Ho ho ho make the most of your beloved houseplants this Christmas and New Year by making them part of your festive decorations. There are bags of ideas to transform foliage into cosy, seasonal displays; here are a few ideas to get your creative shoots sprouting. Share your makes on social media and tag #Plantsmith so that we can see your creations.
Let there be light
Grab a string of battery operated fairy lights and gently drape around a sturdy plant or thread round a terrarium. Make sure not to damage any leaves or stems in the process but this simple quick fix will put the Christmas sparkle into your potted plants.
Get inspiration on how to display houseplants with our ‘funky ways to display houseplants’ blog post.
Candle lit table display
Candles and Christmas go hand in hand and so incorporate your houseplants into a cheery centrepiece for the table with gorgeous evergreen foliage. Trailing houseplants are particularly useful as they can be coiled around candles and make a good base to add in decorations like stems, berries or even the odd pine cone or bauble.
Light up a mantelpiece or in front of a hearth when the fire is not burning, illuminate a shady corner of the house or create a cosy atmosphere at mealtimes with a smouldering arrangement.
Prune a few small conifer stems from the garden to introduce another dimension to your display with scent; pine or fir will certainly add festive flair or enjoy the gorgeous blue-grey hues of eucalyptus or spiky foliage of holly.
Or if you got crafty following Plantsmith’s ‘make a desert terrarium’ then jazz up your dish with candles and lights to bring Christmas to the desert.
Christmas planter
Pot up a planter with houseplants. Often garden advice suggests making tubs for the garden to add winter-flowering cheer to outside but as we spend more and more time indoors over winter, greening up our homes will bring the garden inside; help keep spirits up and improve wellbeing.
Pop a pot by a warm, bright window and enjoy weeks of colour over the dullest, coldest months. Treat yourself to fun yule tide container; the shops are full of polar bear and reindeer planters!
Hang up your stocking!
Make a feature of large, sturdy houseplants like Monstera deliciosa, the Swiss cheese plant; utilise its tough old leaf joints or emerging aerial roots by carefully hang up your Christmas stocking.
Choosing winter flowering houseplants
There are many houseplants which shine around this time of year so take advantage of some of these flowering beauties to fill your home with colour over the holiday season.
Cyclamen
Looking for a pop of vivid colour throughout winter? Well cyclamen have got it covered.
The name cyclamen originates from the Greek word ‘kuklos’, meaning ‘circle’ in English and refers to the plant’s flattened, round tubers which the roots and shoots grow from. Cyclamen are perennial plants, often fragrant and part of the primrose family, Primulaceae.
There are around 23 species of Cyclamen in a range of sizes and colours from red, pink, purple or white. C. persicumhas heart-shaped leaves; the wild variety grows in open shrub or rocky hillsides but the nursery-grown varieties have tiny tubers, favouring warmth and sun and need to be treated as houseplants (often known as florist’s cyclamen), they will not survive outdoors whereas C. hederifolium and C. coum are hardy plants that thrive outside in dappled shade and should come back every year.
Cyclamen have evolved to bloom facing downwards; this survival mechanism protects the flower’s pollen from washing away in rain storms. Nature thinks of everything! Grab yourself a pot of these beauties and enjoy months of cheery colourful blooms.
Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera bridgesii
Thanksgiving cactus, Schlumbergera truncata, flowers from early November, a month earlier than Schlumbergera bridgesii, the December blooming Christmas cactus. These two plants are easy to identify; with rounded, tubular flowers Christmas Cactus also has smooth rounded leaves whereas the Thanksgiving cactus has spiky crab’s claw-like blooms on pointed stems. Blooms shower from stem tips in a cascade of bright colour that look like fireworks exploding off the ends of the plant.
Get the low down on Christmas Cactus care on the Plantsmith advice and care web pages:
Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera bridgesii
Christmas cherry, Solanum pseudocapsicum
Does a houseplant look any more festive than Christmas Cherry, with its bright orange berries this plant screams yuletide cheer!
These perennial shrubs are small evergreens with a height and spread around 30cm that can live up to 10 years, although they are often treated as an annual and discarded after fruiting. In some South American countries it is actually considered a weed due to its zealous spreading habit but in our homes these fun, dark green foliaged festive gems are like mini bauble-clad Christmas trees. In fact if you do not have space for a Christmas tree, a Christmas Cherry could be the perfect alternative.
Solanum pseudocapsicum is part of the nightshade family and although related to tomatoes, do not eat the cherry-tom like fruit, they are poisonous and may give you a bad tummy ache – definitely keep away from pets so pop this plant up on a shelf out of the way of curious paws!
Flaming Katy, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
For fiery colour, Flaming Katy is a cute houseplant that will dazzle without needing much attention. Smooth, scolloped leaves surround small double flowers ranging in colours from yellow, orange and white to red and pink.
Native to Madagascar these plants thrive in low water areas so don’t kill with kindness, hold back on watering and wait for them to dry out fully before rewetting. Deadhead faded blooms and these easy going succulents will flower for a couple of months!
Poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima
Poinsettia have become a symbol of Christmas; you can barely walk passed a supermarket in December without seeing it flooded with scarlet red leaves. These bright perennial shrubs are most commonly found in red but there are in fact over 100 varieties of poinsettias sporting orange, white, pink, purple, even marbled and speckled leaves known as bracts.
Native to Mexico these low maintenance plants have become the go-to, must-have plant for Christmas festivities. Keep them warm and well misted and they will flourish. Unfortunately they are often thought of as disposable plants; even though they can be a little difficult to look after long term you can keep your Poinsettia thriving beyond New Year.
Get the low down on Poinsettia care on the Plantsmith advice and care web pages:
Euphorbia pulcherrima, Poinsettia
Happy houseplant holidays from all the Plantsmith team!
