Beautiful Houseplants in My Home
My Bedford, New York farm is covered with several inches of white, fluffy snow this morning, but inside my home - beautiful, healthy, lush houseplants.
Houseplants bring life to any room, especially during the cold, dreary days of winter. I love container plants, and over the years I have amassed quite a collection of tropical specimens. This week, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, selected a lovely group of succulents and orchids to decorate my Winter House.
Enjoy these photos.
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- It’s always so nice to see beautiful container plants when I am home. Here are three potted succulents ready to be displayed in my indoor porch where there is plenty of light. If you like growing plants, but don’t really have the time to care for them properly, I encourage you to consider growing succulents. Succulents are so easy to maintain and are able to survive prolonged drought because they store moisture in their fleshy stems, roots, and leaves. Some succulents look like smooth stones, while others feature perfect rosettes like these.
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- Here’s Ryan bringing in a crate of beautiful orchids.
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- This is a potted rhipsalis, native to the rainforests of South America, the Caribbean and Central America. Rhipsalis is a cacti genus with approximately 35 distinct species. I have many types of rhipsalis growing in my greenhouse. Rhipsalis specimens have long, trailing stems making them perfect choices as indoor plants on pedestals or tall tables.
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- Here’s a closer look. Also known as chain cactus or mistletoe cactus, the thread-like succulent stems are narrow, green and can grow several feet long.
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- And here is another rhipsalis. These plants prefer bright, indirect light. Rhipsalis plants also appreciate a good misting now and again and watering about once a week, or whenever the soil becomes dry.
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- My melodious red factor canaries are watching all the plants being brought indoors – I think they appreciate the variety of plants they see.
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- In a blog posted last month, I shared how to force flowering bulbs. These are some of the hyacinth bulbs. Forcing is the process of speeding up a bulb’s development by simulating the conditions of winter and spring – it’s a way of fooling Mother Nature and tricking the bulb to bloom before its time. Hyacinths are excellent for this technique as their flowers are both attractive and fragrant. These are growing perfectly.
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- This is another pot of hyacinth bulbs. Each hyacinth bulb generally produces one flower stalk that stands eight to 10-inches tall.
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- The bulbs can be forced in either water or soil. These are planted in containers filled with soil and sand and then top dressed with gravel. I also have some being forced in water. I can’t wait to see all of them open. I will be sure to share those photos with you.
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- Succulents grow in so many different and interesting formations and colors. Succulents are best planted in clay or terra cotta pots with proper drainage holes because the vessels dry quickly, and prevent water from building up.
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- Echeverias are some of the most attractive of all succulents and they are highly valued by plant enthusiasts for their gorgeous colors and beautiful shapes. The leaves are also fleshy and have a waxy cuticle on the exterior. The echeveria plant is slow growing and usually doesn’t exceed 12 inches in height or spread.
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- Here are two cactus plants flanking a rhipsalis. The trip looks so nice in front of this window.
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- Inside my sitting room are these orchids. Most orchid genera are epiphytic, meaning they grow on trees and rocks rather than in soil. Orchid roots need to breathe and therefore cannot live buried in dirt. Orchid pots with holes on the sides are specially designed to allow air to circulate through the loose medium and around the leaves and roots.
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- Although generally thought of as a tropical plant, orchids grow on every continent, from the Arctic Circle to the southernmost jungle, except Antarctica. The size of orchids depends on the species. They can be quite small or very large. However, every orchid flower is bilaterally symmetric, which means it can be divided into two equal parts.
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- When keeping orchids in your home, south and east-facing windows work best. West windows can be too hot in the afternoon and north-facing ones are usually too dark. This plant has gorgeous white blooms with dark pink markings.
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- This is a “slipper orchid” – one of my favorites. The key to growing these plants is to keep the root systems strong and healthy. These plants have no bulbs or stems to store moisture and nutrients, so it is important to maintain their roots.
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- A rule of thumb for potted orchids is the leaf color. when provided with a proper balance of light, humidity, and temperature, these plants will have healthy bright green leaves. Too little light would make the leaves very dark. Most of my potted plants are kept in the greenhouse, where they can be maintained properly.
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- Dendrobium is a large orchid genus with more than a thousand species. This one is Dendrobium ‘Nora Tokunaga’ with a sweet fragrance and interesting white flowers with purple marked lips.
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- These dainty orchid blossoms have a wonderful chocolate scent. In general, most orchid plants are actually long-lived. In fact, divisions or propagations of orchids discovered in the 19th century are still growing and flowering today.
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- I am always looking out for rare and interesting plant species. Ryan placed this gorgeous orchid on the center table in my foyer. It is blooming profusely with large, star shaped, fragrant, white flowers.
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- Here’s a closer look at one of its blooms. This plant can produce two to six flowers per stem. I feel so fortunate to have such an amazing collection of extraordinary plants to share with my guests and to enjoy myself. What houseplants do you keep? Share your comments with me below.
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