Embrace the trend for growing indoor tropical plants. When your home is filled with tropical plants, the gardening season is never really “over.” In fact, we belong to a growing number of gardeners who are getting their winter “plant fix” indoors. The trend of growing plants indoors is very real and, predictably, the online presence of houseplants is also ever growing.
Darryl Cheng, based in Toronto, runs the Instagram account called @houseplantjournal. What began as a chronicle of his “plant parenthood” now has over 619K followers who seek out his daily updates and advice. We interviewed Darryl on our Green File podcast, and the episode, Episode 4, was one of our most popular.
The beauty of indoor plants is that you do not need a garden to grow them: They are accessible to virtually everyone. On top of adding beauty to your home or office, houseplants have a measurable impact on your indoor air quality.
Here are some tips for getting started:
• Start simple. A pothos or spider plant is incredibly robust and will help even a novice indoor gardener build confidence.
• Try cuttings. This is a free way to multiply your riches, and most tropical plants lend themselves to this very well. Cut healthy shoots of new growth right below a leaf joint and remove the lower leaves. Put the cuttings in a jar of water, or push them halfway into moist soil, and within a few weeks roots will start to form. Once a few good roots have developed, plant into a pot filled with good-quality potting mix.
• Share! As with everything, the joy of gardening is greatest when shared. Propagate new plants to give to your friends and family, or reach out to any of the various growers’ societies who are active right through the depths of winter.
Mark learned many years ago that indoor plants can really help to shorten an otherwise long, cold Canadian winter. Ben and his generation are all over it!
What seems like a slow time of year for gardeners is indeed the best opportunity to plan a healthier and more productive garden. Today, we order our seeds and peruse the seed racks. Tomorrow, we sow.
How to Bring Plants Indoors for Winter
Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and tree advocate
and holds the Order of Canada. His son, Ben, is a fourth-generation
urban gardener and a graduate of the University of Guelph and Dalhousie
University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @MarkCullen4
(Twitter) and @markcullengardening (Facebook) and look for their latest book, Escape to Reality.
Follow them at markcullen.com, @MarkCullen4, facebook.com/markcullengardening and biweekly on Global TV’s national morning show, The Morning Show.
