Fern Immersion

It’s memory test time.  Ready?!  Do you remember how way back when we decided to use ferns as centerpieces for our wedding?  And made birch bark covered pots with our initials carved into the sides of them?  Here’s a refresher:

Well, post wedding we had to figure out what to do with all the ferns.  We started with 25 ferns, only 20 of which lived to even make it to the reception, of those 20 at our reception 10 went MIA, we brought 10 ferns home, killed off two of them in the last few weeks and were left with 8 ferns to find a home for.  Much more manageable than finding homes for 25 of them.

As much as I labored over and loved those birch bark covered pots, it was time for the bark to come off.  After spending a week outside in the monsoon, they weren’t looking too good.

So I peeled off the bark and picked off the remnants of the hot glue used the adhere the bark to the clay pot.  The pot on the right is what it looks like after just taking the bark off and the pot on the left is what it looks like after picking off the hot glue dots, which came off really easy.

In all the birch bark peeling, I was able to save one piece of bark that had our initials carved into it.  It was actually Colby’s idea to keep the bark.  We’ve got a little art related project all lined up for it this weekend.

As for where to put the ferns…how about the craft room?!  It’s the most finished spot in the entire house and was void of plants.  I may have killed the last two plants that crossed the craft room threshold.  Plants don’t last too long in our house.  Lack of watering may be the issue.

Despite reading the plant labels and seeing that the they like “medium light” I still insisted on putting six of them on the window sill.  Not a great start for Operation Keep The Plants Alive.  We’ll see if they can live in direct sunlight.

So far they seem to like it.  I swear in just the two days they’ve been in the room they’re already looking a littler perkier.

They’re definitely enjoying their time in the sun…that is until Goose decides that the plants are taking up too much of HIS window space and decides to play king of the window sill with them.

Especially on this window, at the front of the house, where Goose keeps his eagle eye out on watch for the mailman and then tries to jump right through the glass at him.  Yeah, those plants are gonna be on the ground in no time!

So that accounts for six of the plants, for those of you who have been keeping track.  So where are the other two?  Hanging out on the craft room shelf.

The shelves have been missing something for quite some time now.  They’ve always felt just a little bit off, a little bit too white and stark.  As soon as I placed the first fern on the shelf, the whole thing warmed up with the rich terra cotta color and green lushness breaking up the glass, metal and white combo that was going on there.

Much improved.  Now I kind of wish I hadn’t killed off so many of these guys so I could have put more of them out on the shelves.  But I’m sure the window ferns will migrate to the shelf shortly.  It’s safer there.  Out of the Goose zone.

Okay…one last fern in the window shot for tonight then I swear I’ll leave you alone so you can get on with your Thursday evening.

Ahhhhh…so pretty.  I wish I wasn’t so bad with plants.  More specifically, I wish I was better at remembering to water them.  I’m like Carrie on Sex and The City when Aiden brings a plant with him when he moves into her apartment.  Two weeks later…dead plant.  Story of my life!

Pssst…Okay, I need to know, what are proper plant watering procedures?  Do you guys water all the plants once a week?  Or are you more like me and wait until the poor suckers are wilting away until you water?  Please share your plant success secrets!  I need to know!  It’s a life or death situation over here at the roost.

6 Comments

  1. I don’t have to worry about watering the plants in the house because my cat eats them before they need it! We can only have plants in the house that are kitty eating friendly … aka not much 🙁

  2. Once a week gal checking in. It’s just so much easier than trying to remember till it’s too late. Good luck cause isn’t it amazing how much a plant adds to the warmth of a room?

    1. Okay..once a week it is. So far so good. I’m trying for a Saturday morning watering schedule. Fingers crossed it lasts at least a few weeks. And totally agreed! Plants bring a room to life!

  3. I do once a week too but sometimes I forget 🙁 plants don’t last long in my house either, so I actually just get something called “Devil’s Ivy” aka Pothos. It’s the only thing I haven’t been able to kill so I have three of them and they hang all pretty. No matter how much or little sun or water you give them, they will do fine as long as you remember to water it occasionally. I put them in self-water containers so in case I forget, they’re still ok.

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE ferns, but I am their grim reaper. I even killed two air plants. that’s right AIR PLANTS, that don’t even live in soil they just need AIR! Anyway, I had a rainbow fern that died immediately that i just let rot in my window forever. And then in the summer I got a crap ton of hanging boston ferns (spent so much $$) to line the outside of my porch and it was gooorgeous. And then they all died because my porch gets 5+ hours of direct sunlight. they’re literally turned to dust. I even watered them a bunch and misted the fronds, nothing worked. When i told the lady at the nursery about this she was all snooty and goes “well THINK about where ferns live, lady, that’s why they died” as in, they live near swampy, wet, hot but not right areas like around rivers. They were destined to fail at my house lol.

    1. Hahahaha….haha! That’s awesome! And totally me! I feel better that there’s more than one plant killer out there in the world!

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