Bringing the Outdoors In
As the winter months prepare to descend upon the Northern Hemisphere, I go through an unusual but predictable phase. I want to plant.
Yes, I know fall and winter are not your normal planting times. In fact, the fall months are often filled with harvest celebrations, but when the cool, rustling winds of autumn fill the air, I get the sudden and extreme urge to plant, re-pot and grow greenery until my heart is filled with rapture.
Perhaps it is knowing that soon the winter cold will trap me inside. Perhaps it is the strange yet beautiful red, yellow and orange coloring all around me. Whatever it is, during the fall that I once again embark upon my yearly quest for the best of the best houseplants.
Whether you have a "green thumb" or not, you have to admit any room that contains plants seems to feel slightly more comfortable and welcoming. A well placed and cared for houseplant can liven up any dead spot in a room; it can lend an air of sophistication and give you something green to focus on as the long winter months pass.
This month, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite tried-and-true houseplants that anyone can grow. While I can't guarantee your success with a plant, if you have the desire and a little bit of extra time, I'm sure something in the list below will work for you--wherever you live.
One of my top picks for gifts to friends is a plant commonly called the spider plant. The spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is one of the most common houseplants. Often recognized as a hanging plant, the spider plant has long, grassy leaves that are either solid green or striped yellow-and-white. Long, tuberous stems will often hang down from a healthy plant, and if the small plantlets that grow along the stems find dirt, they will generally take root and create a new plant base.
Caring for spider plants is relatively easy. They love bright, indirect light. They can tolerate some direct light, but if they're left in the midday sun too long the leaves will burn and turn brown. To prevent this I find hanging a spider plant at least 18 inches in from any window will suffice.
For those of us who can be forgetful, spider plants are a good choice because they like to dry out slightly between waterings. If you can mark a calendar to water once weekly, you should be able to keep your plant happily moist without over-watering or drying it out completely.
Spider plants do well with general purpose potting soil and a great thing about them is they do not mind being root-bound, so you needn't rush out and buy bigger pots and more soil when you notice roots filling your pot. As long as the pot doesn't crack from the root ball, it should be fine.
For those of us who are on limited budgets, a spider plant can help us add more plants to our homes since they're one of the fastest and easiest to propagate. Once you see small plantlets forming on the hanging stems, simply cut them off, place them in a glass of water and allow the new plant to form roots. Within a few weeks you will have another happy and healthy spider plant to pot and hang anywhere in your home.
For those of us who dwell in apartments, I offer you an extremely hardy low-light plant known as Aglaonema. Aglaonemas, commonly called Chinese evergreens, have dark green, oval-shaped leaves with slightly jagged edges. Some Chinese evergreens have completely green leaves, but there are also variegated varieties which have silver-and-green or stunning gold-and-green leaves.
Chinese evergreens can be grown in a full range of lighting situations, from the brightest of light to the darkest. The more light they get, the greater variety of color the dark green leaves will have. But if you live in a low-light space, this plant is for you.
Chinese evergreens love it warm, and exposure to sudden drafts or temperature changes can cause them to look "weepy." A long time in cold--or even too-warm--temperatures can cause this plant to start losing its thick, stunning foliage, so try keeping it away from doors or drafty windows.
Watering and soil care for the Chinese evergreen is simple. A nice general potting soil will do it fine. These plants do not like sitting in standing water, nor do they react well to being soggy, so a once-a-week watering schedule should keep it lush and happy.
Chinese evergreens also have a trait that I simply adore--they can be grown in a container with any number of other plant species. For a little fun, try planting this great plant in with a few colorful species and, voilà--you have instant, indoor container gardening at its finest. Chinese evergreens are hardy, adaptable and every apartment-dweller's dream. I highly recommend them.
For those of you who might be looking for a vine to trail sophisticatedly along bookcases, window frames and any other pieces of furniture or shelving, I recommend the hardy, dark-green, low-light species known as Pothos.
The Pothos plant, commonly called Devil's Ivy, is extremely hardy and can be grown by even the brownest of thumbs. If you've ever been given a clipping of a plant in a glass and it had a long stem with heart-shaped leaves was already growing roots, then you've seen how tough this plant can be. This is the plant that I will pinch off an end from and hand to a friend who says, "I wish I could have your green thumb".
The Pothos is also one of the most versatile climbing plants I know. It has a long vining stem that can easily grow anywhere from six to ten feet. The Pothos can be trained to climb a vertical stake in a pot, creating a stunning, upwardly-mobile splash of foliage. In a hanging basket the vines can be left to dangle softly or hanged up along anything that they can rest upon.
