How old is your oldest houseplant?

butzie

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I have managed to kill most of my house plants because I just don't have a green thumb.

That is except for Tom. He just turned 32. He is an Elephant Leafed Philadendrum, I think. He was very small when I got him. Now he is in a pot that is about 2 or 3 feet in circumference, about the same in height, and
Tom is 2 or 3 feet above the pot.

I have abused him and not paid attention to him. When are daughter got mobile, the pediatrician said to put Tom outside so she wouldn't eat him and get poisoned. We put him on the deck here in CA. He got sunburned and almost died. Jen was old enough to talk and we said not to eat Tom. She looked at us like, "He's green. He's a vegetable." No problem.

Tom has lived in NY, upstate and downstate, MA and CA. I left him with Mom when I was in MI for grad school. In 2 years she couldn't kill him and she has a worse brown thumb than me.


I kept transplanting Tom and he didn't die. He got spider mites this year. I had no idea what was wrong with him and I brought a leaf to the nursery and got the spray. I recently bought 2 of those water globes. I put two in his pot. For the first 3 days, Tom drank them both dry.

Gotta love Tom and I have told him that I do. Maybe that is why he is still with me.
 

pushylady

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Originally Posted by butzie

Gotta love Tom and I have told him that I do. Maybe that is why he is still with me.
that is so sweet - I can just picture you talking to your plants!

All mine are only a few years old. Most I got when we moved to this sunny apartment. I think my oldest is a very hardy spider fern which must be about 7 years old now. It's a constant challenge keeping my plants safe from the cats.
 

goldenkitty45

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Age - ZERO - we don't have live houseplants with cats. Charlie already figured out how fun it is to tip over a vase of flowers!
 

mews2much

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I kill all our house plants except cactus.
We also have some tropical plant that is doing great so far that steve got me for my bday over a year ago.
My outdoor plants do great.
 

starryeyedtiger

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I have an 18 yr old plant.
It was a plant given to my family when my grandad passed away after his funeral. It's VERY special to us. My mom took good care of it for years so it has really just turned out to be gorgeous!
She took clippings from it and has given it to each of us girls (all of her daughters) so that we can have them in our families. It really means a lot to me, I'd be soooo upset if something happened to it!

That plant aside, I have a ton of others as well, but none quite that old!!! I bought most of my newer plants after we got married (in March, so they're still pretty new). That being said though, I do have a 5 yr old bamboo plant and a 2 yr old mini Christmas tree....those are probably the next oldest in line.
 

arlyn

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My Christmas cactus is about 75 years old, the man I inherited from had it for 50 years and said it was tiny and beautiful when he bought it for his wife.
I've had it for somewhere around 25 years (though currently under my brother's care until I get a real house again).
It's not so beautiful anymore, it looks woody, like any other old succulent, but it still flowers nicely.
My heartleaf philodendron is somewhere around ten years old.
 

jean-ji

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I had a spider plant that had 50 babies on it when my son was 2. One day I found him in the middle of all the babies, he had pulled every one off. He was quite proud of himself too! Through the years the big spider plants have been replaced with new babies and now I have yet another little one going. So I have generations of the same plant going back more than 30 years. Does that count?


Edit: Could we see a pic of Tom?
 

whiteforest

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All of my plants are 2.5 years. They are the ones that FDH and I got when we moved here, and they're still going strong. I have a baby Jade tree, a "Black Gem" aloe and a regular ol' viney plant that I'm not even sure of the name. They're all up way beyond the kitty's reach....until they learn to scale walls.
 

yarra

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I would LOVE to see a pic of y'all's plants!

The oldest one I have is the ONLY one I have. It's a little Christmas cactus. She is only 2 years old now.
BUT wow, do I abuse her. SO maybe she will live to be 75 one day too!
 

natalie_ca

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I haven't had any real houseplants in many years. When I lived in a house with the windows facing west, I had lots of plants. My spider plant was 10 years old and huge! But when I moved from there my window faced South and it was too hot and all my plants died. I tried again to reestablish them when I moved here, but my window faces North and there isn't enough direct sunlight.

Next year when I move I'll try again. In the meantime I have a plastic plant!
 

xocats

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I have a cactus that is at least 15 years old...
some of your plants deserve a round of applause for their old age.
Really amazing.
 

Ms. Freya

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Bill is 27. He's a sweetheart philodenron. The children's librarian at my first page job had him for 10 years in the library and was told they couldn't take him when they moved to a new building so I got him. He came with through two degrees and 4 apartments...hanging in with me through cold and dark living quarters and roommates who had a tendancy to pour soda or beer into my plants. I gave one of his clippings to my boyfriend 6 years ago because he was doing a work placement in Ottawa and wanted a plant that could survive in a basement apartment, so now I have two "Bills" in my living room. (Boyfriend still had him when he switched to being my husband)

I worried about him (Bill, not my husband) when we got the cats, but they're simply not interested, so Bill remains in my living room.
 

carolpetunia

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This plant isn't mine, but I feel so attached to it...

