JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: When Debs shared the pictures of her
indoor jungle, created when she had to bring outdoor plants inside to avoid the
ice, it reminded me how much I value the sight of greenery and flowers
indoors this time of year.
My mother was gifted at both gardens and houseplants; during the long, snowy upstate NY winters our house was full of blooming geraniums, lush begonias, and tropical spills of philodendrons. I did not inherit this gift. My husband had the green thumb in our family, and he mostly directed his efforts outdoors, where, let’s face it, they were needed. (This Old House is surrounded by almost three acres!)
But when Ross passed away, it was up to me to keep things alive. Surprisingly, I did so. Once I realized it wasn’t necessarily rocket science,as long as I picked the right plants (ie, very hard to kill) I began to expand my collection. I love succulents and stocked them all across my kitchen windowsill. Emulating my mom, I picked up geraniums at the end-of-the-season sales and was pleased to find they did well in my chilly house.
I’m quite happy to cheat. Over the years, I’ve invested in good fakes for sites with bad lighting or too much pet activity to risk something living. And I’m not claiming to be any sort of expert - I’ve never managed to keep a gifted orchid alive, and my succulents tend to bolt and get straggly (my poor donkey tail looks like it has mange.) But overall, I’m pleased with the sight of green - faux and real - that greets me in every room.
How about you, Reds? Are you a houseplant Houdini? Or making do with a vase of grocery store flowers?
LUCY BURDETTE: We don’t have houseplants in Key West, though John is growing some amazing tomatoes on the deck. The problem is we have to get rid of everything when we leave for CT and killing the plants is too heartbreaking.
At home in CT, we do have plants. We have a lime tree that must be 20 years old that produces actual fruit, and many wonderful geraniums, and an aloe that produces too much. They are confined to the kitchen and living room because otherwise we’d forget to water. I love them all and if I stop enjoying one, it goes in the compost. Which reminds me, I had lots of potted violets as a single person. I wonder what happened to them?
RHYS BOWEN: Like Lucy we live in two places which makes
houseplants almost impossible. I have a couple of little succulents that travel
with me. Otherwise I’m afraid it’s very realistic looking fakes in Arizona. An
enormous bamboo and a lovely orchid. (Since I also can’t keep orchids alive
this is the answer for me).
Our gardens in both places are on irrigation systems and a gardener comes in once a month to trim back. But that’s the extent of my gardening. Sad because I love plants and would like a garden to potter in. But we live on a steep hillside with a hungry herd of deer who eat everything.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: For years we had a voraciously plant-eating cat, so the only plants I could have in the house were hanging Boston ferns (although he would occasionally manage to nibble a hanging frond) and orchids, which were not to his taste. These are still the things I love most, although the cat has gone to kitty heaven. I’ve added a bromeliad and two tiny Christmas cactuses in the sunporch. We’ll see how they do.
Last winter we brought in so many plants, huge Boston ferns and geraniums and begonias. We put them in a corner of our dining room, where they looked beautiful at first. But they made a horrible mess, and by spring they looked awful and ended up consigned to the compost heap. I swore I wouldn’t do that again, but here I am, with a porch full of rescues…
HALLIE EPHRON: My house is full of plants. Most of them have never been outside.
I always thought I couldn’t do orchids but then I discovered that getting them to bloom is all about benign neglect and patience. I bought one orchid plant at a yard sale – it wasn’t blooming and it took 4 years of doing absolutely nothing until it finally bloomed. Spectacularly hot pink orchids.
My Norfolk pine is my pride and joy. I’ve had it for about 20 years. One day it’ll hit the ceiling and then I’ll have to figure out how to prune it down or put it to pasture.
The challenge is when my daughter visits and brings her cats that treat leaves and branches like cat toys and think the soil is another more conveniently placed litter box. Plus a lot of the plants are poisonous for cats, and they do munch on them. So while the cats visit, the plants live in my office with the door barricaded.
JENN McKINLAY: I love my houseplants (all 20) and my
outside plants (too many to count). I am definitely a plant mama. My
orchid had babies, two of which I still have, are thriving with new leaves but
no stem or blossoms yet. I have three Christmas cactus cactuses all of which
bloomed this year. My dracaenas have grown so tall - one is almost to the
ceiling. A scat mat around the base of the plants keeps the cats from
digging.
Outside, I have my garden (just planted the spinach and more tomatoes) and my trees - lemon, fig, pomegranate, peach, pecan, and I added a Thompson grape vine last year, which appears to be thriving. I could go on and on about the joy of plants but I’ll end with a Martha Stewart quote (paraphrasing): If you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for ten years, buy a dog. If you want to be happy for life, grow a garden.”
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I always have fresh flowers on our breakfast table. From the garden when they’re in season–and I am always happy to make bouquets out of whatever there is even if there are not flowers.
Grocery store flowers, too, can be absolutely gorgeous–you just cannot use them as is. That’s the fun part-–trimming and rearranging and finding the right container. It’s such fun to do!
And I am so happy in our gardens, so lucky to have a
good climate. Hundreds of tulips, when the time comes. If the squirrels will
just leave the bulbs alone.
But I’ve tried to bring plants in, too, geraniums and begonias. They just are never happy. Never. It’s so sad. (I DID bring in a big pot of parsley, and crossing fingers, so far so good.)
As for house plants–not a chance. I get a green plant, it dies. I mean–tragically and instantly. I have totally given up on those. I am so impressed when I see them happily in other houses. But I know when I am defeated.
EXCEPT–about 10 years ago, a pal gave me an African Violet in a gorgeous vintage fishbowl-type container. It is apparently SO happy, and blooms fabulously several times a year. I love it ridiculously much.
How about you, Dear Readers? Do you haunt the plant nursery, or the faux flowers section of Michaels?
