I Have Too Many Unhappy Plants… So Im Starting Over

Have I reached the point of having too many plants? Maybe. Am I ready to admit it? Probably not. Recently I took an honest look at my collection and I feel like I have quite a lot of unhappy plants. So that made me wonder. Is it because I just have too many plants and I can't reach all of them on time? Or am I just a bad plant parent? I don't know. I feel like all of us feel like that sometimes. So today we're not getting rid of any of my plants. We're gonna try and do the opposite. We're gonna go through about seven plants that haven't been their happiest lately and we're gonna try and figure out how to save them. In a few months I'll probably come back with a cozy and honest update on how they're doing. Hi plant lover! Welcome or welcome back to my green leafy space. My name is Alina. If you're new here thank you so much for joining me for this cozy starting over video. If you have been here for a while you know that I'm that kind of plant parent that always tries to save any plant in any condition. Even if I have like some totally empty vines I'm always gonna try and save it. So today we're caring for about seven or eight plants that just haven't been the happiest. Some in a pretty bad condition. Some do look better but I do feel like they need some love and maybe starting over with today. And as I said in a few months I'm gonna come back with an honest update on how they're doing. I'm really excited about this video. I love starting over with my plants and I'm also really excited to see how it goes. I moved things up a little. I moved this table so we'll have a cozy workspace and also we're dealing with bugs so I had to move all the plants from this space as well. So let's start from I think my saddest plant. From far it probably looks pretty good. It has quite a lot of leaves. If you're going to give it a closer look it has so much thrips damage. This plant and me have been dealing with thrips for I think at least a year. It had thrips last summer then they kind of disappeared at winter time and they came back this spring. So I feel like I don't have any other options than just try to take as much cuttings as I can and see if I can save something. My plan is to just water the cuttings. Probably I'll try to water them daily to try and get rid of the thrips. I will also leave the mother plant. I'm not gonna throw it away. I'll probably leave it without any leaves. I tried to take cuttings before and they just kind of rotted which was pretty annoying. But I feel like if a plant is not healthy, if it has bugs issues, it will have harder time to root. So I'm gonna have quite a lot of cuttings from this one. I hope if at least a few will root. My biggest concern is thrips of course. I think I'm gonna cut it here. This is one. For me by this point it was either taking the cuttings and trying to save what I have left or throwing it away. So I think this is the best choice. But if this one is not gonna make it, if it's still gonna have thrips, I don't think I'm gonna ever get another Raphidophora. I'm gonna cut back. I think I'm not gonna leave a lot of leaves. So probably try to get rid of as much leaves as possible. Okay so this is what I have left from the mother plant. I did leave a few vines in hopes they will grow some new leaves. I'm not sure I need the moss pole by this point. But maybe I will connect it to the moss pole. Let me know from your experience if you have been growing a Raphidophora. Is it like the thrips are also a big issue for you? And let's see what we're gonna do with the cuttings. Okay I think I'm gonna try and save a few empty vines but maybe in a different setup. So I'm gonna cut these back too. Okay I showered all the cuttings. Hopefully got rid of most of the thrips. I know they're gonna come back because you can't really see all of them. From my experience getting rid of bugs like thrips is much easier when the plant is in soil because you can shower the cuttings pretty much daily. I think it turned out really cute with these cuttings and kind of the combination with this vase. And I don't know we're gonna give it some time. I'm gonna try and shower the cuttings daily. I really hope I will be able to but I think it turned out really cute so we're gonna give it a chance. I'll probably move it to the balcony to enjoy some bright light. And with these cuttings with the empty vines I'm gonna try and do a different setup. I did a really nice setup with a few empty vines from my Hartley Philodendron and it worked so great. It's a bottom watering setup so let me show you what I I'm planning on doing. These I'm gonna try and propagate in soil but I'm gonna keep the soil moist all the time. When I started over with the Hartley Philodendron it also had zero leaves and it looks so cute right now. Since we don't have any leaves on this one hopefully it's thrips free. I don't know let's see. So I'm just gonna stick all the parts all the nodes inside the last one. Now I'm gonna add some water over here. I'm gonna keep it moist all the time. Okay this is it. This one I'll probably try and propagate on my kitchen windowsill. It has bright light throughout the day. Maybe I'll show you at the end of the video where I placed most of them but I am planning on giving them the right light conditions. It's so crucial for if you