The Sunday News
KEEPING flowers and plants in your home can be tricky at times . . . especially those which need to be well taken care of.
However, that does not mean you cannot decorate your home with them. In most cases living rooms are considered as the biggest room in the house and at times it can be daunting to fill each and every space. Strategically placing tall potted plants can help you make your room feel balanced and comfortable.
Indoor plants not only help clean the environment around them, but they act as a quick decorating tool. Avoid keeping toxic plants especially if you have children around. In this week’s column we will look at some of the plants that can be used when decorating your living room, that are easy to look after.
Aloe can be kept in any room and it is not only used as a decorative tool but can be used for medical purposes. This succulent flower with long pointed leaves has medicinal properties you probably well-know from product labels. It can grow about 1,5m high for big impact indoors thus manipulating that large vertical space. Smaller varieties like the popular aloe vera, work great in small, sunny indoor spaces. Make sure there is enough sunlight. This plant is easy to take care of in the sense that it does not need frequent watering. It prefers dry soil.
Spider plant can also be used as a focal point as they have unusual-looking features. It is eye-catching like neon. They haven’t fallen out of fashion after years of popularity in the home. Spider plants come in a number of varieties, and work well as hanging plants. Spider plants do well with evenly moist soil and bright or medium lighting conditions.
Pothos has an air-purifying quality that can absorb and strip toxins like formaldehyde (suffocating odour) from materials in the home like carpet. It has irregular stems and works well in a hanging basket or as a climbing plant with some training onto a trellis or whatever object you like that will support it. This indoor house plant can produce stems that trail about 2,5m longer . . . again it can close empty spaces in your living room, if they become too long you can cut them and they look like they use to continue to look full and healthy. It can thrive in an array of lighting conditions, but low light may diminish the leaves’ variegation. Allow soil to dry somewhat between watering. Pothos does well in an array of normal room temperatures.
English Ivy there’s a real timeless elegance to ivy, and it trails down furniture for a pretty effect. Plus, it’s super easy to start a new plant for yourself or a friend by cutting a section of the stem. This can happen in a week or so. These prefer cool room temperature conditions and moist soil.
Some other plants which can be used when decorating your living room include: Jade plant, rubber tree, peace lily, snake plant, ficus, fiddle-leaf fig etc.
