Over the last few years we’ve seen an explosion of interest in houseplants, largely driven by Instagram. As people’s collections and displays have grown, they’ve shared this with their friends and followers, inspiring others in turn to grow. It’s been magical to watch.
At home I’ve been just the same, seeing my already sizeable collection expanding as I’ve excitedly grown more and more. However that has slowed down. I’ve become more interested in growing the plants I have really well, growing them into larger plants more unique to our house.
My house plants are growing larger naturally, so unless I genuinely want to overfill our flat with plants, this will limit the number we can own (a ridiculous statement now I read it back because it already is overfilled!) I’m also finding the larger plants more satisfying visually from an interior design perspective as they’re more architectural and in scale with other furniture and plants outside.
For a few of my clients it’s the same story, they want a small number of large, visually impressive plants in cool pots rather than hundreds of smaller ones cluttering everything. Personally I find huge appeal in more mature house plants due to the bark of trees, more prolific flowering and that genuine ‘urban jungle’ feel from larger leaves.
Combine with much easier care; the larger pots need watering less often, plants generally need repotting less frequently and of course you need fewer of them to create a higher impact. I’ve visited a few houses recently where supersize house plants have had such impact, it’s blown my mind.
I don’t anticipate the real plant lovers will stop growing large numbers of house plants. I do expect what we see on Instagram to veer off into a new direction with fewer shelves over-flowering with plants and more people displaying 2 – 3 big plants in a room. A look that will work better for interior design and actually create that interior jungle look more effectively. It’s already happening on my feed. Nothing says ‘wow’ more than a ceiling high tree growing in your living room for instance.
Great looking Zamioculcas! But isn’t it too close to heating unit? 😉
I love it 😊 I thought it might be but actually it’s been fine. There is one leaf going over it which has suffered from sun scorch in summer from the window it grew near but over winter with the heating on it has been completely fine.