'Lydia' Tulips in full bloom with 'Blue Jacket' Hyacinth
The numbers are in, the plants counted, the numbers crunched, the results analyzed from The Great Houseplant Census of 2010. I wish to emphasize that this is all very unscientific, and I have rounded numbers, so this is just a general idea. Also, I relied on the honor system; I didn't go to anyone's house and count up the plants. I had to exclude the data from Mr. Subjunctive at Plants Are the Strangest People (no offense meant), because his count of 800 would have seriously skewed the results. I'm sorry, Mr. Subjunctive, but your plant collection is an aberration. (And I mean that in the best possible way.)
And now, drumroll please, the results:
The average number of houseplants is 34. The median number is 79, and the mode is as follows:
And now for the really interesting data: for 4th place 7 people reported having over 90 plants. The rest fall somewhere in between. I guess that means once people have more than 30 plants, they just keep getting more and more. So for all of you with between 30 and 90 plants, quit trying to fight it and just go out and buy some more now and get it over with.
- 13 people had fewer than 5 plants
- 12 people had between 11 and 19 plants
- 9 people had between 20 and 30 plants
Aside from Mr. Subjunctive, the gardener with most plants is, not surprisingly, Kylee of Our Little Acre with 157. I wish I had a prize to send you, but having that many houseplants is its own reward. Second place goes to the late entry of Christine Guth, who has 142. A surprising third goes to someone who claims not be a houseplant person, Kim from A Study in Contrasts, with only 30 less than Kylee. What else do Kim and Kylee have in common? They both garden in Ohio. The data indicates that gardeners in the North tend to have more houseplants than those in the South. Bucking that trend is Annie in Austin with over 40 plants, including one of the oldest, a 36 year old Jade plant. The oldest plant award (if there were one) would go to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for her 38 year old passalong night-blooming cereus.
So what does this mean for me, with my fewer than average number of houseplants? All I can say is that when I told VIS (Very Indulgent Spouse) the average number, he just said "That's a lot of plants."
Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope you all had as much fun as I did.
28 comments:
Where ever does Kylee keep those plants! Right now a 6 foot bay leaf tree is living in the guest bathtub! Poor guests. This was a very delightful meme MMD and I hope to get in on it next time~gail
Ah, but see... Annie is an Austin transplant! She brought that love of houseplants WITH her from Illinois. :)
(And yes, I still maintain that I am NOT a houseplant person. In spite of data to the contrary!)
This was lots of fun , enjoyed playing along.
It was fun counting up the flora inside ... I'll look forward to next year's census!
I love this poll! Great idea. Wow, that's a high average number of house plants. I just counted 17 in my house. These people are fanatics!
Shirley Bovshow
Garden World Report Show
I thought it was great fun hearing about everyones indoor collection of plants. Thanks for fighting that crunchy numbers for us.
What an interesting poll! I didn't take part because I really don't have plants in the house, unless you're counting a hyacinth in vase that is past its prime and a rooted cutting of porterweed in water that needs to go out in a pot of soil, soonest. None of the plants in the greenhouse are intended as houseplants; they're just rooting or resting and waiting for spring so they can go outside. The only one I would have called a real houseplant is the Christmas Cactus, but it never comes in the house, summering outside in the shade.
I loved watching the counts and seeing what people grow inside their houses and how they arrange them. Fun meme, thanks.
Hi MMD, It's crazy, but I wonder if there's a way to see if the length of Winter weather has anything to do with the number of indoor plants rising in households? I just brought home a couple of more plants... and had to wrest my car's steering wheel AWAY from a florist shop today! ;-) This was fun, MMD. Thanks!
WV: caring
I'm comfortable being below average...I'm from the south, afterall. And I mean that in the best possible way. H.
I feel like I need more houseplants now, a lot more. Or is that this long winter making me say that? Regardless... thanks for the link love for me and my old night bloomer!
This was fun! I feel like I should get some more plants to be "average." :)
I'm glad that VIS finally gets it.
Oh my goodness, over a 100 plants in the house. Sounds like jungle living to me! My cats would be in heaven nibbling on everything, lol. It makes sense that northern dwellers would have more houseplants with such long cold winters. I only have a few which stay inside year round. Now I am keeping the porch plants inside for winter but once spring arrives, they go outside so I don’t consider them houseplants as they stay outside longer then inside…
Shirley, is obsession a bad thing, where plants are concerned? The air in our house is so pure!! ;-)
Thanks for the fun stats, MMD.
