Mutsumi no

Plants

Houseplants were a hobby I picked up during lockdown when I was bored out of my mind. I still have most of the plants I bought back then, but I am not as reliable at remembering to water them. The plants remaining are ones that can survive being forgotten about for two weeks.

During my plant obsession I made wishlists of plants. No way I'm ever going to get all of them but I'll share them here for posterity.

Grouping houseplants in combination pots

Why is this not more of a thing in the houseplant community? Instead, everyone has a million little pots crowded on their window sill. If you group together plants with similar light and watering requirements you can create a beautiful display. So far I've put together a succulent trough, and tried to include plants of interesting textures and varied colours. The trough doesn't have any drainage, which is another big 'no-no' in the houseplant community, but you can deal with this by watering slowly and stopping when the soil is saturated, and using soil testers to check the dryness of soil at the bottom.

This display has survived three years. At some point I will need to replace the soil with new compost which is sure to be a faff, but I'll deal with that when the time comes.

From left to right, the plants are:

Year-round flowering houseplants

I have tried a few of these. Streptocarpus Saxorum flowers pretty much all the time but it must need better care than I can provide because it often looks straggly. I grew Browallia speciosa and it flowered all the time but always looked straggly and leggy and constantly got infested with bugs.

Normal Streptocarpus flowers most of the year and looks great but needs watering frequently or it'll get infested with bugs. Kohleria flowers around 9 months a year and has super cute polka-dot flowers.

Houseplants from Australia

Most Australian houseplants are from tropical areas. I have the Umbrella tree and it is a nice vigorous plant that can be chopped up to make it bushier. I used to have the Lilly Pilly but the blazing hot conservatory killed it off. In retrospect I have my doubts that it would have ever flowered or fruited indoors. It was nice looking but nothing spectacular. Disschidia nummelaria was the cutest thing ever. Slow growing so it stayed small and cute for a while. Unfortunately, a cold draft killed it off and I haven't been able to source another since.

Growing a kangaroo paw (anigozanthos) is a bit of a dream of mine, and they are available to buy here but I have doubts that it would survive inside since their normal habitat is under the blazing West Australian sun. I've been unable to find any credible reports of people growing them here, but there are occasional reddit posts of people bewildered why their Kangaroo paw is dying inside. One day I may experiment to see if it's possible.