For Houseplant Week

Chilli 'Basket of Fire' for #houseplantweekUK

I must have picked up the housplant week vibes (which ends today) because I've spent lots of time tending to my houseplants. This chilli 'Basket of Fire' is one of my more unusual specimens and I'm pleased to say it's now entering its third year of cultivation. It can be a bit rampant, but a severe haircut soon brings it back under control. The last one was back in November and as you can see it's ready to give me plenty of chillis for 2023. A sunny windowsill is all it seems to need and I'm growing mine in a self watering pot, so only an occasional top up is needed at this time of the year. I'm pretty frugal with feeding it too.

Housplants on our bathroom windowsill

I've also been tidying up the houseplants on our shady bathroom windowsill. They've been suffering from scale which is proving tricky to eliminate, so the unrescuable ones have gone, hence the empty pots awaiting fresh plants. Don't be alarmed by the jade plant on the left. This is a bit of an experiment as it had got rather tangled and overgrown and I noticed last year some small shoots on branches that had fallen off. If that doesn't happen again in its now trimmed and stable state, then I have plenty of cuttings waiting in the wings to replace it. If and when that happens the new plant(s) will be the third generation from the original one I was given when we moved down here in 1984.

It's great to have something gardeny to do in the depths of January. What are you up to this month?

Comments

  1. Beth at PlantPostings15 January 2023 at 20:54

    I didn't realize it was houseplant week--thanks for that information! Houseplants are such a joy when outdoor gardening is on hold during the winter. Soon, it will be time to plant seeds for the outdoor garden--yay!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VP17 January 2023 at 10:13

      Nor did I Beth until I saw a friend posting about it on Twitter!

      Delete

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