More Houseplant Love

Let's dive into our obsessions

This week’s frigid temperatures were a reminder that winter is still here. We finally got some snow, too. Not having snow for much of January and February felt strange, but I was a bit surprised by how good it felt to look out at a snow-covered garden.

Although I ordered seeds for this year’s garden and I’m tending seedlings under grow lights — mesclun, pea shoots and herbs, all to enjoy during the winter — my attention is still focused on houseplants.

I promised you another post about them, but even if that hadn’t been my plan, they would have shown up here this month. My brain, my heart and my creativity are fully wrapped up with houseplants right now.

Shifting my focus from outside to inside during the winter is part of the natural cycle for me as a gardener and an artist, but this winter my obsession has been growing even more enthusiastically than the roots on my Tradescantia cuttings. I’ve been tending my plants, arranging and rearranging, potting up cuttings, taking more cuttings… in short, I’ve been puttering.

And it feels wonderful.

I’ve also been reading about houseplants, watching videos about them and painting them, too.

If there’s one thing I want to share with you today, it’s to follow your obsessions. Dive deep into what you love and what brings you joy.

The world needs our joy. It needs our creativity. And it needs us to share both.

Perhaps houseplants and art-making won’t save the world, but both make life better. These days every little bit helps.

Here are a few ways I’ve been indulging my houseplant obsessions:

Painting

Last month I declared that my next painting would be of my lipstick plant — I’d already mixed the paint! — but I wanted to paint the plant in bloom and the open flowers finished before I put brush to paper.

I’m waiting for more buds to open.

In the meantime, I’ve been following my inspiration. I painted my purple oxalis (up at the top of this post). I painted my colorful philodendron.

And my syngonium.

My inspiration has led me from one colorful leaf to another and I’m looking forward to seeing where it will take me next. Maybe one (or more) of these plants will end up in next year’s calendar.

Three houseplant paintings made their way into this year’s:

December’s Poinsettia is one of my favorite colorful-leaved plant paintings

If you want one, I only have a couple more left in my shop (and they’re on sale).

Books

Throughout my life I’ve continually turned to books whenever I wanted to learn something (thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me to use the library!). As a child I pored over my mom’s houseplant books. As a young adult I memorized the location of the plant books at the library and scoured second-hand book shops to slowly build up my own collection.

Even now, every winter, when my houseplant obsession flares up, I grab the books off my shelves (I shared them here last month) and also check out a new stack from the library.

Here’s my current stack:

• Macrame Plant Hangers: Creative Knotted Crafts for Your Stylish Home by Chrysteen Borja

• Houseplant Party: Fun Projects & Growing Tips for Epic Indoor Plants by Lisa Eldred Steinkopf

• Plant Parenting: Easy Ways to Make More Houseplants, Vegetables, and Flowers by Leslie F. Halleck

• Decorating With Plants: What to Choose, Ways to Style, and How to Make Them Thrive by Baylor Chapman

• The Hidden Histories of House Plants: Fascinating stories of our most-loved houseplants by Maddie and Alice Bailey

• How to Plant a Room and Grow a Happy Home by Morgan Doane and Erin Harding

• Wild at Home: How to Style and Care for Beautiful Plants by Hilton Carter

• You Grow, Gurl! Plant Kween’s Lush Guide to Growing Your Garden by Christopher Griffin

• Plantopedia: The Definitive Guide to Houseplants by Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan

• Botanical Style: Inspirational Decorating with Nature, Plants & Florals by Selina Lake

Hilton Carter’s and Selina Lake’s books made me giddy with delight at the gorgeously styled interiors. Plantopedia is a truly beautiful book (though not every plant I looked for was included in its pages). The others were fun to curl up with, but only one inspired action. Which leads me to…

Macrame

You might have noticed the top book in my stack isn’t about houseplants. I have fond childhood memories of macrame and for years I’ve wanted to try it. A few times I’ve checked out books from the library, but couldn’t quite figure it out.

This winter I decided to try again. Instead of turning to books, this time I looked for a class. Emily Katz’s class on Creativebug was the perfect introduction. (Check with your local library system… you might have free access to Creativebug’s classes with your library card).

