Plants á la carte

We have all been there… in the plant shop, wowed by all of the colors, textures and choices available. Here are some pointers about what plants to steer away from because they are prone to problems in our typical house conditions and what plants are worth a try. Too many times, when taken home, the plant that looked so good in the store starts dropping leaves or turning brown. “I always kill plants” is a comment we have heard many times. Here are some things to consider when you are at the plant store picking out new plants...

Are you feeling the urge to get your hands in the dirt?   We’ve made a video for Earth Day on plant propagation from cuttings. Follow our simple instructions, and you will have green thumbs in no time:  

The birds are singing their spring songs, it is light outside when we get up or drive home from work, snow is melting…Spring is on the horizon! If your indoor plants haven’t already started putting out new growth, they will very soon. Those plants in your windows are especially feeling those longer daylight hours. And the relative humidity inside should be rising to less arid levels with the heat not running as much. Just as bears, chipmunks and skunks are emerging from hibernation, our plants are coming out of their dormant period.

      Through the years, we have been told to breathe deeply to center ourselves, calm down and relieve stress. But now, in 2020, we have come to question the very air we breathe. Does it contain coronavirus aerosols? Will we be infected?  As horticultural technicians, we have continued to move through our clients’ spaces to take care of their plants, always with our face masks on, sanitizing hands and keeping our distances from people, always with communal and our own safety in mind.       Plexiglass has sprung up everywhere and aren’t we glad we can feel somewhat protected and can protect others as we interact in close quarters? But there are other ways to help us be safe which are beautiful and energizing! Plants have been cleaning our air, lowering our blood pressure, boosting our immune systems, humifying our atmosphere and lifting our spirits in our homes and offices all along, (1)(2) . Plants can be used now, more than ever to direct foot traffic, partition open areas and add pr

How we adore those succulents! All those pudgy shapes and desert shades of silvers and greens, suggesting everlasting sunny blue skies. How many times have I heard, “I am terrible with plants. I even kill cactus!”. Botanically speaking, cactI are a subcategory of succulents but today we will be addressing today the more popular varieties that tempt you every time you go into a big box store and walk by those endearing little collections of aloes, echeverias and agaves. 

We may not know why but we can just relax and feel our response to an expanse of soft mossy mounds of varying greens and textures and… sigh with a little smile. On some level, we sense the ancient history of moss as one of the most primitive forms of plants and can breathe into our elemental connection to nature. 

Every year for the past 6 years, we have had the pleasure of bringing hundreds of plants to the Summer Special Olympics in New Haven, CT and interacting with the athletes to repot them into slightly bigger pots for them to take home. We became part of a Pot-a-Plant program in 2013, begun out in California, which gave great suggestions for how to set up potting stations conducive for people with extra challenges. When we got the call from a colleague out west, asking if we would be the Connecticut interior landscaper to fundraise or get donations of plants and supplies and set up and staff the tent with volunteers for the 3 day Summer Special Olympics event for thousands of athletes, we jumped at the chance! We loved the idea of the athletes, their families and their coaches having an activity that was interactive, involved something natural and resulted in something that needed their care or could be a living gift to someone they cared about.

  You are either stuck or choose to be working from home and have created some kind of a niche area from which to work. You want to be focused and productive and may have to zoom meet from there several times a day or every now and then. What will help make that mini-environment be appealing to you and others, augment your alertness yet lower stress levels? A plant or two! You have probably heard or read that there are lots of studies indicating that plants clean the air and increase focus and creativity besides just making a place look warm and inviting.