Create Rainbows of Color Indoors
Throughout the winter months we depend on indoor tropical foliage plants to bring color and life to our homes. Colorful leaves and textured foliage make our homes more comfortable, enjoyable and also help purify the air.
With the selection of plants available at Echter’s, it’s easy to turn any room with any light situation into a lush garden. Even with all those colorful leaves, what we most often long for is...flowers. Believe it or not, there are quite a few winter flowering tropical plants perfect for our homes.
Among the easier plants to grow and flower are Phalaenopsis orchids. If you’ve ever wanted to try growing orchids, these will prove how easy they are to grow. The gorgeous sprays of blooms created by these plants can last several months. You can grow Phalaenopsis easily in a bright, but indirectly lit area or under lights.
Orchids are generally grown in a fir bark mix. This allows for better drainage and air circulation around the root system, but enables us to easily maintain them in our homes. Most are fall/winter bloomers and will color a home with large flowers of white, lavender, pink, or yellow. Many are available with stripes or spots, adding novel interest to enduring color. In order to insure the best quality and flower count, Echter’s grows hybrids developed by the best orchid growers in the country, acclimates the plants and flowers them in our own facility.
If your space is limited, try growing tillandsias and small bromeliads. While some bromeliads are best grown in light potting soil, many tillandsia require no pot at all and are easily grown mounted to interesting driftwood, magnets, glued to wreaths or resting in a shallow pot or terrarium. They can be as small as two inches tall and the spikes of flowers produced are interesting and colorful. These amazing little plants require bright light, regular misting and a thorough soaking weekly. Those grown in pots will need bright light and moderate moisture, no misting required. The foliage on these plants is full of texture and can vary incredibly from one variety to the next. Some bromeliads can remain in color for six months or more.
Prefer more traditional blooms? African violets are wonderfully easy to grow and require little space.
Most are frequent bloomers, needing only a brief rest before color appears again. Provide them with bright indirect light, moderate moisture and these will be rewarding to grow.
Violets are "buddy" plants and do best when they are grown with another. If watering these plants has ever been confounding, try planting one in an African Violet pot. These pots wick moisture up to the roots from the bottom, providing thorough watering and eliminating the old problems with getting water spots on the foliage. Thanks to these pots, growing violets has never been easier.
We at Echter’s adore flowering plants and grow many of the florist quality plants you see in our greenhouses. among our favorites are Primrose, Fairy Primrose, Cineraria, and Cyclamen. All of these are cool winter bloomers and do best when kept from heat sources. All are perfect for cool window sills and will provide color unmatched by most flowering plants. The most incredible color assortment is available in primrose. Colors can range from white, pastel pinks and butter cream to vibrant red, purple and sunny yellow.
Fairy Primrose produce more delicate flower clusters held well above their foliage. The truly wonderful characteristic of this plant is its fragrance. The clean sweet scent of their blooms will bring a breath of spring to any room.
Daisy-like blooms mound in abundance atop Cineraria. These flowering plants produce blooms in white, pink, cranberry, deep blue and
bi-colors. Cyclamen produce more unusual blooms.
The flowers of these plants are held well above the rounded foliage and appear to open upside down. Cyclamen are available in white, pink, lavender, and red in both standard and miniature sizes.