Day 271: lipstick plant

Bright scarlet, tubular flowers are promised on the latest addition to the indoor jungle…

Read more

Day 203: off the ledge

Gravity and physics took a toll on my study today. Throw in some slightly suspect DIY skills and a recent growth spurt…

Read more

Day 67: feed me, Seymour

Unlike the plants in our flower beds, those things we grow in containers are entirely reliant upon us for their nutritional requirements…

Read more
Follow

Day 52: new recruits

I’m starting to take an inventory of the houseplants – what’s looking good, what’s looking less than happy after a gloomy winter getting frazzled by the central heating…

Read more

Day 46: tough love

Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen. As a phrase, it’s probably not going to top the list of the most useful gardening aphorisms, but it certainly seems to work in certain cases…

Read more
Follow

Day 292: red mistletoe cactus

Lurking among the ferns in the living room, and doing a very good job of blending in, is Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa ‘Red Coral’…

Read more

Day 277: houseplants and heating

We’re so used to tracing the passage of the seasons by the signs we observe out of doors – what the trees or the leaves or the sky is doing…

Read more
Follow

Day 273: the Houseplant Festival

I’ve just been to a houseplant festival. It was billed in one of the London mags as one of the ten coolest things to do this weekend. But that’s not why I went…

Read more

Day 205: cool corners

I am not built for heat and so, while I work outside during much of the day, I arrange corners of the house to make me feel cool as soon as I get back in…

Read more
Follow

Day 165: monstera

Our swiss cheese plant has moved back downstairs, though it’s yet to let us know whether or not this is a good thing…

Read more

Day 88: Oxalis triangularis

This purple-leaved beauty is the big-brother to our native wood sorrels – the creeping, yellow-flowered little shamrocks with the lemon scented foliage that winkle their way into walls and paving cracks…

Read more
Follow

Day 67: Begonia luxurians

Those who have a thing for plants will tell you, there are worse habits to have – it’s far easier on the pocket, for example, than a passion for vintage Porsches or posh handbags…

Read more
Follow

Day 60: kentia palm

The change from winter to spring brings a tricky little step-change into the life of the houseplant collector..

Read more
Follow

Day 46: blue star fern

One of the easier ferns to grow as a houseplant, the Blue Star fern (Phlebodium pseudoaureum) places few demands upon the indoor gardener…

Read more

Day 26: umbrella plant

It’s easy to take a reliable plant for granted, and I think I’ve been guilty of this with the umbrella tree, Schefflera arboricola…

Read more

Day 18: string of hearts

The string-of-hearts or sweetheart vine (Ceropegia woodii) is a perfect houseplant for those who might be a little forgetful…

Read more
Follow

The unquestionable hipness of houseplants

Houseplants are fashionable again. Which only begs the question, how does something as sensible as filling your home with inexpensively beautiful, living, breathing organisms, go out of fashion in the first place? But no time for pondering – first, I need to work out how NOT to kill them.

Read more
Follow

August & September in the garden

By now, Autumn has well and truly got its feet under the table. With characteristic tardiness, I’m taking a look back at the past couple of months – the height of summer recently departed, as portrayed on my Instagram grid. Here’s my pick of the best images.

Read more