Lush foliage is a surefire way to beat winter blues
The cold drives all the tender species into shelter. Orchids and azaleas, oranges and figs, cactus and euphorbias all get pulled back into the house. Bonsai trees are wrapped and placed in sheltered places and potted Japanese Maples are half buried and mulched with chipped up evergreens.
David Lendrum is a master gardener and owner of Landscape Alaska. Responses or questions can be sent to www.landscapealaska.com.
The gawky, bizarre Epiphyllums, (cactus that grow in the crotches of trees high in the fog-shrouded tropical mountains,) are placed in well-lit cool places where they won't freeze. The most familiar of these, the spectacular Thanksgiving cactus, are in full bloom now.
Our habit of collecting and enjoying plants that need protection, or of developing interior landscapes, leads us down many strange paths. Some into the steaming jungles where the big leaved tropical vines run over the canopy and supple trees that strangle their neighbors are transformed into domestic icons. Other paths head for the drier, brighter volcanic islands where monitor lizards prowl under tough woody shrubs that look like the dawn of time.
The plants we choose to share our settings can determine the mood of a space, they are noticed as soon as the room is entered, and can transform otherwise dull places into zones of interest and delight.
Walking from a cold winter landscape into a subtropical forest is a sure cure for the blues and dining or conversing at tables overshadowed by lush foliage makes the occasion much more special.
Margaret and I were in a huge interior plant greenhouse last week, where thousands of plants were maintained for commercial settings.
The program most interior contractors follow includes rotating out some specimens on a regular basis, and replacing them with new and even more exciting plants for the lobbies of hotels and atriums of office buildings. This requires a good supply of acclimated plant material, and that is where these facilities come in.
It was like visiting a travel agency and looking at their wall of brochures; shall we go to Indonesia or India, Hawaii or Malta, Santa Fe or Palm Beach?
So many choices and all you had to do was pick one. The line from "White Christmas" ran through my head, about "All you need to do was chose the age, the shape, the size."
Aloes from the Mediterranean Islands with thick undulating leaves reached their saw-edged fingers out three feet, so smooth and cool to the touch that they felt like faith healers. Five-foot tall thickets of finger-shaped pencil cactus, cucumber green and thornless, swelled out of their pots as if they were ready to walk away. Bamboos soared up into the heights of the space, gently swaying in the air currents, sparse foliage shining in the subdued light.
Blooming plants were well represented by orchids, gingers and spathyphyllums (peace lilies). Orchids are a great group of interior plants for us in Alaska and can give a tremendous boost to color-starved people during the down months.
The real stars of the flowering collection however, were the cactus with their stiff shapes and tough thorny exteriors. The flowers that erupt from their pine cone like buds are as startling and different from the plant's appearance as possible.
Soft sleek petals, shimmer in the light and sweet to the sense of smell. They are everything an Alaskan could want in November.