The dark green variety of the Pothos plant can be grown in low light. For the variegated gold-and-green leaves or white-and-green leaves, you can simply use any artificial lighting in your home.
With just a common potting soil, your Pothos plant will happily live in any pot, in any place. Watering it is simple: when you feel the surface soil is dry, add water. I've actually seen people leave their homes for a month and watering their Pothos only upon return, and within days their once droopy, wilting plant came back with a vengeance!
If you are leery of house plants but want to give one a try, this extremely hard to kill plant may be the one for you. If its vines grow too long for your liking, simply pinch them off, set them in water until they root and then pot the rooted clipping. You'll have tons of foliage around your home in no time and you'll love the simplistic and hardy nature of your Pothos plant.
The last easy-care house plant I want to share with you is one I'm sure many of you will recognize: the Peace Lily.
The peace lily (Spathiphyllum) is classically recognized by its striking dark-green, elongated-oval leaves and its stunning white flower. If you want a plant that will match any decor at all, then this beauty is the one for you. "Versatility" should be the peace lily's middle name. It is easily grown in a dimly-lit room, and even a novice gardener stands a good chance of seeing the long, gorgeous white flowers this plant produces in the spring.
Not only does the peace lily require little to low light, it is one of the least time-consuming plants I know. It requires little water, so if you should forget your watering schedule, it will gently remind you by showing a wilting effect. Within hours of receiving water it springs back to its rich, full look.
The only downside to the peace lily is that it must be kept in a room that is at least 65 degrees fahrenheit or warmer. The more humidity in the room, the more blooms you are likely to see in spring.
Again, this plant is a self-propagating plant. If you find your peace lily getting too large you can easily take it out of the pot, cut the root ball in two and re-pot both halves. Within weeks you will have two intensely beautiful plants where once there was only one.
If you want to have a lot of fun with this plant and you want an easy-to-care-for pet, why don't you try one of my favorite housewarming ideas?
What you will need is a peace lily with its root ball washed clean of all dirt and a clear glass vase with a neck thinner than the lower portion. With a few accent rocks, shells or glass beads and a Japanese Beta Fish, you can create a stunning combination of plant and pet décor.
After cleaning the dirt from the root system of the peace lily, you should clean and rinse the vase carefully. If you'd like to accent a predominant color in your room decor, you can often find glass beads, rocks or shells to place in the bottom of your vase. With that done, you will need to fill the vase with enough water so that it doesn't quite reach the neck portion of the vase. Now it is time to carefully introduce your Japanese Beta Fish into the vase.
Please remember that a Japanese Beta Fish is a carnivorous marine animal and as such it will require a slight bit of Beta food from your local pet store. I find that feeding the fish before introducing the roots of the peace lily into the vase works well.
Once your fish is happily swimming away in its new home, it is time to trim the root system of peace lily and carefully lower the root system into the vase.
PLEASE make sure that you leave enough room from the water line to the root system so that your fish can breath. Beta Fish are air breathers and need to surface in order to take in oxygen. A one- to two-inch gap between the water level and the thickest portion of the Peace Lily Root system will suffice. It will also leave you room to add more water and Beta Fish food.
Once you've added your peace lily to the vase and cleaned up around your workspace, you can easily add yet another touch of your room's color scheme by tying a ribbon around the vase neck. Set the entire fish and plant vase on a sturdy table, shelf or other spot in your home and you have both a pet and a beautiful plant all in one.
For creating a peace-lily-and-Beta-Fish vase I've found that Michael's Arts and Crafts store has a great vase kit. In it you will find the rocks or glass beads, the glass vase as well as a clear plastic lid that slides down into the neck of the vase. Cut a hole in the lid, slide the root system through it, and then lower the entire thing into your vase and the lid acts as a stabilizer for your plant.
Whether or not you enjoy the fall and winter months here in the Northern Hemisphere, you can always bring a little bit of the outdoors in by introducing hardy, sturdy and easy maintenance houseplants into your home. Don't be afraid to try a plant and move it about until you find the perfect spot for it. Don't think that you'll have to spend hours and tons of money to have luscious greenery decorating your rooms. I think if you try some of the species I've recommended, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the ease and beauty they each have to offer.
One last thing--all of the plants recommended above can be found not only at your local nurseries and florists, but also often at your local discount department stores and grocery-store floral department. I often find my best plants at the local home improvement center, and on sale to boot!