DIY Home Diva » Tree, Plant & Flower

How To Use Common Houseplants To Enhance Your Room’s Decor

Andrea — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:12:25 +0000

The home interiors shown in décor magazines and movie settings are usually beautifully decorated with lush plants. These houseplants are actually strategically planted (pardon the pun) props. In reality, they wouldn’t last if kept indoors for prolonged periods—the happiest houseplants live near windows.

Practical Tips When Adding Common Houseplants to a Room’s Décor:

Use hardy, low-maintenance houseplants as the foundation of the arrangement.
Buy houseplants that are already grown to the size you want.
Take the scale of the room into consideration. In small spaces, add a few large houseplants to a collection of potted ones. These serve as focal points or backdrops, and help add structure to the area. Tall plants and hanging baskets will make a high ceiling look lower.
Place small- to medium-size houseplants on tables, pedestals, shelves or anywhere else below eye-level. Put large plants on the floor or elevate them slightly. For areas above eye-level, use cascading houseplants.
Create visual impact by using ornamental containers or combing plants with attributes that complement or contrast with one another in a pleasing manner. Select the container that best displays the distinctive form of the plant. Different houseplants create different decorative effects. For example, airy and feathery common houseplants like palms and ferns soften the setting.

Common Houseplants: How To Encourage Indoor Flowering Plants To Bloom

Andrea — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:47:29 +0000

Compared with foliage plants, flowering plants require more skill and effort to grow. They usually need more light, more water, higher humidity, and more fertilizer to thrive and bloom, as flowering consumes much of the plant’s energy resources.

How To Encourage Your Indoor Flowering Plants To Bloom

Increase the light level
Check whether the plants require long-day or short-day schedules to bloom.
If necessary, place them under artificial lighting at least 14 to 16 hours a day (to simulate continuous daylight) and stimulate them to bloom year-round.
Increase the humidity—dry air can cause flowers to dry up.
Check the plants’ temperature needs.
Check the roots for sign of pest infestation or disease.

Common Houseplants for Your Home and Office

Andrea — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:59:49 +0000

Plants are literally a breath of fresh air. Lush green or cheerfully colorful, they are a source of living and changing beauty. However, you choose to bring plants into your home, they will brighten up your life.

Common Houseplants

Most houseplants originate in the tropical or subtropical regions, and grow under the full shade of other plants. These shade-loving plants make relatively easy-care container houseplants, and most of the common houseplants are suitable for keeping in the home and office environments.

Categories of Common Houseplants:

Trees and shrubs
Perennials, biennials and annuals
Bulbs
Cacti and succulents
Climbing and trailing plants
Aquatic and semi-aquatic plants

General Characteristics on Common Houseplants:

Can be planted and grown in a container
Relatively easy to grow indoors or outdoors
Relatively easy to maintain

When Choosing Your Ideal Houseplants, They Should Be Able To:

Tolerate dry indoor air
Live indoors for a prolong period
Grow and multiply easily
Do without much pruning
Resist insects and disease
Tolerate occasional abuse or neglect
Thrive, if not survive, without any special conditions for its survival

Planting Hanging Baskets

Andrea — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:07:55 +0000

Solid plastic hanging baskets for plants are more practical, though less attractive. For ease in watering, the basket should have a raised platform inside, and a filling tube and water indicator. Use a wire hanging basket only if it is to be hung in an area with a water-resistant floor.

Ideally, the hanging basket should have an easily removable chain or support rope. The basket should be secured properly as it will be very heavy when wet. A hook with a flexible joint would be good so that the basket can be rotated to give the plants an even supply of light.

Hanging Basket Plant: The type of plant to be potted in the basket will depend on whether the basket will be hung in the sun (outdoor hanging basket) or shade (indoor hanging basket).

How To Plant Hanging Basket

Support the empty basket on a bucket or large flowerpot as you work.
Line the bottom of the basket with a plastic saucer, coir matting or a piece of polythene with a few slits made in it. This is to stop water draining through too fast.
Put some gravel at the bottom to form a platform if necessary.
Use sphagnum moss to cover the sides, and fill the basket up to the rim to prevent water pouring out.
Fill the basket with a peat-based potting mix, and add some water-retaining gel crystals.
Water the plants that are to be transferred into the basket before taking them out of their pots.

