A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Flowering house plants from seed...

Hey all,

Most of you know that our current situation is such that we don't have extra money for anything. But, my wife is wanting a couple of plants that flower and will do well inside. The inside of our mobile home has medium to lower level light and I know those conditions are not conducive to many plants to begin with.

But, do any of you know of a type of plant that can be started from seed and kept inside of a house with light levels like we have? If you do, please share your knowledge with me!!

Thanks in advance,
Robert

hey robert. i know the "no money" thing, been there, done that, some days still am!

but, while i don't have any suggestions besides av's, you can also get lots of trades and/or cuttings by asking around. i've tripled my plant collection that way.

the other thing i have done is watch the clearance racks of places like kroger. i've gotten lots of good deals there.

Thanks for the suggestions mouse. I'll keep my eyes open!

At Wal-Mart I scored a Kalanchoe Calandiva with wonderful orange flowers for 50 cents. I don't have much else that flowers indoors. And nothing that is low light tolerant. I'm sorry I can't be of much help.

No problem TK.

Nice score from Wally World though!!

Thankyou Beebiz,

Althought it could take longer have you thought about saving up until you can get a florescent light? That way you would have more options. I'm on a fixed income so I know about money being tight. But I found that the shop lights are really very inexpensive and they come with little chains that can be extended so that moving them up and down isn't much of a problem. And then you would have 4 feet of space where you could have several flowering plants. I got my shop light for under 10.00 and the t12 lights for under a dollar each. It's not pretty but it does provide the light for plants and it is cheaper on electricty than one 100 watt bulb. I use it to light up the apartment and decreased my electric bill by 10.00 per month. So for me it paid for itself the first month.

Purchase a florescent light that not only allows you to have plants that might not otherwise do well, but that SAVES you $10 each month.... In a year's time it will have saved you $120!! Now, that's what I call frugality at it's finest!!!!!!

I've mentioned such a thing to Linda before, but so far she has not been able to get past the thoughts of having one of those "things" hanging from our ceiling.... you know, in all of it's grandeur and beauty!!

I've told her that it would be kind of a trade off... the fixture might not be so pretty, but the plants underneath it would be so pretty that they would detract so much from the fixture that it would soon be hardly noticed. But, she just can't get past the thought!

But, now you have given me a brand new "attack" strategy!! We would get and extra $120 per year to spend on other things that we want (like some flowering indoor plants) or need, plus we would then be able to have some beautiful blooming plants inside...... all for only having to put up with a lack-luster item that won't even be noticeable in 6 months anyway!! I love it!!

Thanks TK!!!

lol Robert!

You are way to funny, I can almost hear you now . Linda, but honey, it will not be noticable in 6 months!! Just think of the money we can save if we do this! Good luck Robert!

somewhere around here is a picture of what I did to decorate my florescent shop light. But it was sometime last year so I have no idea if the picture is still there.

because the lights don't get hot or at least the ones I get don't I put those plastic flower chains around it so that it looked like a flower bed on top. Now I'm thinking of getting really fancy and doing some of that glass painting on some plexiglass I have and making like a lamp cover for it. All I would need to do because mine is up near the ceiling with the hanging plants is make the 4 trapisoid sides 2 for the small ends and then 2 for the long ends and it could just slide down on top of the existing hood. At least that's the plan as of this moment. Who knows what I'll think up next week lol.

That's it Shirl! You got it just right!! But, shhhhh..... I don't want Linda to know my strategy!!

TK, my mind has already been going crazy. I have some scrap lumber around here that I could use to build a hood around the light.... got some paint, so I could paint it...... got some variegated ivy roping that I could put around the top and drape down the sides...... And, you know what else I could do?? Oooooo, gotta stop for now..... my brain cell hurts!!!!!

Hey Beebiz,

How you doing today. I went over to your site but the links didn't appear to be working. I think that it is really cool the way you have it set up.

Hey TK,

I'm doing fine today. Thanks for asking. Last night when I said, "Oooooo, gotta stop for now..... my brain cell hurts!!!!!" I was just being what Linda calls a "smartie-fartie!"

I just went to each page of both sites and couldn't find a problem. What kind of problem did you have? It may have just been a problem with the freewebs server. If that was what it was, they have apparently got it fixed now. Let me know.