The Story behind my House Plants

Finally, I have a chance to use English in my blog. I promise I will translate the other stories in this blog later. My blog focuses on life experiences in Indonesia and Germany. It sounds broad but most of the stories are about traveling, fashion and food. And I will add one topic about house plants that I also love so much. In the last two years, I have been busy with house plants. I will also share articles about plant care and provide updates. So, before I talk about plants, let me first introduce myself :) I am Rita from Indonesia but currently, I live in Hamburg, Germany. I have been living in Europe for twelve years now. I love sharing my funny, happy or even sad stories. So, I decided to put my stories in a blog and share them with you. For me, these are like a gift to the future because of how I feel when I read my old stories again. I feel like I am transported back to the same place and time, where I have been in stories. It is like I am reliving it all over again. Even though we cannot forget beautiful memories easily, right? I hope you enjoy my blog.

I want to tell you about why I am suddenly growing house plants. I mean, I have this experience, since when I was a child. I often watched my grandma or my father when they worked in our garden and took care of the plants. We don't have plants in the house, but we have a garden. Of course, we have many kinds of tropical house plants and big trees, like coconut, mango, bananas, palm and many others. I helped my family water plants in the dry season every evening. My interest in growing plants appeared around that time. I started to grow some plants when I was seven or eight years old.  Sometimes, I just feel good that our home was surrounded by plants. I thought, "people cannot see me when I am doing something silly in front of the window." Yeah, I liked to dance or speak as though was a presenter in front of the window. Lol! I also tried a hydroponic method in growing Dracaena Sanderiana (lucky bamboo). In a short time, the roots came out. It's always been successful to root this plant in the water. It made me so happy.

So, I have another story. Behind my secondary school, there was a big garden. I saw that the garden looked sad. And I thought, "I have to water the plants there". I asked my friend to join me because it was not easy to water the plants. We had to carry a big bucket of water because at that time in my school we did not have a water hose. Each big tree got one big bucket of water. We had to go back and forth lugging the heavy water until we finished, though it made us very happy to be able to do that almost every morning.

I continuously helped my family at home until I decided to leave for Germany in 2008.

My interest in growing plants started again in 2018, when I was back in Germany after study abroad in my hometown :) Study abroad in my hometown doesn’t sound much like study. So, the first plant I bought in Germany was an Aloe Vera. Then, some cacti and Dieffenbachia. In the same year, I also grew vegetables like chilis, tomatoes, and lemongrass. It seemed to work, growing plants indoors that I never experienced before. That was my first experience in Germany. After that, I always wanted to have more and more plants. Suddenly it felt like home. How about you?

I love that I could create a homey feeling in the apartment. This is one of the reasons why I grow plants. It brings back so many childhood memories, where I grew up!

My eyes sometimes cannot move away from all the beautiful plants in my room right now. I spend so much time almost every day looking at my plants. Lol!

I love the indonesian athmosphere

Right now, I have more than 90 plants in my apartment and more than 50 species of plants. I love to propagate them, that’s why I have so many plants. Omg, I just wrote down all the names of my plants, except one plant! It was a gift from my friend. Lol!

Of course, plant care in Indonesia and Germany is very different. I had to learn many things about growing plants in a cold climate. Thanks to growing plants in Germany, I have learned a lot about humidity, fertilizing, the right substrate for house plants, temperature, light and pests. I want to share these topics as well, later.

In the next article, I will write about which plants are good for a beginner. Please share your opinions about growing plants with me:) It would be very interesting to hear about it. Thank you and see you in my next post. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me. I am always happy when people ask for advice.

Xoxo, Rita 

Here are some pictures of my plants:

From left to right: Ginger, some propagating plants, corridor and living room with some plants.