I’ve always maintained that it’s darn-right unnatural to bring plants indoors.
Plants want sun, soil, moisture and fresh air. Bring them indoors and pretty soon they’re awkwardly straining toward the light and leaving nasty water rings on the hardwood floors. Don’t get me started with house cats and soil. However, I’m the first to admit that plants bring life to a room; many are fragrant and almost all work to cleanse the air of impurities.
An entire subset of the gardening population is absolutely MAD for houseplants. As a free lance garden writer I try and maintain some degree of credibility. So my recent article for my Out in The Yard column of Angie’s List magazine included the following caveat:
Colorful contrasts
True houseplant confessions
Most of my houseplants are simply outdoor plants I bring indoors during the northwestern winter. Presently, my Meyer lemon tree is heavy with fruit just beginning to ripen – OK, two fruits, but it’s a start.
However, with temperatures now in the 40s, those precious lemons would never ripen at all if I didn’t invite them in out of the cold. I can’t wait to sip my mid-winter lemon drop amidst fragrant blossoms as the plant begins to produce next year’s crop.
You can read the entire article here.
But lemon trees and home grown cocktails aside, I think I may have discovered the perfect houseplant for me. Tillandsias are exotic to look at and easy to care for. Commonly known as “air plants,” these epiphytic plants – meaning they have no true roots – do not require a pot or even soil for that matter.
Native to Central and South America Tillandsias are a type of bromeliad. Wiry root-like tendrils anchor the plant to trees, rocks and along cliffs where suspended in the moisture heavy air of the tropics water and nutrients are absorbed directly through their fine leaves. Under ideal conditions, the plants bloom in hot pink, bright purple and other sizzling colors the Tropics seem to carry off so well.
You may have seen Air Plants at carnivals and flower shows suffering the indignity of having google eyes glued to their leaves. Since we’re being honest, I have another confession: about 10 years ago I bought some tillandsias for my nursery which had been painstakingly wired, lollipop style, to the top of a slender stick anchored in a small terracotta pot. It’s probably not a big surprise to hear this was less than successful. These stylish-but-costly faux topiaries spent most of their days with their heads ingloriously soaking in a bucket. Finely they dried out or rotted; I can’t remember which.
More recently, designers have discovered the charm of Tillandsia in their natural form. Today you can find them (sans google eyes and wire corsets) in hip nurseries and featured in fashionable magazine spreads where perched on a twig or snug in a cloche these beautiful, almost undersea creature-like plants add panache to interiors with nary a water ring in sight.
I succumbed to Tillandsia lust last year and maintained my two plants within a large, heavy, old Corning glass bell jar. When I kept the humidity high enough for the plants to thrive the cloche fogged up so I couldn’t see in. When the moisture level dropped, the plants suffered. And wouldn’t you know it, the cloche left a water ring on my side table.
Today, my twin Tillandsia reside in my bright, airy, walk-in shower. Gently entwined on a length of ball-chain and looped around a column the plants are suspended where they get at least 2 tropical showers a day as well as hours and hours of diffuse northern light. They are loving it! In just a few short months 1 plant has already doubled in size. I can’t wait to shower amidst the sexy blossoms.
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