Tried and tested, hard to kill House Plants, Part 1

With all my focus at present on houses and interior design it has also made me realise what has been missing from my home at the currently.
When I was growing up there was always plants in the house, my mother had a very green thumb, so there were plants everywhere inside and a gorgeous garden outside.
Since we have moved around so much I haven't had plants in the house are they are really difficult to move. Looking at all the design blogs I have realised how much I have missed them and how they really make a house a home.

Taylor Tomasi-Hill NYC Apartment

But unfortunately as I have discovered  I haven't inherited my mother green thumb so I have had to put in a lot of research and trial and error to try and keep plants alive in my home. As I have discovered this is made up if two parts, choosing the right plants in the first place and then keeping them alive…..



I have read a number of how to websites and blogs on hard to kill house plants but none of them seem to cover what I think is the number one thing to consider when you are struggling to keep your plants alive.

Are you killing them with kindness or neglect?

Identifying why your plants are dying is the first step to figuring out what will work best in your space. Some people lavish loads of love and attention on their plants and then don't know why the leaves go yellow and die. The most likely cause of this is that they are overwatering, so the best bet it to look for plants that like lots of water like ferns or the ever popular peace lily.

My Peace lily, happily thriving in my hallway

My Maidenhair fern, on the bedroom window sill

If you are more of the type to forget you even have plants that require attention you need ones that prefer drought conditions. Like succulents, cacti or the Tropic Marianne I have picked up because I like the look of it and it has some how survived, I was actually looking for the highly recommended Chinese evergreen.

Tropic Marianne, shade loving and likes to dry out

Hanging terrarium with succulent and moss

But sometimes either your thumb  really is of the black variety or else the space you have to work with is not at all condusive to growing things. You still have options.

You can either bring colour and greenery in with flowers, as they are already dead you don't have to worry about killing them, or else you can consider artificial plants.

Some people denigrate artificial plants but its your house, if you can't keep real ones alive and you really want the look why not, I have a couple in the bathroom where I haven't had any luck with real plants and in a dark corner of the bedroom.

Artificial Succulent, set of 3 from Kmart

Artificial Fig, Ikea

Next time I will talk about how to keep them alive after you have brought them home.

AA xx