Which flower to choose for growing at home so as not to harm your health? This material tells about what flowers to choose for certain premises, taking into account the botanical characteristics of crops. Before choosing indoor flowers, it would be a good idea to make sure that all family members are not allergic to them. For more information on which flowers to choose for your home, you can read the tips on this page below. Perhaps the information provided will help answer the question of which indoor flowers to choose for interior design. Small tips are also given on how to choose an indoor flower according to its group affiliation.
Houseplants can be bought at any time of the year, but in winter you have to take care of them. Try not to buy tender plants that are out in the open like “discount” deals.
If you choose bulbs, make sure they are firm and don’t have holes or sprouts. When buying houseplants, look out for any danger signs – roots sticking out of drainage holes, empty space between the compost and the inside of the pot, soft leaves, etc.
Plants should be wrapped or in a plastic bag capable of protecting them during the winter. The danger of cold air when driving home is obvious. Less obvious is the damage that can be done to plants in the trunk of a car during the height of summer. If possible, carry the plant in a box in the back seat.
Try to give the new plant an acclimatization period. Keep it out of direct sunlight and drafts for several weeks, and be careful when watering. Don’t move it from one place to another trying to find the “proper” position. Just leave it alone in a moderately warm place away from the sun. Loss of one or two leaves during this period is normal for a new plant.
The situation is different with flowering potted plants, such as azaleas, chrysanthemums and cyclamens, which are in bloom in winter. Put them in their permanent positions right away and provide as much light as possible.
What flowers and plants can and should be kept at home
There is a certain standard for which flowers can be kept at home without health risks. There are also beliefs and conclusions of scientists about which plant should be kept at home for the well-being and good health of the whole family. There are six basic shapes that almost all houseplants fit into. There are intermediate cases, and some plants change shape from one to another with age. Size is another important factor when buying a plant. Low-growing varieties can get lost against a large bare wall, and a tall tree plant is not suitable for a narrow window sill. Remember that you can buy young plants that can grow to the size of a child within a few years.
What flowers and plants to plant and grow at home?
Before you decide which flower to plant at home, you need to decide where it will stand and what function it will perform. What plants to plant at home, everyone chooses for himself, for example, upright flowers have a distinctly vertical growth pattern. Among them there are both low and the highest of indoor plants. Medium-sized upright plants are an integral part of the pot group, providing a sense of height and offsetting the horizontal effect created by rosette and ampelous plants. Tall erect varieties are often used as single plants.
Some knowledge will help determine which flowers to grow at home, for example, columnar plants have thick vertical stems, either leafless or bearing leaves that do not interfere with the effect of the column. This growth pattern is found in many cacti and some succulents.
Examples:
Cleistocactus Strauss
Notocactus Lehninghaus
Trees are used in large rooms as single plants and in many compositions as a central element. The trees have a central branched or unbranched stem and leaves with small petioles. Some are quite small, such as miniature succulent “trees”; others are able to grow to the ceiling.
Examples:
Ficus Benjamin,
decora
False palms have stems which, while the plants are young, are completely covered by elongated leaf bases. In an adult plant, usually only the upper part of the trunk is covered with leaves and a characteristic “false palm” effect occurs.
Examples:
pandanus
What flowers to have at home
Before deciding which flowers to have at home, it is worth learning about bushy plants – these are varieties that do not fit into other groupings. They usually have several stems growing straight out of the compost, with a growth pattern that is neither imperceptibly vertical nor horizontal. They can be small and compact like a peperomia, or tall and bushy like an aucuba. Some plants are naturally bushy, others need to be pinched regularly to encourage tillering.
Examples of what kind of flower to have at home:
arrowroot
Which indoor plant to choose from cereals
Cereal plants have long narrow leaves and a growth pattern similar to cereals. Very few true cereals are grown as houseplants. If desired, you can grow an open ground cereal plant in the room. For example, you can use calamus, arundinaria, sedge and ophiopogon. Which houseplant to choose from cereals largely depends on the overall design of the interior.
Broad-leaved cereal plants are much more popular – Chlorophytum crested is widely grown.
Some flowering plants also have grass-like leaves, for example:
Billbergia drooping
And Tillandsia Linden.
globular plants
Globular plants are leafless and spherical in shape. Almost all of them are cacti. The surface of the stem may be smooth or covered with hairs and spines.
Examples:
Mammillaria
notocactus
Rebutia tiny
Echinocactus.
rosette plants
Rosette plants bear leaves arranged in a circle around a central point of growth.
Most rosette plants are stunted and do well with bushy and upright plants in potted groups and indoor gardens.
flat rosette plants
Flat rosette plants have large leaves that lie almost horizontally, forming a loose rosette. A number of attractive flowering plants have this growth pattern.
Examples:
Primrose
Succulent rosette plants have fleshy leaves arranged in several layers and often close to each other. This arrangement helps retain moisture in their natural habitat.
Examples:
Aloe squat
Aeonium platelet
Echeveria bristly.
Funnel-shaped rosette plants are widespread among bromeliads. The broad, belt-like leaves form a “funnel” that retains rainwater in their natural tropical habitat.
Examples:
vriesia
Gusmania
Nidularium
Creepers and ampelous plants: which ones to choose
Climbing and hanging plants have stems that are either tied to a support to grow upward or left to hang down the outside of the container. Many varieties can be used in both ways. As curly, they are formed on pegs, cords, trellises, wire hoops, vertical poles, in wall pots to frame a window, or on a support that serves as a partition. As ampelous, they can be used to grow on a horizontal surface or go down the sides of the pot.
Creepers are always grown as upright plants. Curly varieties twist around provided supports. Clinging varieties having tendrils must be attached to supports at regular intervals; if left to grow unattended, the stems will soon tangle together. Varieties with aerial roots are best grown on a moss stick.
Examples:
Philodendron spear-shaped.
Creepers / ampelous – extremely useful houseplants. When growing them as vines, it is generally not recommended to tie all the stems to one peg – they look more attractive when the stems are distributed on a trellis or on several pegs inserted in a pot. When growing them as ampelous plants, it is sometimes necessary to pinch the growth points.
Examples:
Ivy
Ampelous are always grown as hanging plants with stems pointing down, or as creepers with stems growing along the surface of the soil. Many ampelous plants have bright foliage or attractive flowers. They are best grown in hanging baskets or placed on tall stands.
Examples:
Hanging begonia
Flowers for dark corners
There is a temptation to liven up a dark corner with houseplants. But for plants to survive, they need light. Flowers for dark corners should have a high level of shade tolerance and do not need a lot of ultraviolet light for their growth.
Here is a test that will show if there is enough light: It should be possible to read a newspaper in the darkest part of the corner in the late morning or early afternoon, and plants on a sunny day should cast at least blurry shadows.
It is good if the corner surfaces are pasted over or painted in white or light color. The mirror surface is even more useful. You can use light-loving species for a few weeks, and then move them to a brightly lit place for a week or two to recuperate. An alternative way is to buy pots of brightly colored flowering species and treat them as a temporary arrangement the same way you would treat cut flowers in a vase.
unpretentious plants
There is a group of plants that can tolerate a variety of conditions – gloomy and cold corners, bright and stuffy rooms, periods of oblivion, and so on. Grow some unpretentious plant if you are convinced that everything you touch will die. These plants will survive if you don’t keep the compost moist and you don’t burn them in the summer on an unshaded south-facing windowsill. As a general rule, you can water them once a week during the growing season and once every two weeks during the winter.