want a cutting tool. Okay next one is my gorgeous Prince of Orange. So yeah it looks really bad. I had this one for a few years now. It used to be quite happy and then I think last summer I decided I want to try and grow it on the shelf behind me which is pretty far from the window and I did see that it was struggling so I moved it back to this space next to the window and it just never came back. It lost so many leaves but it did grow this one like a month ago so I guess we have hope. So my plan for this one is cut it back and maybe try to propagate it maybe one in water one cutting like take a few cuttings and try to propagate one in water and the other maybe in perlite. I don't know I want to try a few things to see what will work if anything will work. Okay let's do it. I think I'm gonna keep this leaf also. It looks pretty bad but I might keep it. Okay these ones I'm gonna get rid of and I think I'm also gonna try. Okay so this is what we have. We have the mother plant that will hopefully grow some new growth points and we have two of these cuttings that do have some aerial roots but they don't look too healthy so let's see what we're gonna do with these two. Okay so this one I'm just gonna try and propagate in water and for this stem I was thinking of trying to make a different setup. I think I'm gonna use some perlite. Hopefully I have enough. So I haven't had a lot of success with propagating my plants in perlite. They usually kind of get a root rot or like stem rot. I'm not sure why so if you have any good tips let me know in the comments. Okay I think I'm gonna divide this one into two cuttings. I'm just gonna place them on top and I guess just hope for the best. Moving on to my sad begonias Sophie. So a few months ago I made a video of how I was wrong about begonias. How easy they are and I feel like I was wrong about being wrong about begonias because some are really they're not really finicky but they are so sensitive and of being kind of in moist soil for too long. I watered over water this one and double dot before I went on a vacation and it just ended up looking like this but I still have hope. So I think I'm just gonna try and grow this one and root it in water. I am gonna keep the mother plant as well of course just in case. I'm just gonna have some empty sticks. Okay so this is what we have. I think I'm gonna keep the mother plant with this sad leaf. Okay I'm gonna keep this one and let's find a a vase for this one. I'm kind of wondering if you think that I'm crazy to try and save all those sad plants or are we all like that? I don't know. I'm pretty sure there are plant parents out there that would like... Okay I'm not dealing with it. I'm throwing it away but I don't know I feel really bad for the plants. I don't want to throw them away and also I kind of have you know plants I don't really like anymore but I feel really bad throwing them away like some balcony plants that I'm not sure what to do with. No wonder it looks pretty sad but let's hope it will root. Moving on to my gorgeous mekans. So this one used to be so beautiful and what happened is I decided to give it a moss ball. I wanted it to grow bigger leaves, grow maybe faster and this is how it thanked me. I added a moss ball and I repotted it before and it just pretty much lost all of the leaves. I'm starting over with this one as well. This is one of my favorite plants. I really love this one. It's not a fast grower but I really enjoy the look. I think I'm gonna do the same setup as I did with the raphidophora with the self-watering setup. Let's do it. I'm just gonna cut all the vines. I think I'm gonna keep a few leaves and I'm also keeping the mother plant. You know what I'm gonna try to do? I just had this idea. I might leave a few vines and I'm just gonna pin them into the soil. I'm not gonna cut back like I did with the raphidophora. I think if you want to try and save a plant and you have like enough vines or stems you should definitely try a few setups. Okay let's cut everything that doesn't look alive. Okay I think I'm gonna keep all these new leaves. They are quite small and I think I'm gonna keep maybe this vine. I'm gonna pin it and these I'm getting rid of. I'm going to use these simple bobby pins I have. I think pinning the vines is such a great way to fill out a plant. If you have like a philodendron or a pothos that has some bare vines on the top you don't always have to cut it back. You can always pin it wait for it to root and then you can even kind of cut the vines in between where it rooted and then those vines you separated will grow new growth points hopefully. I'm not sure if it's gonna happen here. This plant is quite healthy. I didn't see any bugs issues. I think it was just his reaction to being repotted. That's like really dramatic. I'm gonna try and keep the soil moist. I'm gonna keep it on the balcony in bright light. Okay this is it and for all these cuttings I'm gonna plant them into this terracotta. I'm gonna do the same setup as I did with the raffidophora. I'm leaving at least one node where it will hopefully root and some I leave two nodes. By the way I really wanted your advice on something. I have quite a lot of glass vases for my cuttings and I can't get rid of these water marks. That's so annoying. That's probably like salts. So if you have any good way to get rid of them let me know in the comments. Okay I'm done and isn't it like the cutest setup? I really love it. So we'll see how this one goes as well. