Tips for the indoor gardener and how to use plants as home decor

Whether you use plants strictly as decorative accents and replace them when they begin to look tired or find caring for plants as enjoyable as having them grace your home, your approach to growing and displaying plants indoors will be as unique and individual as your own personality.

Your use of house plants is limited only by available space and your imagination. Bonsai trees have always been a favorite of indoor gardeners but there are many more interesting plants that you can use to start indoor landscaping. Most of these tips or ideas can be used for indoor organic gardening and indoor vegetable gardening if you are using containers and pots.

As with everything else, conventional plant placements are rapidly being replaced by innovative displays. Plant containers and the necessity of watering will also need to be considered and are probably the most important feature of your display.

Try to group your plant display in order of watering needs. For instance one corner of a room can have cactus and other dry climate plants and at the opposite side or in its shadow plants that do not like direct sun light.

Large, treelike plants make a strong statement in your house. Planted in capacious containers, they can accent an entry or a view, fill an empty corner, hide a problem area, or divide indoor spaces into smaller, more usable areas.

Care can present a problem. Sheer size necessitates keeping large plants stationary; watering, fertilizing, and maintenance will take place on the spot. Another problem is to protect your floor or carpet from water damage — a buffer zone is a good solution.

Hanging plants. Any house plant with a drooping or spreading growth habit can be hung to advantage. Possible locations are in windows, corners of rooms, and around skylights. Just hang them out of the way of foot traffic—bumping into a heavy hanging plant isn't healthy for the person or the plant.

How to suspend the plant and how to water it once it's up are two major challenges. A well-watered house plant and it's container can weigh up to 50 pounds. It's best to place the hook or bracket that holds the plant in a wall stud or ceiling joist for maximum strength.

If the best location is nowhere near a stud or joist and you must rely on gypsum wallboard to hold the plant, use a toggle bolt or a spreading fastener; these help provide better weight distribution.

Whenever possible, use plastic plant containers for your hanging plants—they weigh much less than clay or ceramic pots, they won't absorb any moisture, and plants in them require less water.

Watering is still another dilemma. A watered plant will drip. To prevent this, either provide a drip saucer to catch excess water (a commercial tray that clips onto the bottom of hanging pots is available) or take the plant down to water it and let it drain completely before re-hanging.

Put your plants on a pedestal. Plants set on a plant stand become a living piece of sculpture. Whether the pedestal is metal and glass, intricately turned wrought iron, a small wooden table, a turned wooden post, or a marble column, both the stand and the plant will receive compliments. Plants on plant stands are best placed in an empty corner, in a window, or on a fairly blank wall so nothing distracts from their beauty.

Care presents few problems. Drip saucers and the plant stand surface protect furniture, floors, and carpets from water damage. Be sure your stand is stable; a top-heavy plant could cause a precariously balanced stand to topple.
Placing plants around the room. Whether you use plants on tables, bookshelves, mantels, or other interior surfaces, the plants and their containers form a decorative accent.

Choose healthy plants that are sized proportionally for the space they will occupy. Attractive foliage or colorful flowers are always a bonus.