Little shop of horrors

I've blogged before about decorating your apartment on a budget, and one cheap way to brighten up your indoor space is with pot plants. If you have a history of killing plants it's worth doing a little research on tough house-plants before you're responsible for floral carnage. As a general rule, choose plants with thick, hardy looking leaves and few flowers. Delicate flowers are only for hard-core gardeners, like your gran. Also, if your plant is unhappy, try moving it to different spots in your house.

I have had a surprising amount of success with watery plants on my window-sill:

I have a sort of specimen-jar theme going on here.

You're probably wondering about the green lumps? These lovely balls of algae are called marimo and they are a huge craze in Japan. They grow in colonies in Japanese lakes, although they are now being mass produced so people like me can buy them on Ebay. It was odd ordering a living thing online, but the mysterious balls survived, even after being smashed around in a dark bag for a few months while they were lost in the post.

Happy marimos

They are happy in tap water which just needs to be changed every couple of weeks. What I love about my little pets is that they shuffle around in their tank. In the day when they photosynthesise they produce little gas bubbles which makes them float, and then at night they sink back down. They are like a cross between a lava lamp and a tamagotchi. Here is a vid of some marimos in action.

They have become so popular that the Japanese have created a marimo character, named Marimokko. His name comes from the Japanese words marimo (moss ball) + mokkori (an erection). Obviously.

A marimo character: Marimokkori.
Photo by Christinesensei

 Keeping the marimos company are three tall sticks of Lucky Bamboo, and a couple of spider plants. Spider plants are incredibly easy to look after and they multiply when they're happy. Now that's value for money.

Baby spider plants (left) can grow in water until their roots are long enough to be planted in soil.

The spider plant in my bathroom is now a grandmother! It spawned some babies which I cut off and put in water. This has given their roots a chance to grow before I plant them in soil. However, the one baby has already spawned some offspring itself; I'm so impressed! In this image you can see the grandchildren to the left and right, which are connected by thin stalks.

Another thing that looks good on the window-sill is mint. Just drop a stalk with a few leaves in a jar of water next time you're cooking and it will soon start growing roots.

What plants have you managed to keep alive indoors, and what's your secret? If you can grow herbs I'll be very jelz.