Indoor plants

I need to start this blog with a confession: until I retired, I was absolutely rubbish as an indoor plant mom, either over-watering, forgetting to water at all, or trying to grow things in the darkest corner of my place. My one memorable exception was a spider plant (in my family fondly known as a "hen-and-chicks") which I abandoned in my flat for four weeks while I was on holiday. I came back to a very limp and sad plant, but after a couple of days of excessive water and loving care, it shot back to top form.

I still am no expert, but gradually I have been developing skills and routines to improve my success rate, starting with succulents which are very resilient, providing they are not over-watered. Mine sit on a sunny window sill, so they get plenty of light, and if they get a spot too much water, it evaporates off quite quickly.

My miniature succulent collection.

My interest in indoor plants straddles two of my lifelong interests, the one being interior design and the other being indoor air quality - the "health" of our buildings that we live, work and interact in. Plants have been proven to improve the level of oxygen in the atmosphere at all scales from a room to a rainforest - the plants suck up the carbon dioxide we produce through breathing and our industries, use the carbon to build roots, stems and leaves, and breathe pure oxygen back into the air. Recent studies have shown that many of the most popular indoor plants also remove a broad range of pollutants, making them a great asset in an urban environment such as mine on a busy street.

My newest acquisition - a ficus benjamina - removes pollutants from my bedroom

But what really spurred me to keep trying with indoor plants is their role in interior design, especially important if your taste tends to the more minimalist side of the spectrum. The organic shapes and natural colours complement the more geometric lines of the architecture and most furniture. A plant will tend to be a focal point for anybody coming into a space for the first time - plants, images of people and text have all three been used since antiquity and in many cultures as a way of focusing the attention - it must be a very ingrained instinct.

A fiddle leaf forms a dramatic accent in an open-plan space

The principles for using indoor plants as a component of an interior design are the same as for any other element - balance, harmony, rhythm, etc. - but with the added consideration of the physical needs of the plant, especially light and direct sun. A good plant nursery will be able to give you great advice on this, whether you have a particular species in mind and want to understand its needs, or whether you have a preferred location in a space and want to know your options. Think about how tall it will eventually grow, the leaf size, how wide it will become, and whether it has flowers. You may also want to know how much house cleaning will come with it - some notoriously shed leaves all year round, a nightmare in a room with a deep pile carpet!

A sword fern moved closer to a light source but out of direct sun

My sword fern in the photo was languishing in a dark corner of my living room, and since moving it, two new shoots have appeared within a week. 

Another opportunity when considering indoor plants as a way of elevating your space, is the container. Most plants arrive from the nursery or shop in a functional plastic container (as you can see with my ficus shown above. I have set it on an unmatched saucer so that I can monitor the amount of water and not fall into my pre-retirement ways! The options for "potting" your plant are huge, from a very utilitarian and modest unglazed clay pot, through to some quite impressive ceramic pieces. You could even use a basket to surround the plastic container if you don't want to pot the plant out, or in fact many other objects that can be up-cycled for this function, such as an old teapot.

This moneyplant in its basket is a symphony of green

The magic of plants is that their natural colours will tend to work in any colour scheme, although you can have some fun with interesting leaf colours or flowers that, for a season, will tie in with other accent colours in a room. By contrast, the containers are an integral part of the interior design. As these can be quite expensive, especially the bigger ceramic pots, it is worth thinking carefully before you commit - how does the shape, size and colour work with the rest of the space? How big will the plant grow, and will it need to be re-potted into a larger container soon? If this is the case, you may plan for a much longer timeline, where the plants move to new locations as they grow, and their old space is taken up with a new tenant.

My first two orchid flowers

The advantages of plants are undisputed - beauty, air quality, a sense of harmony and a focal point that adapts with the seasons, whether with new leaf tips in spring, a blaze of colour in summer, or autumn leaf tints.