Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
A maranta does like a little humidity, and a room-temperature misting is one way to do this. These leaves bear the mark of a hard water spritz at the garden centre – only filtered water from now on. Picky.
In the world of the houseplant enthusiast, a bicolour leaf seems to be far more greatly prized than such a thing would be in the parallel realm of the outdoor gardener, where variegation is often met with less than universal rejoicing. You can only imagine the paroxysms – respectfully of joy and horror – that would be prompted by a plant with three distinct colours upon its foliage. Such a thing is the prayer plant Maranta leuconeura var. leuconeura ‘Fascinator’ – in all honesty, I have no idea whether I’m ‘supposed’ either to rate or to revile it, but I’ve long hankered after this colourful character and only recently found one. While I was supposed to be out buying Christmas presents for other people (one for them, one for me...). Like its not too distant relative the calathea, this is one of those plants that’s supposed to give you feedback, by which it is meant that when it’s not happy, you’re really going to know about it. Having taken so long to track down, I hope it gives me fair warning of any unsatisfactory conditions before deciding to check out.
A year of garden coaching
I’m very excited about my new venture – it’s a way for me to work with more people than I can physically get around to, helping them to make the very best of their gardens in a way that suits the life they lead. If you’d like to find out more, please click here to book for a January 2020 start.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, blogger, podcaster, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking the image above.