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be happy in this setup. I wonder if you're judging me by this point because this is how some of my plants look or are you just like okay that's fine that happened to me so many times. Okay so this is believe it or not a dracaena. I got it like I think like a year ago and I don't know I don't I'm not in love with this plant and it also has the ickiest I think scale or something mostly on the leaves. I don't see any on the stem so I'm gonna try and save it although I'm not in love with it and I really don't wanna. Here I see a cute little spider. That's so nice. Eating all the scale. I'll probably need to release it on the balcony before I throw the upper part away. So I'm still gonna try and save it and this one is gonna be pretty easy. I'm just gonna cut the top. I might take another cutting from the stem and kind of just try and plant it into soil. I probably need to add some more soil because it used to tip over so many times. I'm not even sure if I'm gonna be able to cut with these scissors and I think it's gonna be a challenge. Okay I guess that works. I really hope all the scales that stayed on the plant. Where is the spider? Okay this part is going to garbage. After I'll find the cute little spider and release it and this part I'm gonna keep on the balcony. I'm not gonna take another cutting because it was too challenging and I just ended up breaking it. Okay moving on to another sad plant. This one kind of makes sense because it's a Marenta and they are rarely happy. I know some plant lovers do successfully grow them. If you have been growing successfully a Marenta let me know how how you're doing that. So I brought it home about a year ago and realized it has mealybugs. I did manage to get rid of the mealybugs but now it has thrips. So I was thinking of throwing it away completely but I think I'm gonna try and take a cutting. I'm gonna try and take a small cutting. It's full of thrips. Probably shouldn't have even brought it in here into my bedroom but I think this is the healthiest part. I checked yesterday I think this is the the best part. I'm gonna go shower it. Should I just throw it away? It looks really bad. It's growing but any new leaf immediately looks damaged because of the thrips. You know what I'm gonna try and save this one. Do I even have a vase for it? Not really. This is how it turned out. Looks really cute. Definitely keeping it in isolation and the mother plant is going straight to trash. Last but not least is this cute little plant I've had for years that hasn't done anything. It hasn't grown at all in the last I think at least two years maybe even more. I want to cut it back and you will be surprised how easy it is to root a ZZ in water with time. They grow these cute little bulbs and sometimes they push out more growth from the bulb. I currently have I think one ZZ cutting in water. I'm going to show you a view. It has the cutest little bulb and it has a new growth point as well. My plan with this one is just to cut back on all the vines. I'm gonna keep it probably on the balcony and see if it has some new growth. The first time I tried to propagate ZZ plants in water I was so surprised. I felt like you know they're not plants that love being watered quite often. I thought they might just rot but that really surprised me and I really love how they look in water. I have been growing this one in my son's room. It's on a shelf and it has bright to medium light conditions. I'm not sure why it's not growing. I'm not watering it as much but still I'm not sure what's going on. I think starting over with a plant that hasn't grown at all for a while. I just noticed that the microphone wasn't on me. I really hope you heard anything that I said. It was close but not on me. So me to realize it after especially when I take cuttings and stuff that I can't reshoot. Hope you heard it. I think it's gonna be a really cute propagation vase. Let's add some water. So this is how it turned out. I really like it. I'm probably gonna grow it on the balcony just to make sure it gets the right light conditions and I'm also keeping this part. I'm so happy I finally gave some love to my ZZ plants. It's always such a good feeling to finally do that project that they have been postponing and I'm so so excited for the update video. I really hope to see some new growth and some new roots for most of them. Let me know which plants have been unhappy in your jungle and what do you usually do? Do you like okay I'm done with it throwing it away or are you like me always trying to just save what's left even if it's not a 100% success all the time? Still fun and I think you learned so much on the way. Last week I posted a cozy DIY. I built a trellis for my monstera from pine wood and rattan. It turned out so cute and has such a kind of cozy and natural look. If you're into watching another video check that one out. If you're into daily plant inspiration follow me on my instagram. I'll leave the link in the description of this video. As always thank you so much for joining me. I really hope you've enjoyed hanging with me in this video and I really hope I'm gonna see you in my next one as well. Bye!