House plants

[DannyK]

I think you will need to do a bit of research on what to grow as not only have you the light loss through your windows, modern double glazing has a tint, but you've got loss through bottle. Only thing I can immediately think of is ferns. Probably slow growers best but have a look atThe sealed bottle garden still thriving after 40 years without fresh air or water | Daily Mail Online!

Begonias make very good houseplants as they tolerate low light and many have very interesting foliage giving all year round colour especially the rexes. Dibleys Nurseries are a good source.

[JanieB]

Have you noticed the trend for plastic and material flowers though? I really don't like them, dust collectors, but they had loads at the garden centres instead of real plants! Why???

I don't understand why when going to a garden centre we now have to walk through depts that sell crockery, food, clothes, shoes, pet stuff etc, these spaces used to sell garden or house plant related stuff. This includes the artificial plants. These are definitely dust catchers.

I have some silk flowers that I use in my fireplace during the summer months. I've had them for about 4 years and although I give them a regular shake up they still looked dusty. I mentioned this to a friend recently and it turned out his mother had been a florist who also dealt with artificial flowers. He advised me to put each stem in a plastic carrier bag with some salt and give it a good shake. You can keep using the same bag of salt for ages. The flowers looked as if they had just come out of the shop.

I don't know why they sell them in garden centres but appreciate the reason they exist.

[Small pumpkin]

I have 3 small house plants. Christmas or Easter cactus ( I don't know which it is). A Phalaenopsis orchid and a Masdevallia.
When I lived in Somerset ( and had bigger windows) I had about 40. It looked like a tropical rain forest at the end of my living room. I miss my bird of paradise and big cheese plants the most.

[ancee]

Janie, my mum runs hers under the shower spray and that takes the dust off, less hassle too.

[ancee]

I think you will need to do a bit of research on what to grow as not only have you the light loss through your windows, modern double glazing has a tint, but you've got loss through bottle. Only thing I can immediately think of is ferns. Probably slow growers best but have a look atThe sealed bottle garden still thriving after 40 years without fresh air or water | Daily Mail Online!

Begonias make very good houseplants as they tolerate low light and many have very interesting foliage giving all year round colour especially the rexes. Dibleys Nurseries are a good source.

I had a bottle garden for years as a student. It wasn't sealed at the top though. I knocked it off the pouffe and it smashed. Can't find them anymore

[sparrow100]

Ancee, there's a link in this article to people who do bottle garden courses, they might be able to help:
How houseplants charmed a new generation of gardeners | The Telegraph

[noviceveggrower]

My sister use to have an air plant but some how she managed to kill it. How on earth you can kill an air plant is beyond me.

[mothhawk]

I have spider plants in several rooms as they are supposed to be good as pollution filters. When they get too big they are outed to the compost and a baby one re-started.

I also have an areca palm, which fills a darkish corner and seems perfectly happy with the low light levels. What else? A poinsettia - gift from 2014, a peace lily (gift) canna lily (ditto), anthurium (gift - hate it, it makes everywhere sticky - but you can't throw out a gift, can you?), orchids - the common GC ones.

My kitchen is on the front of the house, and I find plants on the windowsill act like the net curtains everyone else seems to have - I can see out, but folk can't really see in

I often buy a flowering begonia just for the summer for the kitchen sill to add a bit of colour. The only house plants I've ever bought. The rest are all acquired as gifts, some welcome, some not so much

[mothhawk]

You may find this list interesting:

Top 10 Houseplants
Environmental engineer Bill Wolverton rates the following plants best for chemical-vapour removal, ease of growth and maintenance, resistance to pests and rate of water evaporation.

Areca palm
Lady palm
Bamboo palm
Rubber plant
Dracaena (especially "Janet Craig")
English ivy
Dwarf date palm
Ficus Alii
Boston fern
Peace lily

[ancee]

Ancee, there's a link in this article to people who do bottle garden courses, they might be able to help:
How houseplants charmed a new generation of gardeners | The Telegraph

Thank you Sparrow, interesting read. And I was right! They are becoming fashionable again! Wait till I tell my teenagers that I am cool! Haha

[ancee]

My sister use to have an air plant but some how she managed to kill it. How on earth you can kill an air plant is beyond me.

Perhaps it was 'the wrong type of air'? Can you imagine taking it back to the garden centre? I wonder what they'd say as the cause of death? Hahaha

[ancee]

[QUOTE=mothhawk;1416342]

anthurium (gift - hate it, it makes everywhere sticky - but you can't throw out a gift, can you?)
But it might just 'die'?!?... Of natural causes of course. Perhaps, you too, have the wrong kind of air?

[mothhawk]

[QUOTE=ancee;1416485]

anthurium (gift - hate it, it makes everywhere sticky - but you can't throw out a gift, can you?)
But it might just 'die'?!?... Of natural causes of course. Perhaps, you too, have the wrong kind of air?

I'm hoping it will die of thirst, I haven't watered it since the beginning of January.

It still looks perfectly well though

[4390evans]

I have a peace lily and a umberella plant which I brought back from the dead quite chuffed with myself over that oh and a aloe vera.. I never consider that a palnt as we use it for medical stuff..

After I saw the size of christine wlkdens christmas cactus I think I will get one of them later this year but Inalso want more peace lillies and a few other good air plants but I wait till they go down in price at work as I just refuse to pay full price!

We sell alot of house plants and usuay have quite amgood mixture in, when I go around other shops (mostly diy shops) I notice they only have a few house plants, I think they just havent got the time to spare someone to work on the horti section all day, and the hp take up to much room indoors.. shame really.

[AvidNewBee]

[QUOTE=noviceveggrower;1416203]My sister use to have an air plant but some how she managed to kill it. How on earth you can kill an air plant is beyond me

I didn't know there was an air plant lol )