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Office Plants

Hi! I just gave my dad a
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cute
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little Drosera Capensis for his office.
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It's probably one of the lowest care plants and is very pretty which makes it a great plant for the office. I think he put it by the windowsill which gets a lot of light. I hope the plant is happy Does anybody else keep plants in there offices or work areas? I have a terrarium in my bedroom :), none on my desks though.
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I might buy
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a round terrarium from PFT (small size) and put a 'lil nep or something in it to keep me company. LOL.
 
All of my plants are at work. I've got them in five different places (window sills), including the lunchroom and a bathroom. I DO get comments from my co-workers.
 
I tried growing a capensis in my office, it didn't work. No direct sunlight, just some dim flourescent lighting. Plus there's this stupid vent right above me that constantly blows dry air onto the plant. Within a week, it was lookin real bad, so I had to take my baby home
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Yep, also couldn't grow a capensis in office flouros. I actually asked my coworker if I could put a few plants in HER office. So what's down the hall in a windowsill is byblis and p.primuliflora.
 
I have two CPs tanks at work and love having them and so do my coworkers.  They get lots of attention.  
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 I "spread the gospel according to CP" every chance I get.  hehe  

I have a nep tank (raff and ventricosa) and a second tank with sundews and a ping.  They sit in a west window and do pretty well.  My pygmy even made gemmae which people found interesting.

I really enjoy having them at work along with a $1 rescue phal orchid currently in stunning bloom and a few other assorted plants.  People like to give me plants they don't want.  I wonder why....  
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I just read a great article on research that was done on specific plants which cleaned the air.  Here's the list in order of which were most efficient in removing pollutants from our environment.  And proximity counts, unless you have one of these plants every four feet, you have to be near it to derive benefit from it.  I have only one of these in my office which has very low light, but after reading this, I think I'll get some more.  Sadly, none are cp's.  
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Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutenscens)
Lady palm (Rhapis Excelsa)
Bamboo palm   (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
Rubber plant (Ficus elastica)
Dracaena ‘Janet Craig’ (Dracaena   deremensis ‘Janet Craig’)
English ivy (Hedera helix)
Pygmy date palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
Fig ‘Alii’ (Ficus macleilandii ‘Alii’)
Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)
Peace lily (Spathiphyllum)
Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans)
Golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
Florist mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
Gerber daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
Quite the variety, eh?  
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I'll find out if a D. capensis will grow in the office where I work. I just gave a pot with 4 in it to a lady at work who is into plants, but has no CP's. It is right under a 4' - 4 bulb fluorescent light (She has several other plants doing great in this location). She seems really interested and asking where to get more CP's.
Got 1 hooked.
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(everybody knows that the disease will not stop with 1 CP)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (PlantAKiss @ Mar. 03 2004,09:13)]People like to give me plants they don't want.  I wonder why....  
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Hehe, get ready for more plants soon
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  • #10
I find this list highly suspect, Im a horticulturist with an interior landscape firm
and this list is nothing but our standard fair. Most likely this list was taken off of another interior landscape firms website, the designers that run these companys love to make people think they know what they are talking about
and of course they have to push thier product, Rhapis cleaning air? LAUGHABLE.
I find it rather interesting that the common spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is no where to be found on your list.

[/QUOTE]Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutenscens)
Lady palm (Rhapis Excelsa)
Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
Rubber plant (Ficus elastica)
Dracaena ‘Janet Craig’ (Dracaena deremensis ‘Janet Craig’)
English ivy (Hedera helix)
Pygmy date palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
Fig ‘Alii’ (Ficus macleilandii ‘Alii’)
Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)
Peace lily (Spathiphyllum)
Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans)
Golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
Florist mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
Gerber daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
 
  • #11
The article that went with it (it was from some gardening e-newsletter I get, sorry, I get too many - working on doing something about that) specifically mentioned spider plants & philodendron as not being as efficient air cleaners as was previously thought.  Those plants in the list were in order of their efficiency from the top.  
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  • #12
Yeah, I too work for an interiorscape firm and that pretty much sums up all the product line basically anyways. Those plants do next to nothing and the major reason is people that work there empty all kinds of beverages into them and the lighting sucks. The plants have a hard time keeping themselves alive letalone keeping any of us alive.

Joe
 
  • #13
That makes sense if the plant is not at it's optimal health that it might not be an asset to it's environment.  
I went looking for the source of this list because I remember the article impressed me.  I haven't yet been able to find that specific article but did find a source.  Perhaps you may care to do a search for the book "How to grow fresh air:  50 houseplants that purify your home or office" by Dr. Bill Wolverton who is a NASA senior research scientist.  Still no cp's mentioned, though, but then we'd probably have to live in the terrarium with them...  
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  • #14
Cool, people grow CP's at work
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. Do you ever feed your plants at work
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I can't ever find any bugs. Maybe they've all been eaten.
 
  • #15
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Khai @ Mar. 05 2004,09:40)]I find it rather interesting that the common spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is no where to be found on your list.
Any advice for the Spider Plant? I was under the belief that the thing was hard to kill! Mine is struggling something else. I received it for free from a Greenhouse that had it growing off the flower stalk as a plantlet as all spider plants do. I took it home and it rooted. However, after a month of being there it's health did a 180 and it almost died. Each day the tips of the leaves get more and more black and brown. I pulled it up and checked it's roots. There were VERY thick stubby roots. Do all Spider plant roots look this way? Or were mine funked out? I repotted and gave it more sun, but no real change. Any advice?

At my work I grow S. x 'Wrigleyana', D. Capensis, and a Dionaea in an interesting deep tray with river rocks filling the cracks around the pots. The water level is full to the brim and I let it slowly evaporate away supplying humidity and oxygen to the roots. They seem to be doing fine! I have a compact flourescent beaming on them from 7am to 10pm! I should post a pic monday when I go back to work.
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  • #16
elgecko - I tried growing a capensis under those types of lights. It was about 6' under the lights (on my desk). The cap quickly lost its dew despite added humidity. After a week it hadn't adjusted and I put it 3' under the lights (top of shelf). It did a bit better but over the next few months started to turn greenish yellow from lack of light. There were plenty of lights every other office tile so overall there was a lot of indirect light. I suspected that the capensis might need sunlight or growlights. Let us know how it works out!

Capn' Drosera - keep a big dish of water under your cap and you'll likely get plenty of fungus gnats.
 
  • #17
wickedthistle,
I'll keep everyone updated. I think it will be ok. It is on the top shelf directly under the lights. Maybe 2' at most from them. She has African Violets there that flower without problems. AV need alot of light to flower.
 
  • #18
Well I thought it time to give an update of the D. Capensis growing at work.
At the end of the 1st week I took a look at the plant. It looked terrible. I check the soil, completely dry. I told her that they need to stay wet.
It did come back after she started to water it properly. It grows good but the leaves did not have any dew on them. It's very dry in the office were she is at.
I told her to take it home or try a bowl to place it in. She decided to get a fish bowl to place the plant in. Covered 3/4 of the top and mist a few times a week. It's been in the fish bowl around 2 to 3 weeks now.
I'm glad to report that the plant looks very happy now. It's growing great and the leaves have lots of dew on them, the way sundews should.
 
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