Urban Habitat

This weekend’s been a grand adventure of bars, plants, cats, and garden nurseries. I ended up with four new plants from an event on Friday night: another baby bloodleaf plant, a maidenhair fern, bamboo, and an African violet.

These gorgeous purples belong to my new African violet. A bright-sun-loving plant that actually isn’t technically a violet, these are infamously pet friendly. In fact, they’re a plant that always comes up in my searches and yet one I hadn’t found at any of my usual haunts until this weekend.

The popping lavendar tones just begged to come home with me. You’ll also notice (and appreciate, hopefully) the soft, emerald leaves and guitar-pick petal shape.

You might remember from this post that I’ve bought bloodleaf before and didn’t know much about it at the time. I’ve learned a lot since and was excited to get another little one! It’s the same exact cultivar, from the same exact place, potted in a matching square blue pot.

As you can see from the pictures above and to the right, it’s looking a little droopy. From my limited experience with iresine, I’ve found they seem to get pot-shock: they seem to not do so well at first when changing environments or planters. The new baby got a nice misting today, along with the rattlesnake plant and the other iresine.

And about that plant nursery I mentioned earlier – I was able to repot my new plants today because I stumbled on the place! I was headed to yoga and it was right across the street – and, they had a nursery cat! It was overall an enjoyable unplanned adventure that culminated in more much-needed houseplant supplies.

You’ll see, too, that I got to use two of my new tools for the first time!

So this was not a plant I knew anything about, but I originally went to City Grows with the intention of getting a moisture-loving, low-light plant. And of course, a fern would fit the bill. I specifically chose the maidenhair fern because it’s a “true fern,” meaning it’s supposed to be safe for cats.

It’s also simply beautiful!

The leaves have a quirky shape to them, and I love the shape and delicacy of ferns; this little maidenhair caught my eye as soon as I got to the shop’s fern section!

You can easily see how these are a spectacular addition to any indoor space.

Bamboo is a common houseplant that I’ve wanted for a long time but not been able to find from a local seller. My favorite plant shop deals mostly in cactuses and succulents, and I try to avoid ordering too many plants or supplies from places like Amazon because I want to support local stores. But, City Grows had a bunch of bamboo on Friday! I got this sweet little guy in a teenie black pot that goes with the colors of my bathroom.

I wanted it to match my bathroom because bamboo likes low to medium light and tolerates water well; in fact, my best friend grows hers not in soil, but in rocks and water. And hers is probably about three feet tall at this point. (Fun fact: We asked the guy working at City Grows, and he said growing it in water is a great idea. We also asked if it mattered what kind of water, and he said probably distilled would be better in the long run but it shouldn’t matter too much.)

So, my new bamboo lives next to the maidenhair fern on my corner shelf.