HOUSE PLANTS 101 - HOW TO BUY HOUSE PLANTS

I am a Plant Lady. And that's a phrase i never thought i will associate with myself, but it happened. I have never cared for a plant by myself until quite recently, although i grew up having a garden in our home in India. My parents are big time into gardening and probably that's where my love for plants come from. They have so many trees. Huge mango trees, gooseberry trees, pomegranate trees and lots of flowering plants like Hibiscus in 4 different colors, and many more for which i know only vernacular names. You can check this post for more snapshots of my parents house. But they have never had an indoor house plant other than a vine of pothos (known as money plant in India) in a glass bowl. Its all thanks to our rental apartment which was bare with not many furniture, i decided to decorate it with plants. And that's when i ended up falling in love with house plants.

Naturally, i was nervous about buying plants for our apartment. But i was excited to give it a go. I did kill one of the first 2 plants i bought, but the other one, little African Violet is still going strong for 3 years now. I bought miracle-gro, a small set of garden tools from IKEA, and i started buying house plants periodically. After moving into our own house, there was just no stopping me, we have about 10 indoor house plants now, including a tiny succulent i bought few weeks ago. But i always stick to certain tips while choosing house plants, and thought i would share them here in case any of you are interested.

• Choose house plants that are easier to manage(aka. hard to kill). Nowadays the nursery/stores sell them with specific tags that says easy to grow, so hard not to screw that up. 
• Plants which can survive both in low light and bright light areas. Or choose the location for your plant, track the light in that location for a day (lighting differs from morning to afternoon) and then go plant shopping. Because if you buy a plant which needs bright light but you plan to place it on a windowless hallway, is just cruelty. Buy artificial plants for those dark corners.
• Plants which can survive less watering. Please note, less is more. You are more likely to kill a plant with over watering than less watering. Never over water.
• Plants which purify the air.
• If you have pets, make sure the plants are not toxic to the pets. I found this post that explains more about this topic.
• Prefer to shop the nursery in your local areas than big stores like Home Depot/Fredmeyer to buy your plants. One, you will be supporting your local small business and two, they are likely to have more variety, and also fresh & healthy plants.

Plants i have that are easier to manage are:

1. Snake Plant, i have 4 of these in various sizes. Its also an air purifier, and survives on very less water.
2. Aloe Vera
3. Rubber Plant
4. Golden Pothos 
5. Succulents

Don't wanna invest in a house plant? Then buy fresh flowers from the local farmers market, and trust me, you will see how it just changes the feel of the room instantly. Good ones last for a week.

Hope this post was helpful and gave you an insight into how to shop for house plants. I will share more on this topic periodically. Thanks for reading. xo, Hems

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