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How old is your houseplant?

My beautiful partridge breast aloe was inherited from my grandmother. I have no idea how long she had it for although I remember it being in her flat in the 1970s. I doubt that any of us can compete with Kew Gardens' oldest pot plant but do tell us about any houseplants you've been carefully nurturing for a long time.

Emma Crawforth

Gardening Editor, BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

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  • No house plants as such, but a rose belonging to my grandmother, which she had since the 60s, in a pot on her baking hot balcony in Milan. After she passed away, the rise was taken to the south of France, where it was planted out in the ground of our garden. It's very happy there now in its new home and grows to six feet every year, with the most amazing pink flowers image

  • davids10davids10 Posts: 894

    in 68 or 69 i bought a beaucarnea in a three inch pot at the grocery store. it's now 6 ft. tall and flourishing. so about 45 yrs.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,068

    Multi stemmed rubber plant inherited from a colleague at work who died young in 1979 or 80 so it will have been several years old already.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • I have a kangaroo vine that I've had since the mid 70s. It's a bit big and straggly and I wouldn't mind if it died, but I think it will outlive me.

    Perhaps more interestingly,  in 1967 my then boyfriend (now husband) bought me a rubber plant. It became a member of our household and moved around to various parts of the country with us. By the 1980s it reached the ceiling so I chopped it back a bit and it branched. In the 1990s I lopped it again and grew a new plant from the offcut.  Our daughter adopted this one and took it to her home. The parent plant was now so unwieldy that we got rid of it,  but Son of Rubberplant flourished. Then about three years ago, our daughter presented us with Grandson of Rubberplant, which she had grown from a top shoot, just as we had done to produce its parent. It's now about three feet tall and heading for the ceiling....

  • I was given a peace lily for my 21st birthday. It has spent the last five years being quite unhappy in my living room, barely staying alive. However I recently moved it to a lighter part of the flat (where I see it more often and therefore pay it a little more attention) and it is thriving! It has four flowers ready to bloom. Has anybody else got an elderly peace lily?

    Kate

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    I have a weeping fig, ficus benjamina which I've had for over 20 years.

    I keep telling OH, " I've had this longer than I've had you, I'd find it harder to find another one than finding another one of you" tee hee.

    Devon.
  • ElusiveElusive Posts: 992

    My oldest houseplant is probably 2-3 years old, an Aloe Vera brought from somewhere I cant remember.

    It lives on the window in the downstairs loo with not a great deal of sunlight.

  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841

    30+ year old Swiss Cheese plant is our longest surviving houseplant. Been hacked down a few times and generally badly neglected as well as moving home about 6 times. Still alive but I wish we had more room for it to really grow well.

  • I have a Stephanotis which I bought from a flower market in May 1993 when buying flowers for my wedding. It has had good times and bad times. I have cut it back hard and taken cuttings which have moved on to friends, but the original plant has survived and in 2013 I noticed a "fruit" had developed and I let it grow. In September this year it exploded producing umpteen seeds. I have now set a dozen and they are starting to come through. It is an amazing plant which must like where it is as it has been flowering all year.

  • happymarionhappymarion Posts: 4,591

    The succulents and cactus plants I brought with me to the bungalow from our cottage fifty years ago are  still extant, either the original or cuttings when the parent got too big  They were already quite old then as I had had them eight years and got them from an old lady next door who was going into a home.  She was 84 then and said she had had them many years.

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