Houseplants

With the current miserable weather, and more rain forecast, trips outside the back door to do anything in the garden are less than welcome. Much better to do some gardening indoors, by using houseplants to improve your surroundings.

Designing with plants inside the house needs the same considerations as using plants in the garden. The difference is that it is generally warmer and they are easier to move! Houseplants can be used for different purposes in the home. A large leaved plant can disguise a mess of pipework. Cold, north facing guest rooms can be made more welcoming by placing a collection of shade loving ferns on the windowsill. Also, tall plants can be used to subtly separate open plan interiors into different spaces.

The choice of houseplants is huge, and they all look very tempting grouped together in the ideal growing conditions of the garden centre conservatory. However, as with garden plants, you need to match your growing conditions to the species you buy. So make a few decisions before leaving the house: Where will you put the plant, how much light does the area receive, and how warm or cold is it? Avoid plants with poisonous or spiky parts, if you have children or animals, and look for specimens which thrive on neglect, if your indoor gardening consists of five minutes watering a week.

The style of your interior decoration will affect your choice of plants too. At its easiest, you can choose plants with flowers or leaves to match your paintwork, wallpaper or cushions. Sleek modern interiors suit simple, dramatic shapes. Geraniums in terracotta pots just have to go on cottage windowsills. Texture is also important. Furry leaves contrast well with glossy backgrounds, but get rather lost in a mass of soft furnishings. Matt leaves look good with polished wood.

Playing with colour is fun, and easy to do with temporary displays. You can either choose plants to tone with your décor, or set up zingy combinations of vivid, bight colours and contrasting backgrounds. Plants near windows can be used to match colours of plants outside, to blur the boundary between inside and out.

Growing plants together in groups has the benefit of saving time with the watering and creating a mini micro-climate which they all appreciate. You obviously need to choose plants, which like the same conditions to start with. Then you can contrast leaf shapes and plant forms, to bring out the differences between varying species. Alternatively, use a mass of the same type of plant to create a statement.

My favourite houseplants are edible. I have had a lemon tree for years, which produces scented creamy white flowers at this time of year, and I am rather proud of a lemon grass plant, which I grew from seed last year. It lives on the kitchen windowsill and produces enough lemon grass for the occasional stir-fry. Herbs, in general, look right in the kitchen, and, of course, are conveniently placed for use in cooking. Most of them will be temporary additions, as you will probably use them up faster than they grow, but they are easy and cheap to replace.

So, whatever the weather, you can carry on gardening, and get great results in a short time, even without the Spring.