Oh, and this thing with Kim and me - I used to have more and Kim used to have less. I'm helping her out by giving her some of mine, one by one. Which one would you like this year, Kim? LOL
I'm not surprised that people up North have more houseplants...I suppose it's because their gardening season is not as long as ours. This was fun and interesting..
What fun! Now I can officially tell people I have an above-average number of houseplants! I should feel inspired to acquire more after reading all those great stories and descriptions, but impending spring makes my interest in houseplants wane a bit as interest in the garden waxes. Of course, the vendors at the Garden Show will be conspiring to boost my total...
I'm a piker with only about 10 houseplants and my excuse is space. How do those major houseplanters manage and house so many plants.
Your census made me count them, MMD - thank you for making us all face up to reality. After all, I have a spreadsheet for plants outside...why didn't I ever think to enumerate the insiders?
Blackswamp Kim may be right about me coming down here with a love of houseplants. My Texan friends don't seem as sentimental about them - for many people they're considered indoor decor rather than cherished pets ;-]
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
So, my number doesn't count because including it would have made the mean average bigger than you thought it ought to be? I think I actually am maybe a little offended.
Incidentally, by your (fairly broad) definition, of any plant, indoors, that's alive, I had 1063 on the day in question -- I don't normally count the plants in the aquarium or terrarium, cuttings that are being rooted, seedlings which may or may not make it, and that sort of thing. So it's actually worse than it sounded.
Also, I prefer the term "outlier," rather than "aberration." The definitions for "aberration" include things like:
-wandering from moral rectitude,
-partial alienation of reason,
-deviation from a state regarded as normal, and
-mental disorder, especially of a minor or temporary character.
All of which could be true, of course, but let [s/]he among you who is without a plant obsession cast the first stone, yo.
Gosh, Had I only known, I could have thrown mine into the lot. But I've been blinkered recently by schoolwork.
Looking around, if you count cuttings and three pots that my house-plant loving sister gifted me with, I'm amazed to find that I have 8! Really, eight is not a true reflection of Helen the Houseplant Killer. Only two have been with me long enough to count; both nearly indestructible. (I didn't include four pots of crispied herbs I have "drying" in the living room.)
Well, this just proves I am below average:)
Hi...This was lots of fun...thanks for making me aware of the # of plants that I baby sit for.
Balisha
Shirley - 17 is a lot of indoor plants for a Californian.
NellJean - the only reason I have indoor plants is because they spend the summer outdoors.
Diane - your plant room is inspiring. I say, go for it.
CW - it's not the space that impresses me, it's the management. I have trouble keeping a dozen alive.
Annie - you can take the gardener out of Lombard, exciting Lombard, but you can't take Lombard out of the gardener.
Mr. Subjunctive - I'm sorry you feel that I disregarded your data. It's not a personal slight, but a standard practice of statistics to exclude a single anomalous datum (or at least it was when I took the class back in the days when students wrote term papers on typewriters). I guess "aberration" wasn't the best word choice, I should have used "anomaly" (that sounds so Star Trek). I can't begin to express the awe I feel in contemplating your number of plants, it just blows me away. I'm a notorious houseplant killer. In fact, I lost two plants since I started the survey.
Helen - we're kindred spirits in involuntary plantslaughter.
I always thought my mother, with about 30-40 plants at any one time, was a little over-the-top. Now I know she's just about 'normal'!! She'll be glad to know that ;-)
Yo, Mr. Subjective, I would feel honored to be such an outlier! What are the chances we can see photos?? H.
This was fun to read. I think I'll restrain myself from getting more plants than my 50, though. I'm ready for summer to get here so I can get most of them out of the house.
MMD:
I probably lost at least two plants since the survey too. I just propagate and buy new ones fast enough to cover it up.
Helen @ Gardening With Confidence:
It's possible, though we still aren't all the way moved into the new house (after nine months), and it's chaotic, so I may have to convince the husband to let me post them.
Since I fell slightly below the magic number of 90 houseplants, I'm quite pleased to have official permission to get more. I see a trip to Logee's in my future! Nevermind that I think I missed a few at first count... If I can't remember that they exist, maybe they really don't.
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