As you pack away the holiday decorations, consider filling those spaces with some easy care houseplants. You’ll enjoy the added greenery, enhance your indoor decor and boost your mood by including indoor plants in your home.
Whether you have a sunny window, an artificial light set up or low light locations, you’ll find a variety of beautiful plants to include. Look for those that complement your interior design. Make sure plants will thrive and looks their best in the available light. Check the plant tag for light, water and other growing requirements to help insure success. Here are a few trends and plant varieties to help you get started.
Large Floor & Decorative Plants
Use larger plants as focal points to dress up bare walls or to add a bit of tropical beauty to your home. Set them on a wheeled plant caddy to make moving them out of the way for cleaning and gatherings easier.
Shade:
The unique Raven ZZ plant thrives in low to bright light with electric lime-green leaves that mature to purple-black.
Bright Indirect Light:
• Fiddle-leaf with large leaves and Moclame figs with round foliage. • The Schefflera Amate or Umbrella Tree has a lush rounded shape that adds a tropical flair. • Dracaena ‘Lemon Lime’, ‘Gold Star’ and ‘Song of India’ adds a boost color to indoor gardens. • Palm Robellini has airy foliage and attractive bark.
Use smaller specimens of these plants as accents… place on a side table, plant stand or on the floor with larger plants. Plant them in a decorative pots to complete the display. Always protect floors and furniture from water damage with vinyl, cork or other protective mats.
Vines and Hanging Baskets
Create an indoor jungle with vines grown in hanging baskets, set upon a pedestal or trained up a support. Use them as a groundcover in larger containers or train them to frame windows and mirrors. Regular trimming helps to keep plants full and attractive.
Shade:
• Philodendron, a traditional favorite, and now you can grow newer, more colorful varieties. • Tradescantias: Try ribbon plant, purple heart or inch plant for added color. • Spider Plants tolerate low to bright, indirect light. The dangling plantlets held on long thin stems create a shower of greenery.
Sun:
• Hoya (wax plant), once pot bound will produce fragrant flowers. • String of Dolphins has unique foliage that looks like flying dolphins.
Colorful Flowers and/or Foliage
Include plants with colorful variegated leaves or seasonal flowers to brighten your indoor decor. You can extend the floral display on most flowering indoor plants by placing them in bright, indirect light when in bloom.
Shade:
• Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema) tolerates low light but foliage is more colorful in bright, indirect light. • Air plant can be displayed in many ways… shell, vase or hung on a wall. • Anthurium long-blooming flowers are available in red, pink, white or lavender.
Bright Indirect Light:
• Bromeliads’ softer leaves are more tolerant of lower light. • African Violets need bright light but are scorched by too much direct sunlight. • Moth Orchids (Phalaenopsis) bloom longer in bright, indirect light. • Cyclamen, when actively growing, prefer bright indirect light but when dormant, move them to a cool dark location. • Kalanchoes are flowering succulents that prefer bright, indirect light. Remove faded flowers for second flush of blooms.
Sun:
• Azaleas thrive in direct morning sun or bright all day. • Christmas Cacti bloom with 14 hours of uninterrupted dark and cool conditions. • Snake Plants prefer bright light but will tolerate low light conditions. • Aloe plants, including the ‘burn plant,’ are easy care plants found in many interesting shapes. • Echeveria’s rosette of leaves ‘bloom’ in a variety of colors.
Cacti & Succulents
No surprise these sun-loving, easy-care plants continue to be popular. Combine several in a dish garden or open terrarium. Create a centerpiece for your table or piece of living art with a vertical planter mounted to the wall.
Sun:
• Sempervivum come in a variety of foliage colors and shapes. • Christmas Cacti bloom because of 14 hours of uninterrupted dark and cool conditions. • Snake Plant prefers bright light but will tolerate low light conditions. • Aloe, the ‘burn plant,’ offers many interesting shapes in an easy-care plant. • Echeveria’s rosette of leaves grow and bloom in a variety of colors.
Ferns
These moisture and humidity lovers are perfect plants for the bathroom or kitchen as long as the light is right. It’s best to group them with other plants or set them on a gravel tray to boost the humidity right around these plants.
Shade:
• Blue Star fern has strappy, finger-like leaves. • Button fern is an easy fern to grow with round leaflets (pinnae) on each stem. • Brake fern has green or variegated leaves… often used as a tabletop plant or in a hanging basket. • Maidenhair is a fast growing fern with lacy, fan-shaped leaves… delicate in appearance.
Bright Indirect Light:
• Bird’s Nest fern thrives in medium to bright indirect light, but can tolerate low indirect light. • Boston ferns were very popular during Victorian times… avoid dry soil to prevent leaf drop. • Florida Ruffle Boston fern: has frilly foliage that provides added texture.
Topiaries
Plants are pruned into a unique shape or trained onto a wire frame. Proper care and a bit of pruning and training will help you to maintain the desired shape.
Bright Indirect Light:
• Angel Vine has small leaves on wiry stems…also tolerates sunny spots. • Euonymous ‘ball’ topiary is a bushy, evergreen shrub that prefers low to bright, indirect light.
Sun:
• ‘Goodwin Creek’ Lavender sports silvery-gray, fragrant foliage and bright blue-purple flowers. • The rosemary herb is edible with attractive and fragrant green foliage. • A Santolina (Lavender Cotton) topiary adds a splash of silvery-green to winter interiors.
Written by Melinda Myers. Melinda is a nationally recognized gardening expert with more than 30 years of horticulture experience. She is a wealth of knowledge and we are pleased to share Melinda’s Beginners Guide with you!
