Impatiens Like the Indoor Life, but Skip the Soil
QUESTION: I’m confused about impatiens. I always thought they were outdoor annuals, but a friend of mine told me they’ll grow indoors. Is this possible?
ANSWER: Although we do usually treat it as an outdoor annual, Impatiens sultani, also known as Busy Lizzie or Patient Lucy, is a favorite flowering houseplant in many European countries and will definitely bloom indoors in the Southland. Grown in a sunny window in a mixture of fir bark and peat moss (as opposed to regular potting soil), impatiens will flower from May through November. Once the plant begins to fade, however, it should be discarded and replaced with a new one the next spring.
Cape Primrose Offers Flowering Trumpets
Q: I saw a very pretty flowering plant recently that my friend told me was a streptocarpus. She didn’t know the common name, but she was quite sure it would grow indoors. Will it?
A: Streptocarpus, which sounds like a throat ailment, is actually a very dependable flowering plant whose common name is Cape primrose. Grown in bright filtered light and kept moist, it will produce trumpet-like flowers of lavender and purple on and off all year long. If you haven’t got enough natural light during the winter, you can keep your Cape primrose blooming by giving it 12 hours of artificial light each day. Without this light--preferably fluorescent or special plant lights--the plant will simply shrivel up and die.
Christmas Cactus Will Bloom Again
Q: During the last holiday season, I got a lovely Christmas cactus as a gift. It stopped blooming around the end of January, and I was wondering: Are there any tricks to get it blooming again next winter?
A: Similar to the Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) and often confused with the Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri),the Christmas cactus (S. bridgesii) is a branching epiphytic plant with small green leaflike stems. (An epiphytic plant takes its nourishment from the air, not the soil.) Depending on the variety, the Christmas cactus will produce bell-like red, pink or white flowers from the tips of the stems any time from early fall through December or January. To get any cactus to bloom, you must give it lots of bright light during the day and, in the case of Christmas cactus, try to see that it gets at least 12 hours of darkness at night starting at the end of October. To keep buds from dropping off, give your plant plenty of humidity by spraying it regularly with a fine mist of water or keeping it on a water-filled pebble tray.
Crown-of-Thorns Needs Bright Light
Q: I’m putting together a collection of cactus and succulents and I’d like to add a crown-of-thorns to the mix. Could you please give me the care instructions for this plant?
A: Crown-of-thorns (Euphorbia splendens), an ancient succulent familiar to most because of its biblical connotations, is a very easy plant to grow. A friend of mine even has one flourishing on an office window sill.
Kept in bright light (a western or southern exposure) and allowed to dry out thoroughly between waterings, the crown-of-thorns will grow up to three feet high, its stems covered with sharp, thorny spikes, small oval leaves and pretty red clover-like flowers. Even during the winter months, when it’s bare of leaves, a crown-of-thorns may be covered with flowers.
Fragrant Jasmine Flourishes Inside
Q: I love the smell of jasmine and would love to grow it in my apartment. Can it be done?
A: Absolutely. Jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) is a very dependable flowering plant--compared, for instance, to its temperamental cousin, the gardenia. It’s a bushy, vining, dark green shrub that grows very quickly and produces white, star-shaped, extremely fragrant flowers. Just hang your jasmine in an eastern window and water it frequently enough to keep the soil moist. The foliage will almost always stay healthy, especially if you cut it back three or four inches every spring.
Humidity Might Revive Ailing Peacock Plant
Q: My beautiful peacock plant is losing its tail-feathers. All the leaves are turning brown and yellow around the edges, and many have already shriveled up and died. Can this plant be saved?
A: Maybe, depending on how far gone it is. The peacock plant, or Calathea makoyana, is a difficult houseplant and grows best in a greenhouse or terrarium. Related to the prayer plant (same family--Marantaceae), the peacock plant doesn’t want much light.
In fact, too much direct bright light will burn the plant right up. Without enough humidity, though, the leaves will turn yellow at the edges and then curl up and die, which sounds like what is happening to yours.
Put it in a shady spot, provide as much humidity as humanly possible and beware of cold drafts, which can kill a Calathea.
Marijuana Look-Alike Grows Like a Weed
Q: I saw a plant in a dry-cleaners the other day that looked exactly like a marijuana plant. The storekeeper assured me it wasn’t a pot plant, but he didn’t know what it was called.
Is it possible you could identify this plant?
A: It’s called Dizygotheca elegantissima, or false aralia. How do I know? A few years ago, a national magazine ran a picture of me holding a false aralia, which, with its narrow brownish-green leathery leaves with heavily serrated edges does look almost exactly like a marijuana plant, and the editors received thousands of shocked letters.
The false aralia is almost as easy to grow as the illegal weed: If you give it filtered eastern or southern light and lots of humidity and barely let it dry out between waterings, you should be able to nurture a small false aralia into a plant that’s between 5 and 10 feet tall.
*
Rapp is a Los Angeles freelance writer who, as “Mr. Mother Earth,” has written several best-selling books on indoor gardening.
