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c/botany-lovers

8

brian_hart•3d ago

Unpopular opinion: plant influencers are ruining the hobby for newbies

I went to a local plant swap last Saturday and heard a woman crying because her variegated monstera was 'ugly' by Instagram standards. Three years ago I started collecting succulents from a hardware store shelf, and nobody told me my plants needed aesthetic staging. Now every new person thinks they need grow lights and rare cuttings just to belong. Has anyone else seen beginners quit because they felt their setup wasn't fancy enough?

18

garcia.cameron•4d ago

My African violet suddenly bloomed after a year of nothing

I've had this African violet on my kitchen windowsill for over a year and it never produced a single flower. I tried fertilizer, repotting, even talked to it like a fool. Last month I moved it to a north facing window on a whim. Within three weeks it had six blooms open up. Apparently I was giving it too much direct light the whole time. Anyone else have a plant that surprised you after you changed one small thing?

2

zarat37•4d ago

Visited the old botanical garden in St. Louis the other day and the greenhouse felt different

Went back to the Missouri Botanical Garden for the first time in maybe 10 years. The big dome greenhouse still has all those tropical plants but the labels are gone on half of them. Used to be every little fern had a little plaque with its name and where it came from. Now it's just a bunch of greenery with no story. Kind of felt like visiting an old friend who forgot your name. Anyone else notice places like that losing their details over time?

27

the_hayden•5d ago

Just hit 200 different houseplant varieties in my collection. Is that too much or not enough?

I counted them all up last night after a friend joked I might have a problem. Started with like 10 pothos two years ago. Now I have things like variegated string of pearls and some obscure philodendron I found at a nursery in Ohio. Half my friends think I'm nuts, the other half say they wish they had the space. Where do you draw the line between hobby and hoarding?

18

wells.evan•8d ago

Took me 4 hours to figure out why my African violet stopped blooming

Turns out I was watering it with tap water and the minerals were building up in the soil. Switched to distilled water three weeks ago and now I have 7 blooms going. Has anyone else dealt with this with their violets?

19

finley_smith•9d ago

That rare orchid I swore was a fake turned out to be the real deal

I saw a photo of a ghost orchid online about 8 years ago and thought for sure somebody Photoshopped it. Then I actually went to a botany expo in Orlando in 2018 and they had one on display. I stood there staring at it for a good 10 minutes trying to find the trick. What convinced me was the smell, this weird musty vanilla scent that you cant fake. Has anyone else been fooled by a plant looking too wild to be real?

15

the_robin•9d ago

Saw a weird plant at the local greenhouse yesterday

I stopped by Johnson's Greenhouse on Route 9 and noticed this ficus with white patches all over its leaves. Turns out it was just hard water stains from their sprinkler system. Has anyone else ever confused mineral deposits for a plant disease?

25

anna717•9d ago

Spent $120 on a fancy plant ID app that was totally useless

I bought this highly-rated plant identification app last spring (about 4 months ago) for $120 a year, thinking it would help me identify all the wildflowers on my hikes. But every time I snapped a photo of something like a simple daisy or a fern, it gave me the wrong species or just said 'unknown'. After wasting 3 weekends trying to use it, I switched back to my old field guide book which works way better. Has anyone else tried those expensive ID apps and found them to be a total ripoff?

2

hollyscott•11d ago

That time my neighbor insisted her 'bonsai' was just a depressed houseplant

My neighbor kept telling me her little tree was just a sad fern she underwatered. I finally went over and saw it was literally a juniper in a tiny pot with wires on the branches. Took me ten minutes to explain that bonsai is a technique, not a plant species. Has anyone else had someone call something obvious by the completely wrong name?

34

cora813•15d ago

The guy at the native plant nursery who called me out on my lawn

I went to this little native plant nursery out in the county last Saturday, just looking for some shade perennials. The owner, this older guy named Roy, saw me loading up a flat of generic hostas and just straight up asked why I was wasting my money on stuff that does nothing for bees. I thought I was being a good gardener just by having plants, you know? He pointed to the strip of grass by my truck and said 'that right there is a food desert for everything but your lawnmower.' It hit different because he wasn't being rude, just matter of fact. He walked me over to a patch of wild bergamot and showed me a bumblebee basically drunk on it. I ended up leaving with a whole different cart full of goldenrod and milkweed plugs, and I'm actually kind of excited to rip out some of my front lawn this fall. Has anyone else had a nursery worker totally change what you thought you knew about gardening?

26

jesse_smith10•15d ago

Used to dump all my dead leaves and clippings in the trash...

I was that guy throwing everything in the green bin for years. After reading about soil depletion from a guy at the Seattle Urban Farm Co-op last spring, I built a 3-bin compost system from pallets. Now I save about 40 bucks a month on fertilizer and my tomatoes actually taste like something. Has anyone else noticed a difference in their vegetable yield after switching from store-bought soil amendments?

