House-Plant Heaven

Today is Summer Solstice, the day when we have the most daylight of the whole year, there’ll be a whopping 17 hours of daylight today. It feels significant, the days will be getting marginally shorter now, so I’m hoping that the rain will stop at some stage during the day and I can get out into the garden to celebrate having all this daylight.

Meanwhile, as rain has stopped play so far outside, I’ve turned my attention to houseplants, you don’t get the fresh air and big skies, but I always feel a bit more relaxed when I’ve spent some time pottering around them. Once a month I line them up in the kitchen to give them some proper attention, wiping the dust off the leaves, standing them in the sink in a few inches of water for an hour or so, giving them plenty of time to soak it all up. Then I empty the sink and let them drain thoroughly before they go back in their pot holders.

My top tips for happy house-plants are:

• be careful about watering them, most house-plants die from over-watering
• avoid them becoming waterlogged by letting them sit in water for too long, it makes the roots rot
• use proper potting compost
• re-pot into the next size pot when you see roots growing out of the base of the plant-pot.

I’m off to Grow London on Thursday, a contemporary garden and design show, it’ll includes a talks, including one about house-plants by Alys Fowler and Jane Peronne, workshops for adults and children, nurseries selling unusual plants and a bar and a cafe overlooking Hampstead Heath.

Have a look at the Grow London website here , for details of how to buy tickets and more about The Show, there are really inspiring photos and a list of very interesting exhibitors and suppliers.

I’ve pinned a collection of house-plant photos over on Pinterest here, nip over and have a look if you’d like some ideas.

I’lll post about this years’ Show on Saturday.

Jill

Thanks to Nook and North One Garden Centre for the images, the cushions in the last photo are by Bettzy. 

Related posts:

Indoor gardening with bulbs. What to do in your garden in August The cheapest, quickest & easiest hedge to grow How to protect tender plants over winter.