This is the first little guy we got. It's a Giant Sequoia (baby) from the gift shop at Muir woods. The entire time we were walking through those woods Misha kept looking for a pine cone, or some seeds, or even a little sequoia tree that he could take home and grow himself (technically illegal, but there really wasn't much of that to be found on the paths anyways). Luckily we found that they actually sold these baby trees as souvenirs. It seems to be turning brown at the bottom though and I don't really know why. I've gotten so much conflicting information on how to take care of these that I really don't know what the heck I'm doing.
This is the Coconut tree we picked up at IKEA. I just thought it was cool because the tree is growing right out of the coconut, plus it's a good size to have on the floor of our bedroom.
This is the orchid plant the Misha got me for my office. At first it had a bunch of really gorgeous flowers on it and more buds that were about to open. Unfortunately, I didn't know any better and watered them way more than they are supposed to be (orchids apparently only need about as much water as a cactus) so all the flowers died off prematurely. Now all that's left are the long green leaves and since I've stopped watering it it's doing just fine.
Now, the garden center in my neighborhood was selling carnivorous plants in the spirit of Halloween, so I got pretty excited when I saw them. Venus Fly traps, especially, are damn hard to grow, especially from seed. I remember one time Philip got a growing kit as a present because he was enthralled by the idea of them. We followed the instructions exactly, even keeping that big "terrarium" in the fridge for months to simulate the necessary dormancy period. But not a singe seedling so much as hinted at sprouting up outta that dirt. These ones were already pretty big as far as Venus Fly Traps go. I also got a bunch of the North American Pitcher plant because it looks nice in the pot. These eat bugs by luring them in with secretions that bugs are attracted to. Each plant is like a tube with some wind of water at the bottom, and once a bug falls in, escape is impossible and the plant digests it (somehow).
