Indoor Plants... Indoor Gardens

Indoor plants have become increasingly popular as decorative assets, particularly in city homes where even outside greenery is scarce. An amazing variety of foliage now blooms in homes...flowering plants, evergreens, shrubs, small trees, even palms and rare species from the Orient and deserts. Most of these flourish all year, so that a feeling of spring is around you even when snow is falling outside.

The decorating possibilities are enormous. A single indoor plant will highlight a coffee table, a fireplace mantel or a piano, and a large collection of foliage and flowering plants will bring a bay window into dramatic focus.

You can spice up your kitchen with an herb garden , or bring early spring to your foyer with a fragrance of flowering bulbs. A tea cart provides a practical place as well as an unusual place for a collection of potted plants.

Create an Indoor Garden

Creating your own indoor plant garden is easy, and a fun hobby, particularly as you can start or add to your collection of living potted plants any time, and in any season you choose. It is important to select living plants, using them effectively to help enhance the beauty inside your home. But it doesn't have to be complicated.

Two basic types of indoor pot plants

Flowering plants that may either flower all at one time or keep flowering over various periods of time. Some of the favorites are azaleas,geraniums, hydrangeas, begonias, daffodils, lilies, roses, tulips, gardenias, chrysanthemums, African violets, poinsettias and hyacinths.

Foliage or green plants, mostly tropical varieties professionally conditioned to grow in almost any climate. Some of the more popular are ferns, philodendrons, jade plants, dracaena, caladiums, Chinese evergreens, bromeliads coleus, and cacti and other succulent plants.

Clay pots are preferred by professional growers and florist, because it is the only container that truly provides plants with the growing conditions of the earth itself. Plants that grow in thin-walled plastic containers do not have this essential advantage. You will find the finest, healthiest looking plants growing in red clay pots, which make them easier to re-pot into larger-sized clay containers as they grow. Note: plants in clay pots plant can be stood in a decorative tub, basket or planter for special effect.

Indoor Plant Selection and Watering

Select indoor plants that have dark green, glossy leaves; flowering plants that have firm healthy stems and well-developed but not yet fully opened buds. Avoid: Brown, yellow, curled or falling blossoms or leaves and drooping stems, all of these are signs that a plant's root structure is not healthy. Ask your garden store or florist to give you watering instructions and follow them carefully.

Plants require different amounts of water. Some plants like it dry. Some like it moist. But few can stand over watering. The porous clay pot, is your best insurance against "drowning" and killing your plants. Your plants needs water if top soil feels dry to the thumb. Use lukewarm water. You should never allow plants to stand in water. It's best to water all your plants at one time, pouring water gently until water runs out of the bottom drainage hole of the clay pot.

Plant Temperatures..Light..Fertilizer

Do not expose indoor plants to temperatures that are too warm or too cold. Keep plants away from heating or cooling units and drafts from doors or windows. Be sure to ask your florist the amount of light that is best for each plant in your collection. Flowering plants tend to like more light, but in varying degrees. Foliage plants tend to do better with less light.

About once a month apply a fertilizer that can be dissolved in water . Don't over-fertilize. A spotlight on your indoor plants will add a dramatic effect. This is also a good supplement for plants that do not get much light, be sure not to get light too close to the plants.