How the Lifesaver Plant Got Its Name

Winter is a time when most of my houseplants get the most love they're ever going to get. That's because if I want to keep these plants - mostly tropicals - they have to live in the house with us during the winter and I generally pay more attention to those things that share my living space. We're in Zone 5b here and it gets way too cold for them to stay outside year round.

These begonias do well in the bright shade of the pergola, but need to
go inside for the winter.

One day, in the summer of 2016, I went nursery hopping with my good friend, Shelley, and while I showed some restraint as we visited various places, only buying what I needed for a photo shoot for a trade industry magazine article I was doing, I found something I couldn't live without. It only cost a few dollars, but we all know that when it comes to plants, cost often has little to do with our buying decisions.

I'd heard about the lifesaver plant many years ago and had seen photos of it - such a cactus-y looking thing with surreal candy blooms. I wondered if those flowers (I felt funny even calling them that) really looked as plasticky in real life.

But now here it was, right in front of me, and oh boy, yeah. It really did look like its photos. So I bought it. In the time since that day, it has taken turns growing in the house, in the conservatory, and outside during the summer. It seems to be a happy camper no matter where it is. You've got to love a plant like that.

Here are the growing stats:

Common name: Lifesaver plant
Botanical name: Huernia zebrina
Plant type: Succulent
Zone: 10
Light: Full sun
Water: Let dry thoroughly between watering, then soak. Tolerates neglectful watering.
Height: Under 6 inches 
Bloom time: Intermittent

FUN FACT: Huernia zebrina belongs to the same family as milkweed -  Apocynaceae. But no, monarch butterflies don't use it as a host plant. 😉

For ideas on how to use houseplants that coordinate with your personal style and decor, see my first book, co-authored with Jenny Peterson: Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants. (2013, St. Lynn's Press)

In a Vase on Monday: A First

I have never met Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, host of the blog meme, In a Vase on Monday. I've never participated in the meme before today, but I'm familiar with it because of someone I have met.

Everything looks as if it was created expressly for Loree's garden - the plants,
the containers, the structures... She is an incredibly talented designer.

"Careful, you could poke an eye out."

Loree Bohl, who lives and gardens in Portland, Ore., has posted her version of the meme a dozen or so times. When the Garden Bloggers Fling was held in Portland in 2014, I was privileged to get to see her garden - Danger Garden - in all its spiky glory. I've long been a fan of her blog and seeing all those glorious plants in person as well as her edgy design was one of the highlights of that trip.

I don't often cut things from my garden, preferring instead to enjoy them in their natural setting. But today, as we were experiencing way above normal temperatures for the middle of December, I got the urge to go out and cut whatever I thought might go together in a vase. On Monday.

Because I don't cut things from my garden, I'm not the most accomplished flower arranger. Those things take practice. But I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. It even looks a little Christmas-y, though that wasn't the intent.

Red is the accent color in our kitchen and dining area. Chihuly's Burned Ikebana hangs on the wall, and photos of grandchildren Anthony and Hannah keep a
handmade angel (by mom) company on the mid-century buffet.

I worked hard to find something in bloom, impossible at this time last year, which had us with several inches of snow on the ground. Though we were at nearly 70° on Saturday and Sunday this year, it will be a couple of days yet before the fall self-seeded Calendula blooms open up.








But there were some wonderful things out there just the same. I used:

• Panicum virgatum 'Northwind'
• Baptisia Twilite Prairieblues™
• Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum)
• Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens)
• Sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora)
• Coral bells (Heuchera 'Tiramisu')

 

The vase is one of a set of three that I purchased at West Elm in Austin, Texas,
when Jenny Peterson and I were working our book,
Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants

I doubt I'll participate in In a Vase on Monday again until spring comes along and I've got something different to choose from the garden for cutting. But you can follow along at Cathy's blog here.

Thanks, Loree, for inspiring me to play.

