Many of you will relate to my predicament of having more plants than space, so I thought it would be interesting to start a thread on creative ways to manage limited space without sacrificing the number and variety of plants that share our homes.

This ficus benjamina was one I rescued late last winter from someone who abandoned it outdoors. After pruning back all the frost damaged parts, all that remained was one trunk with a few sparsely foliated branches. New foliage is beginning to fill it out somewhat and the plant is recovering but back then it looked quite pathetic, so to detract the eye from my "Charlie Brown" ficus and to save space, I companion planted shallow-rooted purple oxalis in the same pot. (Because oxalis have shallow roots, it is easy to dig up the corms during their dormant period without disturbing the ficus roots, place them in a peat-filled bag for a month, then replant them again.)



Have any of you similar ideas you care to share with the rest of us? I'm always looking creative ideas on conserving space.

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When do they go dormant?

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Good question. My oxalis doesn't follow the calendar at all. It has gone dormant in December, March and this year in July!

Good work, Cricket! Both plants look like they are flourishing under your care.

I had not considered the possibility of companion planting the Oxalis because they are shallow rooted. Good idea. An alternative is to keep the Oxalis in its own small pot and set it on top of the Ficus rootball.

Oxalis tend to go dormant when they experience a period of drought. It is generally recommended to stop watering them in early September and about 6 weeks later they can can be set aside in a cool dim location where they can be ignore for about 4 months.

I like it!

I wonder if you could consider my train garden a "creative planting."

Cricket,

The dormancy rules that I cited are what are used in greenhouses by professional growers. They do not have to be followd rigidly. If you are gettng the results you want, keep doing it your way. If you want to experiment by extending the dormancy, go for it.

If you are going to use it as a tag line, you may want to correct my sloppy spelling!

LOL! All it needed was a good eye!

I've been thinking about planting the miniature snapdragons on top of my bulb bed since the snapdragons are shallowroot and bloom spring fall while my glads bloom mid-summer and the cannas appear to be doing the same. What do you all think will that work?

Cricket,

The few houseplants I have are all in their own pots and none are tall.

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We are all under the same stars... therefore we are never far apart.

Oh well I guess I should have said the 4 houseplants... Just barely getting started with the indoor stuff.

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We are all under the same stars... therefore we are never far apart.

Will would NEVER mess with my head.
He's still recovering from the shock of seeing my photo....
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Cricket

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my photo....

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ewwwww

If I didn't disbelieve online photos, I wouldn't be able to ever talk to you again!

I recently tried to put a pothos cutting in with my big dracaena which is in a large pot. I think the only problem was that it wasn't well started first. Any ideas about the compatability of these two?

Thanks!
Kath

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Never accept an invitation from a stranger unless he offers you candy.--Linda Festa

Kath, just checked out your dracaena in the other post. Gorgeous!

Yes, that would definitely work, Triss!

Well my aloe is sharing a pot with the white sprite. That's the only indoor combination that I have on purpose. Several of my seedlings jumped egg carton locations and ended up sharing space with one another. The most successful was a double bloom rose parade impatience with a petunia. They have different light requirements but they didn't mind at all sharing and being in the north facing window. They have since been separated and placed in their outdoor locations.

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