These crazy plants!

When I started my job at the college just over 7 years ago, there were 4 little plants in the window sill in the office. They were tropicals and they were all about 5 or 6 inches tall. They all looked terrible. They were in tiny little pots and they were all dried out and sad. My co-worker at the time asked me if I was good with plants. She was happy when I said yes, because she didn't want to deal with them anymore.

I re-potted them all into bigger pots, and pulled all of the dead stuff off. They were happy to have some water. Since they were tropicals, they didn't need to be watered very often so I watered them every 2-3 weeks.

They looked much better in a few months and everyone was happy.

When we moved to a new building in May of 2011, I took the plants home for the summer. They were all about a foot tall by then and I intended to take them back to work when we settled into our new building.
Well, our new building only has one small window and it's covered with window tinting.

I kept the plants at my house since there was no place for them at the new building. I have had these 4 plants at my house for 2 and a half years now, and they are growing like crazy! They LOVE the screened porch, and all 4 plants have lived out there for the last 2 years from March to October.


This one is over 2 feet tall now. It turned into a gorgeous plant.
It has grown tall so quickly, I have to use dowel things to hold it up

This one is also over 2 feet tall. This one is my favorite:

This one needs more support and a bigger pot:

Then there is this one. It won't stop growing. It's over 4 feet tall now. It comes up to my neck. 

It is so tall it can't hold itself up straight, so it has help from a dowel thingie too. 

 I have re-planted them all 3-4 times now in the last 7+ years, and they all need bigger pots again this winter.

I love these plants, but my biggest problem is that I don't have anywhere in the house to put them in the winter time. They are so big now! We don't have that many windows in our house to begin with. There is really only one window where there is a place to put plants, and it's in the kitchen. I honestly do not have room in my kitchen for a 4 foot tall palm tree - or whatever it is.

Our living room is way too dark for plants, especially tropicals. We only get sun in the living room window for a few hours in the afternoon.

They are beautiful, and I love having them around. It's been pretty cool to watch them grow so big. I have never had any plant stay alive for this long before.
But now for the 3rd year in a row, I am wondering what in the heck I'm going to do with these plants all winter long.

I put 3 of them in the kitchen for now, but they will probably be moved again because they are just too big and they crowd the kitchen.
Speaking of our kitchen, I have a kitchen update coming soon!