19

kevinallen•15d ago

The orchid snob at the greenhouse who told me I was overwatering

I overheard this guy at Johnson's Greenhouse last Saturday telling a newbie that orchids need to be watered exactly once a week, no exceptions. He acted like it was some kind of golden rule. But I've been growing phalaenopsis for 8 years now and I only water mine when the roots turn silver, which can be 5 days or 12 days depending on the season. That blanket advice just sets people up to rot their roots. Has anyone else run into these self-appointed experts who treat their one method like the only way?

16

lee582•18d ago

Shoutout to the woman who grows orchids in her Atlanta apartment with zero grow lights

I argued with a lady at the Piedmont Park plant swap last month who said you need fancy setups for orchids. Three years ago she started with a single phalaenopsis on her bathroom windowsill and now has 17 blooming without any artificial light. Has anyone else found that most orchids actually hate being pampered?

15

caleb_bell5•18d ago

Showerthought: it took me 5 years to notice my ficus was growing sideways

I had this ficus in my living room for ages, always thought it was just leaning because of the window light. Turns out the pot was sitting on a slight slope from a warped floorboard I never bothered to check. I rotated it 180 degrees one Saturday and within 3 months it straightened right up. How long did it take you to spot something dumb like that with your plants?

6

mason.drew•18d ago

Caught myself explaining leaf node placement to a neighbor for way too long...

I was helping a friend plant a Japanese maple last weekend in their backyard near Austin. They kept wanting to prune off every branch that looked even slightly out of place. I had to stop them and explain that leaf nodes are not just random bumps on the stem. They actually determine where the new growth will come from next spring. If you cut too close to a node or hack off the wrong one, you can mess up the whole shape of the tree for years. I only know this because I learned it the hard way on a magnolia I butchered back in 2019. It still looks lopsided. Has anyone else had to talk someone out of over-pruning based on node placement?

6

knight.uma•20d ago

Dropped $80 on a moisture meter for my indoor plants

Thought I was overwatering my monstera but turns out the soil was bone dry 2 inches down. Has anyone else had a cheap meter totally change how they water their plants?

10

kai_ramirez38•20d ago

Unpopular opinion: most "plant parents" are just killing plants slowly with love

I was at a nursery in Austin last weekend and overheard a guy telling his friend to water his snake plant every 3 days. I had to butt in because that's basically drowning it. Found out later from the owner that overwatering causes like 80% of houseplant deaths in their customer base. Has anyone else noticed people just refuse to let their soil dry out?

15

william_craig7•21d ago

Overheard a lady at the nursery say she waters her succulents once a month

I was grabbing some compost at the local garden center when I heard a woman tell a friend she only waters her succulents every 30 days and they still thrive. I've been drowning mine every week and losing half of them to rot. Has anyone else found a solid watering schedule that actually works for these things?

15

faithpatel•21d ago

Appreciation post: the guy who saved my fiddle leaf fig from root rot

I overwatered my fiddle leaf fig for 3 months straight and the leaves started dropping like crazy. A random guy at the nursery told me to repot with perlite mixed in and now it's pushing out new growth. Has anyone else gotten stuck with a plant that just wouldn't bounce back until someone gave you the right fix?

15

adam414•21d ago

Had a 20 minute debate with a guy at a nursery about the right way to water a pothos

I was at Johnson's Greenhouse last Sunday browsing succulents and this older gentleman saw me checking the soil on a pothos and just walked over and said 'you're doing it wrong, soak it from the bottom not the top.' We ended up standing there arguing about drainage holes and root rot for like 20 minutes until a clerk had to come break it up. Has anyone else had a stranger at a plant store give you unsolicited advice that actually turned out to be right?

3

martinez.paul•24d ago

Hot take: People treat every succulent like it's a cactus from Arizona

I was at a nursery in Portland last week and watched someone buy a lithops and water it right there at the counter. My lithops died in 3 days when I did that same thing after reading some generic guide online. Has anyone else killed a plant by following bad advice from one-size-fits-all care sheets?

18

craig.parker•24d ago

My Venus flytrap died after I fed it a bug from outside last week

I caught a beetle in my backyard and dropped it in the trap, but it turned black and rotted within three days. Did I just get unlucky or is there a right way to feed these things?

20

kai_ramirez38•25d ago

I just read that some plants can actually hear running water

I was looking up stuff about pea plants for my little garden box and found this old study from 2017. It said that the roots of pea seedlings can grow toward the sound of water flowing through a pipe, even if the soil is dry. They played them a recording of a stream. I always thought plants just grew toward light or nutrients, not sounds. It makes me wonder how much we still don't know about what they can sense. Has anyone else come across weird plant facts like this that made you stop and think?

24

jana509•26d ago

Vent: My neighbor called my fern collection 'just a bunch of green stuff'

I was repotting on my porch in Seattle when the guy next door said that, and it made me realize how differently people see plants. Some folks just don't get the specific care and history behind each one. Does anyone else have a plant that looks simple but has a cool story?

27

the_ben•26d ago

Appreciation post: My old plant light was a total waste of money

I used a cheap purple grow light for my herbs for over a year, thinking more color meant more growth. A friend in Tucson pointed out how weak and leggy my basil was, and it clicked that the light was junk. What's a good, simple light you all use for a small kitchen setup?