Decorating My Home with Houseplants for St. Patrick's Day
Whenever I entertain, I always fill my home with beautiful houseplants.
Houseplants bring life to any room. I love all kinds of container plants, and over the years I have amassed quite a collection of specimens. Most of my potted plants are kept in the greenhouse, where they can be nurtured properly, especially during colder seasons and times when I’m away. When preparing for a party, I like to decorate my home with a wide assortment of potted plants that provide interesting and expressive foliage. It’s an inexpensive way to add color and texture to any space. My gardeners, Ryan McCallister and Brian O'Kelly, selected a lovely collection of ferns, begonias, and topiaries to welcome my guests for St. Patrick's Day.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
-
- Happy St. Patrick’s Day. This evening, I am hosting a small and safe gathering to celebrate the occasion. Now that I am spending more time at home, I do keep a few plants in my Winter House, such as these topiaries. Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes. On the far right are two potted Thanksgiving cacti.
-
- Whenever I decorate with plants, I use silver or glass plates, purchased from tag sales or antiques fairs, under the pots to catch any water. Ryan took out a stack of these silver plates to use.
-
- Meanwhile, Brian carries two houseplants through my expansive porch entrance on the upper terrace parterre. This process is done quickly to keep the plants out of the cold as much as possible. Don’t worry, Brian just pulled down his face covering for this photo.
-
- This is a bird’s nest fern. Bird’s nest fern is a common name applied to several related species of epiphytic ferns in the genus Asplenium. It’s identified by the flat, wavy or crinkly fronds. These plants make excellent low light houseplants.
-
- Here’s another bird’s nest fern with less crinkly fronds. These fronds grow in a tight, nest-like clump from the center of the plant. Under ideal circumstances, all ferns like to have consistently moist, but not wet, soil. However, they will tolerate soil that dries out from time to time.
-
- Here’s Ryan placing a bird’s nest fern on this table in my newly decorated sitting room.
-
- This is a small potted dracaena. Dracaenas are popular houseplants with origins in Madagascar and other Indian ocean islands. Easy to care for, the dracaena can also help improve air quality. They naturally remove formaldehyde, benzene, trichloroethylene and carbon dioxide.
-
- Kalanchoes are native to Madagasgar and thrive in arid environments, making them popular succulents. Growers are drawn to Kalanchoe for its ease of care and interesting foliage.
-
- Chinese money plants, Pilea peperomioides, are so handsome, and they always attract lots of attention. The Pilea peperomioides has attractive coin-shaped foliage. This flowering perennial is native to southern China, growing naturally along the base of the Himalayan mountains. It is also known as coin plant, pancake plant, and UFO plant.
-
- A vase of cut Cymbidium orchids sits on this coffee table. I love the golden-yellow blooms. Cymbidium, or boat orchid, is a genus of more than 50-evergreen species in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Cymbidium orchids are prized for their long-lasting sprays of flowers, used especially as cut flowers or spring corsages.
-
- Remember the gorgeous straight pussy willow branches Ryan and Brian cut from the pussy willow grove a couple weeks ago? They still look great in these Eric Soderholtz urns. Soderholtz referred to this style of urn as an ‘Arabian’ oil jar. Soderholtz, who immigrated from Sweden as a child, achieved a reputation in the late 19th century as a photographer of architecture and landscape, with his work appearing in journals and monographs of the period. In the 20th century he gained more notice as a creator of concrete garden sculptures, which he made by hand-turning them rather than using molds. I have many of his pieces at my home in Maine.
-
- More Chinese money plants adorn the table in the center of my foyer.
-
- This plant is a Sansevieria. If you like growing plants, but don’t really have the time to care for them properly, consider growing succulents. Succulents require very little maintenance. These plants are able to survive prolonged drought because they store moisture in their fleshy stems, roots, or leaves. And they grow in so many different and interesting formations.
-
- And here are some taller topiaries sitting on pedestals on my porch.
-
- The Crocodile Fern, sometimes known as an alligator fern, a crocodyllus fern or a crocodile plant, is a fern native to Australia with a slightly unusual texture. The fern gets its name from the scale like appearance of its leaves.
-
- On the right of the foyer is my sunken green parlor. It looks so inviting decorated with container plants. Here is another bird’s nest fern.
-
- And here is another bird’s nest fern by the window. Next to it is a vase of dried lunaria. Also known as a Silver Dollar plant, this variety features opaque silvery seedpods that look so striking when dried and displayed.
-
- In between my kitchen and sitting room is my servery, a room from which meals are served – I often prepare and serve cocktails and other drinks from this space. More cut Cymbidium orchids are on one side – they add such pretty color to the room with their vibrant pink shades. The fantastic range of colors for this genus include white, green, yellowish-green, cream, yellow, brown, pink, red and black with a variety of markings of other color shades – every color but blue.
-
- Here is a begonia. Rhizomatous begonia flowers bloom in late winter to early spring and can range from shades of pink blush to bright white.
-
- This large blue fern is one of two in my Brown Room – an interesting looking fern with large fronds and a pleasant green-blue color. Its ability to tolerate lower-light conditions and relatively easy care make it a great choice for any fern lover.
-
- This evening, I will serve dinner at the long table in my Brown Room. Enma set a lovely table for the event. We will feast on corned beef that I prepared last week. I will share more photos of this dinner in my next blog. Be sure to check in tomorrow.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
