(Strelitzia reginae on the left and Monstera deliciosa on the right)
Our Monstera deliciosa and Strelitzia reginae ("Bird of Paradise") that we purchased at a local grocery store, as you may have read about in the post about reaching our milestone of 100 plants, are both recovering from spider mite infestations. I noticed the first sign of spider mites on the Monstera deliciosa one afternoon while I was watering and pruning the plant, and I promptly sprayed the plant with my handy Safer's Insecticidal Soap. I quarantined the plant for several weeks, spraying the plant every 7 to 10 days with a new coating of the insecticidal soap, and the plant currently looks like it is free from spider mites. It is currently at our new house and seems to be growing just fine, but it remains quarantined from the rest of the house plants. The side angle of the Monstera above might not adequately show the true health of the plant since the picture makes it look somewhat flattened out. In reality, when the plant is viewed from the top the leaves and the rest of the plant look relatively healthy. If it does end up dying then I will likely purchase another one.

The Strelitzia reginae or "Bird of Paradise", which had been growing at Annah's apartment was apparently the perfect breeding ground for hundreds of spider mites. Neither of us had really noticed them until I lifted up the plant in preparation for the move. Instead of moving it right away, I once again used my Safer's Insecticidal Soap and quarantined it for a few weeks since we had a month to move everything out of her apartment. The last day of the month finally came in August and it has been at the new house ever since. It appears to be free of the spider mites, but it is still quarantined next to the Monstera deliciosa just as a precaution.

I am guessing that each of these plants were infected with a few spider mites at the time of purchase and then the growing conditions we were providing the plant were perfect for the spider mites to thrive. I had inspected the plant upon purchasing, but apparently I did not inspect it as thoroughly as I had thought. I will have to be more thorough next time so this will not happen again.

(Left to Right: Adromischus cristatus and Lithops leslie 'albinica'.)
If any of you follow the number of houseplants that Annah and I own, which is to the right under the "About Us" section, you might have noticed that we recently surpassed the 100 plant mark. We finally reached this "milestone" this past weekend on Saturday when we were up at Linder's Nursery where I purchased a Lithops leslie 'albinica' and a Adromischus cristatus ("Crinkle-Leaf Plant") and both of these were small and easy to transport. I had seen and read about the Lithops in this post at PATSP and this post at Water When Dry (and then her second post) and it seemed like an interesting plant. The Adromischus cristatus or "Crinkle-Leaf Plant" is in the Crassulaceae family and it produces some intriguing flowers.

On Sunday we then purchased two more plants (#101 and #102) that we saw at the HyVee Grocery Store in the Floral Department where they were having a sale on Tropical Plants for $11.98, which seemed like a decent price for some decent looking plants, so we bought a Monstera deliciosa (PATSP post about this wonderful plant here) which is the plant in the photo on the top and a Strelitzia alba ("White Bird of Paradise") which is the photo on the bottom.

Space is starting to become an issue so I'm not sure how much longer this plant-buying obsession can continue. We should be fine as long as we stick to smaller plants.


This is the first post regarding our houseplants for quite some time and it won't be the last. We are currently working on other houseplant posts that will be posted in the future.

Update (05/28/08): We are back to 100 houseplants now since my Spathiphyllum ("Peace Lily") and Annah's Pachira aquatica (Braided "Money Tree") have died.

Photo Credits: Annah and Jordan