Last spring I cut the heel off of a bunch of celery and tossed it into the worm composting bucket. Since this was occasionally mixed, it turned up several weeks later starting to grow roots and shoots. I planted it in a pot and it has grown nicely as a houseplant. Small stems, but still rather attractive. Size is about 18" high by 18" in diameter. This is pretty well the only houseplant I haven't managed to kill through either too much or too little attention. It is still growing nicely so I am curious as to how long it will live.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 02, 2001

Answers

Ken,

I've grown celery several times as an indoor over-winter house plant. It can be planted the following year in the garden. Celery is tough. I once tossed a celery plant in a bucket of water in an unheated garage and it survived a cold winter there, even with very little light.

-- Bruce (rural@inebraska.com), October 02, 2001.

Ken Very interesting. Was this a garden grown or a store brought celery stock? "lenny"

-- darlene leonhart (dleonhart@sprynet.com), October 02, 2001.

Store-bought. From California, Florida, Latin America, South America, who knows these days?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), October 02, 2001.

I've grown carrots as houseplants in the past. They make nice "fern-like" plants. Never tried celery!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), October 02, 2001.

Dear Ken, I bet you could pick the leaves off for seasoning. I will not throw out my next celery root. By the way you can take sweet potatoes and plant about 3 small ones in a hanging pot and you will get a pretty thick vine, that last till frost.Mine draped 6 or more feet. Love Irene

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), October 02, 2001.

Fun for kids -- place celery root in dish of water and after it gets a few inches tall, put some food color in the water and watch it change color.

-- Nancy (NAWoodward@lakewebs.net), October 02, 2001.

Celery is a bieannual so it will grow for 2 years.then produce seed.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), October 02, 2001.

We had our first freeze this week. The only thing in my garden to survive was the celery. I've dug up the celery plants and have been distributing them to my neighbors. The celery can be planted and harvested all winter long. Stalks can just be pulled from the plant as needed. Then they can be returned to the garden in the spring. Have fun Lian

-- Lian (lianmowry@hotmail.com), October 06, 2001.