It is nice to have plants in the home because they not only clean up the air but they also help to liven up the interior.
Visitors who visited the recent GardenTech 2007 fair will see a showflat reminscent of a ground floor condominium with an outdoor patio the moment they step into the Hort Center. In there, visitors are given ideas as to how to integrate plants into their living environment in an aesthetic way. It was tastefully done with relatively common plants.
However, I wonder if the visitors, especially those who are non-gardeners or novices, are aware that such placements are not meant to be long-term displays. There is a vast difference between what is interior design and real gardening.
For these plants to fluorish in the home environment on the long term, one has to be aware of the plants’ requirement for humidity and light. In the display examples shown below, the plants are treated like pieces of home decor items, with the lack of consideration for their cultural requirements.
They are nice and perhaps novel ways of displaying the plants, but beware they are meant for display purposes only and not for long-term successful growing of these plants. One may want to rotate display plants with others so as to ensure we do not kill them in the expense of aesthetics.
Tillandsia xerographicas above a cooking stove in the kitchen. These plants need more light that what a typical home kitchen can offer. Besides the fumes from cooking will kill the plants.
It is nice to have herbs at your hands’ reach in the kitchen but these plants need more sunlight than what can be expected from a location shown above. These plants are best located on a sunny windowsill with at least 6 hours of direct sunshine.
Another wrong way of positioning airplants in the home interior. Airplants need more light and they should be located on the windowsill or balcony.
The most heart wrecking display. These Nepenthes veitchii should have been potted up! The roots were still stuffed inside the tiny plastic bag for the ease of transportation. The lack of water will kill these slow-growing species in no time! They must be given more humidity also.
One last thing is the vertical gardens that NParks is experimenting and promoting. The variegated Aechmea is a tank bromeliad which needs water to be in the central reservoir. By orientating the plant this way will void the plant of its water, which will eventually cause the plant to die…
That nepenthes veitchii sure is a sad site, I grow carnivorous plants and my favorite genus is nepenthes. I plan to do display pieces like a really large plant in front of a single large window. They don’t need humidity to grow nicely only a few species here and there like nepenthes rajah.