Getting to see someone make the knots made a huge difference for me and I was able to follow along to make my own hanger. After that I watched a Skillshare class from Tiffany Egbert and then looked through the books I got from the library (finally able to make sense of the instructions!).

So far I’ve made two hangers and my mind is whirling with ideas.

One thing I found challenging was arranging the plants’ stems and leaves while fitting them into the hangers. I had to play with my design for the hoya’s hanger, knotting and reknotting the “basket” section a few times.

I’m on the hunt for fun second-hand bowls or other containers to repurpose as planters and I know I’ll have to tinker with my macrame when I find them. I’m up for the challenge!

Watering Cans

I never use my tiny watering can — it holds about 16 oz and the green one about 46 oz

Last month Laurie asked about my watering can and since then I’ve been obsessively thinking about them. When I opened Hilton Carter’s book and saw the watering can page I laughed out loud.

My obsession was haunting me!

I’m generally a very frugal person. I try to purchase things second-hand when possible and delight in finding cast-offs on the curb (even many of my houseplants are trash rescues!). My current indoor watering can was a clearance find I picked up years ago (I think at Target). I do love it, even if the paint is chipping a bit on the inside. The long spout makes it easy to water smaller plants or to get into the centers of the tangled stems of larger plants. But it’s a bit too small for how many plants I have. Some of my larger plants require a couple of trips to the sink, too. The watering cans I use outside (one a trash pick and the other another big box store bargain) don’t work well inside (though in the summer when I’m watering from our rain barrel, I attempt it — armed with a towel).

Doing a few searches online for watering cans made my head spin! Lots of different types and lots of opinions about what’s good and bad — rust, leaks, spilling! I was amazed by how many of the watering cans available online are teeny tiny.

I’ve looked in some shops in our little town, but haven’t had a chance to make a drive to one of the larger cities. Even when I do, I’m guessing it will be a challenge to find just what I’m looking for.

If you have a watering can that you love, please let us know!

YouTube Channels and Videos

Videos are another fun way to learn new techniques and how to care for different types of plants. They also inspire me with ideas for styling and arranging my indoor garden. Although I don’t watch a lot of houseplant-y videos, there are a few channels that I’ve stumbled upon and enjoyed over the years.

A few posts back, Stacey asked about my favorite houseplant vlogs and her question sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole! I hadn’t realized quite how many houseplant-themed YouTube channels there are (or how out-of-the-loop I am on trends).

Although I wanted to be able to share “the best” with you, I quickly realized I had to reign in my search before I got lost in the internet. If you have a favorite houseplant-themed channel, please share!

• Summer Rayne Oakes shares lots of houseplant inspiration including care guides and (my favorite!) houseplant home tours.

• Claire from The Jungle Haven shares plant info and fun ideas for styling her plants. Her sweet dog Joli often makes an appearance, too.

• Unlike the other channels in this list, Garden Answer isn’t just houseplant-related, but houseplants do show up during the winter months. I love her Hartley greenhouse!

• I’ve watched some of Benji Plant’s videos and was heartbroken to learn that his home and plant collection were destroyed in the recent fires in LA.

• Wild Fern was fun to discover because she loves begonias and hoyas… two of my favorite types of plants.

• Sheffield Made Plants includes lots of tutorials for success with your houseplants. And Richard and his wife just started a new channel for their new garden (the space has me swooning!).

My Thanksgiving cactus is blooming again. It relishes the cold west-facing window in my bedroom.

Growing houseplants, or doing any sort of gardening, is, at its very essence, about connection. We connect with the plants we tend and by doing so we connect with nature. Gardening also connects us with each other. Nearly every time I talk to someone about the plants in my art, they share stories of how a certain plant reminds them of someone from their lives. It’s such a beautiful web of connection and I’m always grateful to be a part of it.

I’m grateful to be able to connect with you here, too.

What’s been inspiring you and bringing you joy lately? I’d love to hear about your obsessions, whether they’re houseplant-related or not.