The Rural Voice, 2005-01, Page 34Gardening
Well behaved winter house plants
Rhea
Hamilton -
Seeger and
her husband
live near
Auburn. She
is a skilled
cook and
gardener.
By Rhea Hamilton -Seeger
We got the last of the debris and
leaves swept up and a few branches
dragged to the burn pile. No I am not
gardening outside. The mess is
inside.
Some of our houseplants are a tad
big and drop a lot of leaves in the late
fall while trying to adjust to the lower
light levels, lower humidity levels
and less water. We share vacuuming
duties in this household and the
majority of the house plants are in the
sunniest room of the house, the part
that I am not responsible for. But
since the plants fall in my domain so
does the trimming and sweeping.
When the plants are dragged indoors
for the winter they drop their leaves
in protest. In fact they protest
for a few months before they settle
down.
And if that is not enough we are
faced annually with an infestation of
white fly. But after a couple of
aggressive treatments with
insecticidal soap, plants and pots are
moved outside for a cool demise. I
have come to the conclusion that I
don't want to spend time spraying
and fussing over house plants. It's
tough love here.
With that in mind I am taking
special care of the tidy plants while
keeping an eye open for a few plants
that are born to be indoors; they are
so well behaved and only drop leaves
when shaken.
Among the well-behaved is the
Norfolk pine. Our poor specimen is
almost 30 years old and after many
years tucked in a dim corner it has
come into the light and what a
comical figure it cuts. The early
lower branches dropped long ago
from low light and semi -arid
conditions. Now it enjoys plenty of
30 THE RURAL VOICE
light and while the pot could be
bigger, it is getting more water. The
older growth has drooped down to
hide the scars left by the missing
branches creating a very lean
appearance, yet it sports a new spurt
of growth at the top giving it a rather
comical touch. It is a plant well worth
having but what do you do with it
when it becomes too big for your
home? I think there should be a place
for overgrown plants to go — some
neighbourhood atrium.
Another well-behaved house plant
is the White Sails or Peace Lily. It
has lovely arching dark green leaves
radiating like a fountain from its pot.
Above all this are small white calla -
like, lily -shaped blossoms that seem
to perch over the leaves like doves in
flight. The narrow leaves may grow
up to a foot long and one and a half
inches wide. While they are prone to
brown tips in the winter when the
humidity is low, you can take your
scissors and trim it off.
They love the warm houses in
winter and plenty to drink. While
they can be watered less in winter,
they will droop when too dry. They
can be replanted in the, spring with
rich, humusy soil mixture.
The variegated spider plant
(chlorophytum) is another favourite
but if left to its own patterns it will
sprout too many baby plants that dry
on the pot edge and have to be
yanked.
The old solid green leaved spider
plant was quickly replaced when the
green and white striped models came
on the market. The thin ribbons of
leaves cascade out of the pot along
with baby plants on the end of
creamy stalks all helping to create the
appearance of a spider.
What some gardeners don't realize
is that those multitude of small plants
can be snipped off in the spring and
planted out in the border of the
garden for a lovely effect. The spider
plant is a member of the lily family,
native to South Africa, tolerates poor
light, but appreciates moisture at its
fleshy, bulbous roots. It can be grown
in warm or cool temperatures. They
will do just fine in average potting
soil, as long as you keep it evenly
moist and feed when actively
growing.
1 have a love/hate relationship'
with our Oleander. Such a lovely
name for a lovely little house tree
with waxy pink and white flowers. It
is a tropical tree grown in tubs on
patios and brought in for the winter
months. Its leaves, stems and flowers
are poisonous if eaten, and even its
wood, accidently used as meat
skewers, is known to have killed a
number of people. Ancient literature
tells of attempts to eradicate it from
the Mediterranean region, where it
grows wild, because of its danger to
animals.
It is also a carrier of scale and
other insect pests. I have managed to
keep our Oleander somewhat free of
scale. I must admit some of the
pruning in the late spring and a heavy
dose of insecticidal soap outside was
a must.
It became quite tall one year; well
over my head. Every time someone
would walk by it would almost
topple. So 1 cut it back to half and the
side shoots took over but rather than
grow upwards and create a more full
plant, the shoots just kept growing
outwards. So 1 ended up with a four -
foot -tall Oleander that was five feet
wide. A second trimming seems to
have brought everything into
perspective. Let's say it is amending
its growth pattern.
Oleanders enjoy sunny to semi -
sunny light, cool winter temperatures
and humidity at 30 per cent or more.
A soil mixture of equal parts loam,
sand, and peat moss will do quite
nicely. Keep evenly moist except on
the dry side in the late fall and early
winter. Like so many other plants,
feed it in spring and summer when
more actively growing.
The last one on my "must" list is
the hoya or wax plant. We had one
for years and the only time you really
noticed it was in the evening when its
heavy perfume filtered through the
house. That was the signal that the
hoya was blooming.
It is a vine from Australia that
clings with aerial rootlets on a piece