Bring the garden inside.
Why
Apart from the colourful flowers and leaves, house plants can improve the quality of the air in your house.
Modern living could mean you spend over 90% of your time indoors. Breathing air that is more polluted than outdoors. The culprits are usually, household furnishings, paint, plastics, cleaning products, perfumes, air fresheners etc.
With modern double glazing, there are fewer draughts to bring in the fresh air and now we have central heating, we are less likely to open the windows, so gradually the air deteriorates, house plants can help.
House plants can clean the air, they absorb chemicals, produce oxygen and increase the humidity.
Now more than ever we should grow house plants to improve our lives.
Are house plants special
Any plant can be a house plant, they just have to be able to survive and grow in the strange conditions they find themselves in.
Houses are generally warm 19-20 degrees, have low levels of sunlight and a dry atmosphere. To be a success we need a plant that likes these conditions. So plant hunters have been looking around the world for plants that could survive in the house. Finding out what they prefer is the key to growing house plants, it is likely you house plant has been found in a
- Tropical forests (warm and wet)
- Mountain range (extremes of temperature)
- Desert (warm and dry)
They all have their quirks, information is the key to growing them successfully.
Information
At this point, I should say that a lot of the information on the internet is miss guided or plain wrong so find 2 or 3 sources and compare them and if possible use the gardening societies to find the real experts. A begonia society would be a good place to find out about begonias.
Some of the house plant growers have information available that will help you, just remember they have perfect conditions and adapt it to your house.
House plants can be split into two groups
Fairweather friends
Lovely to meet and good company for a while, they can outstay their welcome and can become a nuisance. I would class most of the flowering house plants in this group, they look fantastic in full flower and while most carry on flowering for a long time, they will eventually stop and can be difficult to get back into flower.
You can often see them in window sills, a twig with a few leaves, a monument to our eternal optimism as we wait patiently for them to flower again. Knowledge is the key to getting them to flower again.
I would still buy flowering house plants they brighten up the house, and are better value than a bunch of flowers, they can flower for months, just remember you should replace them when the flowers stop.
Old faithful
Family friends through thick and thin they settle in and make themselves at home. foliage house plants can live a long time and positively thrive, cheaper and less demanding than a pet, they can become fantastic specimen plants.
We want you to have fun with your house plants, so I have chosen some foolproof plants to start with, they should adapt to any house.
