I’m feeling so grateful today. I’m grateful to the special people and plants that I share my life with. I relish sharing information about stunning houseplants that are easy to grow and will happily bloom through the autumn and winter months. This is when the nights are longer, the days are shorter, and we spend more time indoors – when flowering houseplants can brighten up our days and evenings!
Houseplants are almost magical; they can make a dull room look and feel inviting and transform a dreary room into a luxurious and relaxing space. In this article, I’ll reveal some of the secrets that will ensure your houseplants retain their magic!
First of all, always grow houseplants in containers with holes at their base that allow water to run through the pot and enable air to reach the plant’s roots.
I adore orchids and houseplants. I get so much enjoyment from being surrounded by foliage and flowers and I simply love growing orchids and houseplants. Since Brexit, the range of orchid nurseries open to UK customers has dramatically reduced. Thankfully, we still have a number of UK nurseries who are growing orchids in Britain. Love Orchids are a small family-run, British company, based in Southern England.
I hold two National Collections of orchids – a National Collection of Miniature Aerangis and Angraecum Species and a National Collection of Miniature Phalaenopsis Species. I set up these collections to raise awareness of the dangers that these miniature orchid species (and other plants) are facing in the wild and to help conserve these fascinating plants.
Do you have enough houseplants? I don’t know about you, but I’m always willing to make room for more indoor plants. If you’re considering purchasing a new houseplant and you’re keen to make a lasting purchase, hoping for the long-term, leafy love affair we all dream of, then I have some fabulous ideas for you…
Ceropegia linearis subsp. woodii is also known as String of Hearts or Hearts Entangled.
Happy Thanksgiving! If you’re celebrating today, I wish you a joyful and uplifting day of celebration. Today, I’m celebrating my Thanksgiving cacti, which are keeping perfect time and flowering for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving cacti (also known by their botanical name, Schlumbergera) are easy to care for, long-lived houseplants that thrive in shaded and semi-shaded conditions. Unlike traditional cacti, which grow in bright and sunny, dry and arid conditions; Thanksgiving cacti flourish in a humid environment, away from bright sunshine.
This is Deinostigma tamiana, a truly marvellous plant that thrives inside terrariums and bottle gardens. Deinostigma tamiana is a Gesneriad species from Vietnam. If you’ve not seen it before, yet Deinostigma tamiana looks somewhat familiar, it’s probably because these plants are related to African violets (Saintpaulias).
Growing Deinostigma tamianaDeinostigma tamiana is an easy going, adaptable plant that’s content growing in a range of terrarium environments.
Four or five years ago, two of my favourite people in the whole world gave me this lovely Thanksgiving Cactus. I love this plant because I associate it with two people that I love very much but also because this cactus is a fun, easy going, and reliable houseplant that flourishes inside my home, in less than bright conditions.
I designed this Orchidarium in 2017; it was constructed in the early spring of 2017. If you’re interested in the materials I’ve used, you can see the step-by-step process of my Orchidarium build here. I thought I’d share some of these pretty orchid blooms with you. These orchids are all in bloom inside my Orchidarium, today.
Spider mites are a serious pest of orchids, indeed they are a pest of a great many other plants too, but with the warm weather we’re experiencing in the UK, today I wanted to remind you about the importance of controlling spider mites on orchids and other indoor plants.
Spider mites thrive in hot, dry conditions.
Sciarid flies are teeny, tiny flies, from the family Sciaridae, they’re also known as fungus gnats, or by their genera’s scientific names of Bradysia or Lycoriella. Although sciarid flies live outdoors, as the flies are so minute in size, you’re unlikely to notice these insignificant little flies outside.
This year, I’ve enjoyed getting to know a couple of new Phalaenopsis hybrids. These plants were grown in the UK by Double H Nurseries, they’re part of the nurseries’ new range of Phalaenopsis plants, which have all been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
The Award of Garden Merit was set up by the Royal Horticultural Society, to help gardeners find plants that will perform well in regular growing conditions, without any specialist care or attention.
I love looking at this orchid; I so admire Angraecum distichum‘s shape and form, this plant’s simple, leafy stems are a thing of beauty. I love to see young and old Angraecum distichum specimens; whatever the plant’s size, I find Angraecum distichum utterly mesmerising!
Angraecum distichum is a miniature to small sized epiphytic orchid species. Angraecum distichum plants can be found growing upon a range of tall trees in a variety of different environments including: rainforests, humid forests, deciduous forests, and plantations.
I love terrariums and bottle gardens! I so enjoy designing tiny plant worlds and creating miniature gardens. This is the ideal time to build a terrarium or bottle garden, these Lilliputian microcosms are fun to make! Terrariums will enhance your home and provide the perfect gardening therapy through the autumn and winter months.
The photograph above shows some of the ingredients that I use to formulate my own compost mixes for terrariums and bottle gardens.
If we hear that an item is rare – be it a jewel, or an item of clothing, or a plant – the very idea that there is limited stock of whatever it is available can send our minds into overdrive; knowing that there is a restricted quantity of the product in question in existence, can fervently increase our desire to own the item – we don’t want to miss out after all!
I just adore creating terrariums, vivariums, and bottle gardens; I’d love to share my love of indoor gardening with you! If you’re looking for some fabulous plants for a bottle garden, terrarium, or vivarium that you’re creating, I hope that my list of gorgeous plants that are perfectly suited to the growing conditions found inside these enclosures, will help you create a beautiful indoor garden.
Since I published my December 2017 Orchidarium Update, a number of readers have had questions about how I gather my data, with many asking why do I collect data, and what equipment do I use? So, here’s an article that I have written especially for you, which I hope will answer all of your questions.
Data is really exciting!It’s easy in life to make assumptions, but assumptions are rarely accurate.
Now that the Christmas decorations have been taken down, if you find yourself wondering how to add a renewed freshness to your home, if you dream of an energising, yet relaxing sanctuary, then you might wish to consider growing some new houseplants and bringing some living greenery to your home.
It’s best to work with the conditions that your home can provide.