How To Choose the Right Container for Plants

Andrea — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:05:40 +0000

Most gardening newbies, typically, will choose regular planting pots for plants as their plant container. It doesn’t have to be so. As long as the overall appearance looks right for the plant, practically any container can be used. Be bold. Be creative. Go ahead and improvise with everyday objects like ice coolers, baskets, watering cans, china/enamel bowls, old boots, and even birdcages as your plant containers! However, there are a few things to consider as to whether you selected the right container for your plants. Here are some tips:

Choosing The Right Container For Plants

The proportion of the container to the plant, as this could affect the plant’s health.
It must be able to resist rot, rust, and corrosion when exposed to the weather, and be non-toxic to the plant.
It must have drainage holes for water to drain away quickly. Use a saucer to catch the excess water, but do not keep it constantly filled with water. Immediately discard the excess water as you don’t want to be breeding mosquitoes. If you are using a container without drainage holes, line it with a layer of gravel or pot fragments before planting.
Use bricks or small blocks of terracotta as legs to raise the container off the ground to allow free drainage, prevent soil pest entry and reduce the risk of rot in wooden containers.
If the container is heavy, place it on a moveable trolley if you intend to move it around. The most appropriate use for this is for indoor plants, as it makes vacuuming or mopping around the house less stressful.
Aesthetically, it should look right for the type of plant to be placed in it, and enhance the mood of the display you want to create. This could consist of a single plant in a simple pot, or a formal grouping of associated plants. The style of the container depends on the material of which it is made, and its shape, color, and texture.

Garden Plant Support: How To Construct a Plant Support?

Andrea — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:36:15 +0000

Climbing and creeping plants need to be provided with some kind of support to “train” them to grow upright. Plastic, bamboo, or wooden stakes can be crafted into a trellis, while more flexible materials like rattan and wire can be used to form ornamental supports of different shapes. Always try to match the scale of the support to that of the plant.

Column Plant Support

A wire column with sphagnum moss makes a good support for plants that use aerial roots to climb as they need a constantly moist medium. This type of support is also suitable for climbing plants with thick stems and large leaves.

How To Construct a Plant Support

To form the shape of a column, roll a piece of wire mesh into a cylindrical shape and join the cut edges together. The width of this column will depend on the size of the pot you are using for the plant.
H old up the structure of this cylindrical netting by threading two bamboo or wooden strips through one end of it (about 1½ inch from the bottom), such that they crisscross each other.
Bind the center point at which these two strips meet, and also at the points where they meet the wire column.
Then wedge this whole structure into the pot, with the bamboo/wooden strips fitting snugly at its bottom.
Fill two-thirds of the pot with potting mixture.
Then pack the inside of the whole wire column with sphagnum moss.
Pot the plants (a 3-ft column can support about three of four climbing plants) and attach their stems to the column with hairpin-shaped wires.
Spray the column daily to keep the moss thoroughly moist.

Gardener Tools: Are You Using The Right Tools For The Job?

Andrea — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:01:59 +0000

The general appearance and atmosphere of your garden (or green corner) will depend on the types of plants you keep and containers you select for them. And to keep your garden flourishing beautifully, you have to have at least these basic gardener tools to keep your plants in good shape.

Trowel
This is use for planting or digging out perennial weeds. Buy a stainless steel type if you can afford it, and two sizes—standard size and a small narrow type with a blade about 5cm across. Look for one with a strong neck and a comfortable handle. Do not get a long-handed one unless you have difficulty bending down.

Hand Fork
Also known as cultivator fork. This tool is use for weeding and cultivating soil around plants. They should be about the same width as the trowels. One with three to five short and flat tines instead of a scoop-like blade is most commonly use. From personal experience, however, I recommend using angled tines (as seen here) as they glide easily and reach into the soil for deeper penetration.