When my family moved Texas in 1969, we stayed in a shabby little motel in Killeen (adjacent to Fort Hood, where my father was stationed) for a couple of weeks, until we could move into our rent house. The motel was built in the old "motor court" style, with side-by-side kitchenette cabins in a U-shape around a freestanding central office and lobby.

In that fake-wood-paneled lobby, there was a pothos ivy growing up the wall and along a shelf that ran above a wall of fly-specked windows. It was at least twenty feet long, and I was very impressed!

Well... back in 2002, I took a roadtrip down to Austin, and I stopped in Killeen on the way to visit some of my old haunts. When I saw that the motel was still there, I pulled in to check it out, and sure enough... that pothos ivy was there too, now completely encircling the lobby on a series of shelves evidently added over time to accommodate its expansion. Thirty-three years of ivy that I know of, and who knows how many years before that!


I need to go back down there one of these days and see if it's still growing...


 

EnzoLeya

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I don't have much of a green thumb and the cats make it even harder! I just got one as a house warming gift so it's a month old, the other is a purple passion that I got this spring. So far so good!!!

Oh and I have a hibiscus(?) bush/tree in my basement because Iowa winters are far too cold for it! The cats love to climb it so I have to keep it down there in a closed room
 

ladylonewolf

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I have two huge snake plants that I brought with me when we moved from Florida a year and a half ago - I'm certain they're a lot older than that! They're about 4 feet tall. I also took one of the "babies" from an aloe that was growing in front of my apartment there. I also have a pepper plant that I let my son start from seeds, and another houseplant whose species I'm not too sure of. That's basically my living room "jungle" that lives on my coffee table.

The snake plants are great, because they are low-maintenance. One of them's broken the pot that it's in, though, so I'll have to get my hubby to help me repot it in the Spring.

Neither cat that's been in this house has bothered with any of my plants, thankfully, except to give a curious sniff!
 
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butzie

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Originally Posted by mews2much

I kill all our house plants except cactus.
We also have some tropical plant that is doing great so far that steve got me for my bday over a year ago.
My outdoor plants do great.
I killed the cacti, too.


Originally Posted by jean-ji

I had a spider plant that had 50 babies on it when my son was 2. One day I found him in the middle of all the babies, he had pulled every one off. He was quite proud of himself too! Through the years the big spider plants have been replaced with new babies and now I have yet another little one going. So I have generations of the same plant going back more than 30 years. Does that count?


Edit: Could we see a pic of Tom?
Of course, but it might not be until later this evening or tomorrow.

I noticed that a few of you talked about your philadnderons. They must live a long time with not that much care.
 

nurseangel

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I've had a lemon tree for about 6 months that has managed to survive me so far. They're great because they are nontoxic and (in theory) it will produce edible lemons.
 

rubsluts'mommy

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I kill nearly every houseplant I get. my personal longest lasting one was a 'tree' one of those mini palms... I'm terrible about knowing what they are. That sucker grew at least a foot, more like two, while i had it... and only lasted, in my care, for about 4 years.

I currently have one of those 'money plants' I bought when I moved here two years ago. It's a 'trained' bamboo... slow growing, trained into a criss-cross design... It's grown, gotten ignored, etc... I've bought others too, but have all died from neglect.

If it doesn't meow (or bark, but i currently have no dogs), I don't remember to care for it. I'm terrible with plants... I was amazed the palm lasted as long as it did.

Amanda
 
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butzie

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Originally Posted by nurseangel

I've had a lemon tree for about 6 months that has managed to survive me so far. They're great because they are nontoxic and (in theory) it will produce edible lemons.
We had a lemon tree in our first house in CA. Well, we thought it was a lime tree. We drank a fair number of gin and vodka tonics. That tree was being choked by this thing called Pampas Grass. We chopped down the pampas grass (yeah, chopped) and came across a little plant sign which declared that our lime tree was really a "Eureka!" lemon tree. So we started drinking more ice tea.


One of the best things about a lemon tree you have already mentioned and that is that the leaves are not toxic. You can put melted chocolate on them, freeze them and voila! You have great chocolate leaves to adorn lots of desserts.
 

nekochan

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All I have are desert plants and an air plant. We used to have another air plant that lived a long time... I think my air plant is 2-3 years old. We have a cactus that really needs repotting, I don't know how old it is but I would guess at least 12-15 years? It keeps getting taller. I have it in a recessed windowsill and at the top of the window it has now curved and climbed out of the recessed area and is heading for the ceiling... I also have an aloe plant in that window which is fairly old. We used to have another larger aloe plant which was around for a very long time but I think no one watered it for a few months and it died. We're not good about remembering to water plants so the cactus works well!

I want to buy a dwarf Meyer lemon tree. I've seen a few that are supposed to grow only a little over 2 feet tall and can be kept indoors. I love lemons, but I'm afraid to order one online because I've had bad luck with ordering plants through the mail...
 
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