I love this picture. I really love all my plants in morning light, but this is one of my favorites. Most of the pictures I share focus on my Clouds, but in this picture only 1 of the 4 plants has a cloud. I have been making these clouds for a little over 2 years now. I have plenty of clouds, but I do not have them in all my plants. There are a lot of reasons for this and it is not just that I am playing favorites.
Let me start out by saying that ALL my pothos have clouds. The pothos just seem to love being watered this way and the clouds give them a nice support as they grow and I just chop and prop when they get too big. I have clouds in my Philodendrons, Swiss Cheese (Monstera Adansonii), spider plants, begonias, Christmas cactus, pileas, peperomias, calatheas, fittonias, dieffenbachias, tradescantias - OK I have a lot of plants. Maybe one day I can get a full list together of what plants I have clouds in. But today I was going to write about the plants I don't have clouds in.
1) My citrus trees do not have clouds. I love citrus trees. I have 12 potted trees ranging from 3-20 years old that come in and out of my house each year and most of which bear fruit. They are just way too large for my clouds. Lots of people have asked about me making bigger clouds, and that may happen some day, but when I designed these I was limited by the size of my 3D printer. So they really are ideal for plants in 5"-10" pots.
2) African Violets and other plants that only like being bottom watered. There are definitely plants that only like being bottom watered, for me African Violets are the best example of this, although my purple passion plant in the picture is another good example.
3) Cactus, Succulents, Hoya...This is hit or miss. For me all plants have their own thing. I definitely use clouds in my Christmas cactus, and I have used them in succulents and Hoya plants as well. But for the most part my plants of this type just get a thorough soaking when fully dried out and although I can do this with a cloud it is just easier to do it in the sink and then let them drain there.
4) Alocasia, now this one could be user error. I just haven't found the perfect way to care for Alocasia in my house. I keep moving them around, changing how I water, etc. But I say alocasia because the leaves although gorgeous, tend to hinder the watering from the rain cloud. I do have a cloud in 1 alocasia (this is my new plan for trying to make it happy) but every time I water I adjust the leaves to make sure the water is getting to the plant not my table.