Pretty apartment plants that also smell pretty?

Remember when I talked before about houseplants?

I am still obsessing over them.

For our wedding, I took apart all my aloe plants and babies and repotted each in its own container. We gave them to our guests to take home as gifts, and I was happy to see them going to good homes. The events director at the place we got married was skeptical, btw. He said that he liked the idea but that usually no one takes them and that he would collect them for us at the end of the night so we could bring the leftovers home.

(Here they are, all lined up to go)


In his face, though! Bam. My friends (even the ones who were taking planes home!) took all the plants :)
One was left at brunch, probably by accident, but none were unwanted.

Anyway, now I just have the big mama aloe plant and that one forgotten baby. And I am used to having so many more!

We live close to the Union Square farmer's market, and I love walking through there and looking at all the plants. It is hard not to come home with any.
So far I've bought a mint, a rosemary, and a string of pearls (so cute).
I am glad to finally have my string of pearls plant, I've been wanting one for too long. I hope it grows quickly and makes tons of new strands!

Here is what a grown up one looks like:

Mine is still a little baby and its strings aren't hanging over the edges of the small pot I bought it in yet.
It looks more like this:


I still have my fuzzy purple friend Gynura Aurantiaca, called purple passion or purple velvet.
That looks like this:


or at least it used to. Now it looks much more vine-like and stringy and woody. It still has fuzzy purple leaves, but they are few and far between.
I was just reading about them and it is because they need to be cut way back in the winter and the cuttings can be replanted as new vines.
I cut the longest vine just above where a leaf was, and shoved the cut end of the loose part back into the soil. I am hoping it propagates like that and I don't have to do anything else for it. I have tried that once before with this plant and it worked. I guess I just have to be more aggressive about cutting and re-rooting it.

I also have a christmas cactus and a snake plant and a zz plant.
But I want moooooooorrrrrre.

Especially now that I have a balcony!
I am looking for fragrant plants that can make my apartment smell pretty. And flowers! I don't have anything that regularly makes flowers (I guess except the xmas cactus).

A lavender plant would be nice:

$8.95 Lavender 4"
Very fragrant with silvery purple flowers


$14.95 Chinese perfume plant (Aglaia odorata)
This plant has little yellow flowers that bloom on and off all year and are supposed to smell great. I am not sure how it would be indoors- it is meant to be in a very warm Florida-like places, but maybe in a very sunny window it could work. Also it grows to 3-4 feet tall so that might be a very tall house plant soon!



$14.95 Collection of Maypop Passionfruit plants
You get a 2.5" pot of the rare white ones and a 4" pot of the purple one. They produce fragrant flowers and fruit and the purple one can withstand colder temperatures. I might want to buy a more mature one that I know I won't kill as easily.


$18.95 Corkscrew flower (vigna caracalla)
I've never seen this before! Isn't it cool?
It is a climbing vine and the flowers bloom late summer to early fall, perfect right now, and are supposed to smell good and look like snails.


$10.95 Cinnamon scented wax plant (hoya lacunosa)
This plant grows in a hanging basket and releases scent at night. Wouldn't it be nice to come home to a cinnamonny house? The site says it is an easy grower and likes to be neglected, so it might be perfect for my friend Alex who is great at neglecting plants.


$12.95 Willow-leaf Acacia (acacia retinodes)
This acacia grows up to 8 feet tall in a container and when it hits 4 feet tall, it starts flowering these yellow fragrant puffballs. Cute!


$18.95 Night blooming Mark Twain cereus (epiphyllum oxypetalum)
These plants have large flowers that bloom after the sun sets.
The species was found at Mark Twain's house in Hartford, CT.


$39.95 Candy Stripe Plumeria (plumeria rubra)
So pretty! They look like they are painted. These would die outside in NYC but maybe I could keep them alive by bringing them inside in the winter?


$8.95 Winter Jasmine
Speaking of winter, this one blooms in fall and winter which sounds great to me! That is just when you need flowers the most. It likes to live in containers or baskets in sunny cool windows (so not on your radiator).

(Lavandula x intermedia)

This is the famed azure blossomed lavender developed in the perfume fields of southern France and cherished for its intense scent and floriferous grayish-silver spikes.

Hardy to Zone 5 and higher for outdoors.

Full sun, grows to 12-20" in container, minimum temperature indoors 35°, blooms in spring.

Fragrant! - See more at: http://www.logees.com/Lavender-Provence/productinfo/H8063%2D4/#sthash.zC9rYwZp.dpuf

This is the famed azure blossomed lavender developed in the perfume fields of southern France and cherished for its intense scent and floriferous grayish-silver spikes.

Hardy to Zone 5 and higher for outdoors.

Full sun, grows to 12-20" in container, minimum temperature indoors 35°, blooms in spring.

Fragrant! - See more at: http://www.logees.com/Lavender-Provence/productinfo/H8063%2D4/#sthash.zC9rYwZp.dpuf

This is the famed azure blossomed lavender developed in the perfume fields of southern France and cherished for its intense scent and floriferous grayish-silver spikes.

Hardy to Zone 5 and higher for outdoors.

Full sun, grows to 12-20" in container, minimum temperature indoors 35°, blooms in spring.

Fragrant! - See more at: http://www.logees.com/Lavender-Provence/productinfo/H8063%2D4/#sthash.zC9rYwZp.dpuf"