plus a satin pothos and a money tree. i also have a dracenca marginata. and a chinese evergreen. among others.

I loved my birds when I lived on the Mississippi Gulf coast. I haven't had any since 1995.

yeah got my first one around christmas time, sense then its really grown I hope to see it grow bigger still.