Pruning Secateurs
This cutting tool varies in size, and according to function. You should need only one general-purpose model. Check its weight and handling comfort, making sure that the handles are not too big and do not push too hard against your palm when open. The spring may be hidden or exposed, and the handles should open quickly after cutting, preferably, get one that comes with a safety catch.

Other Basic Gardener Tools and Equipment

Scissors, knife, wooden stakes, and plant supports, long and short/wire plant ties, twine, fertilizer, hormone rooting powder, pesticide, fungicide, watering can, mist sprayer.

Plant Propagation: Repotting Plants

Andrea — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:39:29 +0000

The third installment of plant propagation is on repotting plants. As said in earlier posts, you can “raise” your plants from stem cutting or seeds, “adopt” them from a nursery, or propagate them in various ways. Just as you would bring up children, make sure you give them room to grow and plenty of tender loving care—there’s no harm in talking go to them.

Easy Steps On Repotting Plants

Water the plant about an hour beforehand to make it easier to remove from the pot.
Get everything ready to avoid creating a mess. Have a pair of scissors or knife handy in case root trimming is required.
If the hole at the bottom of the new pot you are using is on the large side, cut a piece of screen to cover it, to prevent dirt from escaping.

Fill the bottom of the new pot with fresh, moist soil. Leave enough room for the plant and its roots.
Gently tip the plant upside down into your hand from the old pot. Lay your palm flat against the soil surface and place fingers on either side of the stem. Tap hard on the bottom of the pot to loosen it from the roots.
If you have trouble getting the plant out, do not pull the stem. Use a knife to scrape around the sides instead.
Use your thumbs to push up into the dirt and loosen the root structure. This is to encourage the roots to spread out and grow.
Check for pests and rotten roots and remove them.
Put the plant into the new pot, add more soil and pack it in properly while adjusting the position of the plant.
Tap the pot gently on a hard surface so the soil settles into any air pockets.
Water thoroughly.

5 More Methods Of Plant Propagation

Andrea — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:07:56 +0000

In the previous installments of plant propagation I covered stem cutting. As promised, I’ll cover five more methods of plant propagation here.

Other Methods Of Plant Propagation

Leaf Section

How: Break off a healthy leaf from the base of the parent plant after removing it from the pot and cut the leaf crosswise.
Suits: Plants with long leaves like mother-in-law’s tongue, and those with prominent veins in the leaves like begonias.

Plantlets

How: Detach a well-developed replica of the parent plant from its leaves or at the end of long stalks (stolons).
Suits: Spider plants and aloe.

Division

How: Remove the parent plant from the pot, and gently split apart the sections that are clearly divided.
Suits: African Violets and ferns.

Offsets

How: Remover the well-developed small plants which appear around the base of the parent plant.
Suits: Bromeliads and succulents

Layering

How: Get roots that have formed on the trailing stem of the parent plant into contact with soil or rooting mixture in a nearby pot. Cut the new growth from the parent plant.
Suits: Creeping plants

Plant Propagation: How to Raise Your Plant From Stem Cuttings

Andrea — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:20:17 +0000

There are many ways of plant propagation. You can “raise” your plants from seeds, stem cutting, “adopt” them from a nursery, or other methods—all these techniques will be posted once weekly for the next three weeks. Today, I will be giving tips on how to raise plants from stem cutting.

Plant Propagation From Stem Cuttings

Pick out a healthy stem with about three nodes that are fairly close together. Gently remove the lower leaves.
Using a sharp knife or pruner, make a clean cut just below the lowest node (the point where a leaf grows out of the stem). Avoid bruising the stem.
Place the cut end in a container of water. The leaves should be above the water-line. Roots should grow out from the stem after a few weeks.
Fill a pot with soil or potting mix. A light potting mix holds water well and is airy enough for the roots to breathe and grow.
Make a hole that is large enough for the stem in the potting mix. Gently insert the cutting and firm the potting mix with your fingers.
Water regularly.
When new growth appears, give it some time to develop before repotting it in a new container with regular soil.

DIY Home Diva » Tree, Plant & Flower

How To Use Common Houseplants To Enhance Your Room’s Decor

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