House Plants.

Not long after I moved out of my parents house, my mother gave me some books. She had been doing some house cleaning and discovered she had multiple books on plant care (you'd be surprised how handy they are). Deciding no home was complete without one (or two) she gave me this...

Foliage Plants for Modern Living. Copyright 1974. A classic. (I also have a copy of Hanging Plants for Modern Living)

Apparently, it was Ben Franklin who said "Opposable thumbs, running shoes, and cookies for breakfast are the only things separating us from the animals." It would seem that foliage plants are the only things separating us modern humans from savages.



I have a lot of friends who have trouble with plants... they can be quite tricky to grow in certain spaces (most apartments and condos are relatively low light) and we tend to get suckered in at greenhouses by all the lovely blooming flowers they have, without knowing whether or not it will successfully grow in our own homes.
Enter Foliage Plants for Modern Living. It outlines certain rules of general plant care, defines the terms you are likely to see on the little plastic tabs that give you "instructions", and helps you identify why a plant might not be thriving. It also has descriptions of common household plants, complete with illustrations and specific care instructions. (Common meaning "plants that were common in households in the 70's". While certain plants like the Ficus are classics (think rubber tree plant), it is much less common now to keep an Asparagus Fern in a macramé hanging basket.)

While I have already talked about my love for my plants, here is a list of a few that are the easiest to grow; they require very little maintenance, aren't picky about lighting and could be a good addition to any space that needs a bit of "greening up".


Birdsnest Sansevieria. Typically, dark leaved plants do better in low light than ones with lighter leaves. These can get by with relatively little water, and pretty low light. Bright, indirect light is best (articfical is okay) but I have this one about 10 feet away from a north facing window. Sansevieria's spread by rhizomes (undergroud shoots) so you can start off with one little rosette, and eventually more will come up until they are growing in a clump.

Another type of Sansevieria that grows well indoors is the Snake Plant. Pretty much the difference is the height (mine are about a metre tall) and the shoots produce single leaves, rather than the rosettes. Earlier this summer one of mine flowered with greeny-white blossoms on a long stalk.

One of the most famous easy to grow plants is the spider plant... they do very well in partial shade/north light. Spider plants can also handle bright artifical light - they grow quite happily in classrooms with no windows. They produce baby plants by little "spiders" growing off cascading stems - these spiders can be cut off and placed in dirt to start new plants.

 Devil's Ivy. Grows perfectly well in total artifical light. This one is happy as can be in a glass of water in my bathroom. A climbing ivy, it will actually cling to walls with the little sucker-like pads it has on  the stems it puts out. I have actually had more luck growing this ivy in water than I have in soil... (a word on hydroponic growing... most plants like tap water! Distilled...  not so much. Tap water will leave deposits on the glass, so don't use anything you are too attached to. I find mason jars work well...)

The easiest of them all.  Swedish Ivy. Likes any light... indirect... shade... artifical... Also grows very well in water. So well, that it will put out roots wherever its stems encounter water or soil (so don't place next to any other plants or they will become attached!). Makes excellent cuttings to start new plants. Typically, swedish ivy would prefer to hang, but mine is doing okay getting bushy on a side table.

Stay tuned in the future for the "slightly advanced" group of easy to grow house plants!