I remember the first time I walked to the little ravine behind my mother’s condo and saw huge philodendron plants climbing up large trees. I was sure my mother had taken houseplants and had disposed of them in the ravine. But now I realize philodendron plants grow in the wild around here.

Of course, some are planted purposefully, and when cultivated, they can “take over” the area.

We have a sidewalk that runs along the side of our condo from our driveway to the main entrance. There are split-leaf philodendrons in the space between the sidewalk and the house. John keeps them trimmed-back, but when we return in the fall, we’ll have to fight our way through them to get to the door. They grow so fast that sometimes I think that if I watch carefully I can see them increase in size.

The weather encourages growth in this part of Florida. But plants are sensitive. Sometimes the heat is too much, and the rare winter frosts can kill them. If it’s not the heat or the frost, I can often find a way to “do them in.”

We brought three orchids back down with us when we returned in October. We’d purchased some of them in Florida, and some in Michigan. They haven’t done anything this season. I totally ignored them. John figured he’d just stick them in the ground where they will receive enough moisture and maybe, with luck, they’d eventually fluorish. But surprise! When he got ready to plant them, he discovered one is covered with buds (eight of them.) My neglect paid off.

We brought a tiny 3″ potted poinsettia one year when we came down. After the holiday, we stuck it in the ground. When we returned the following year, it was nearly 2′ high covered with lovely flowers. By the next year, it was HUGE! The frost got that one a couple years ago, but we planted two this year, and hopefully when we come back in October, they’ll still be growing.

The heat of summer can also “do in” a plant. A newly-planted bird of paradise was dead when we came back last fall, but our “foundation plantings” are surviving nicely. They’re two-tone arbicola (the photo on the left). The ones down here are lovely, while the potted ones we have up north are scrawny even though we make sure they are watered while we’re away.

We’ve given up having “house plants.” They don’t do well when we leave them alone. We had a nice 5′ palm tree which we tried moving outside thinking it would grow over the summer, but because it was newly planted, the hot summer almost did it in. It’s just now coming back but it’s still only about 18″ tall.

So some plants survive nicely and others don’t make it. It’ll be nice when we figure out which is which.