A Living Room Divider: Define Your Space With Plants

When Jenny Peterson and I were writing our book, Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants, one of the ideas we shared for using houseplants as a design element was as a room divider.

From Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants

The photo on page 83 of the Traditional Mix chapter shows how I used this concept in my own entry/living room. Our house was built in 1975 and when we bought it in 1977, we never gave the spindled half-wall a second thought. It's just how things were traditionally done back then.

Over the years, I came to hate those spindles. First of all, they have a colonial/Early American look to them and I'm just not a fan of that style. I knew that one day those spindles would be history, but I didn't know just what I'd do there, after their demise.

I don't remember now how the idea of putting a planter atop that half-wall came about, but my handy dandy dad constructed it and I planted it up.

That spot doesn't get the most light in the world - only indirect light from the windows in the living room - so I needed something that would do well under low light conditions.

ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) fit the bill. It's one of the easiest houseplants in the world, not being fussy about anything, including light and water. I planted it in 2011 and just recently decided it needed an overhaul. Most of the plants were fine, but I'd lost a few over the years, due to my truly neglecting them, as in I forgot to water them for a couple of months. (See? I'm not much different than you are!)

It was time for a change. And here's how it looks now:

Those sansevierias are stuffed in there. I wanted to put some ivy in at the base too, but there simply wasn't any room for it. There are a lot of new shoots coming up from the roots and I'll likely have to thin them at some point, but they're slow-growing so this should be good for quite a while.

Also called snake plant and mother-in-law's tongue, this succulent is known to be one that thrives on neglect, although you do need to remember to water it now and then. They prefer bright light, but will also grow in shade, making it highly adaptable as a houseplant.

Another benefit of Sansevieria trifasciata? It's one of the plants known for cleaning the air of toxins.

For more ideas on how to use plants to enhance your individual style inside your home, see our book, Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants.  It's available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers, as well as directly from me as a signed copy.

Weekend Wisdom: I Like the Way the Greeks Do It

Having been the guest in homes outside the U.S., I know that different locations and cultures have what they consider to be proper guest etiquette. I try to take my cues from my hosts, but sometimes you just don't know what to give your host as a thank you gift for having you in their home, whether it be for a meal or for a few days.

Huffington Post to the rescue!

Photo of Aglaonema from my book, Indoor Plant Décor: The Design
Stylebook for Houseplants

A cut flower bouquet is always in good taste for your host, now matter where you live, but in Greece, a potted plant is a common gift.

Despina Trivoli, HuffPost Greece's Head of Life and Culture says, "The most usual gifts include alcohol, dessert (cake is very popular) or plants." Flowers in general are welcome, but usually potted plants are preferable -- something that will be able to grow in a balcony or garden.

I like that.

A Quick 4-Book Gardening Book Giveaway!

My publisher, St. Lynn's Press, is celebrating St. Patrick's Day a little early by giving away four titles from their illustrious repertoire of books. They've made it easy to enter:

Green is good. St. Paddy would agree. How are you 'greening up' the planet'?

Want a chance to win one of our books by Billy Goodnick, Jan Johnsen, Kylee Baumle, Jenny Peterson and the Editors at SLP for St. Patrick's Day? 

Simply visit our page and leave a comment about how you are 'going green' on this status. That's how we'll know you'd like to win one of the books.

Deadline to comment: Midnight, EDT, Friday, March 13th. One copy of each book will be mailed out next Monday to four 'lucky' winners!

So that's it. Just visit the St. Lynn's Press Facebook page (and "Like" it if you'd like!) and leave a comment on the status that shows these four books:

If you want to check out the books further, just click on the covers above and it will take you to the Amazon page for each one. But whatever you do, you'd better scurry on over to the St. Lynn's Press page and enter to win one, because the giveaway closes at midnight EDT tonight! (Friday, March 13, 2015)

It's Houseplant Appreciation Day! (+ a book giveaway)

Yes, it's pretty, but...

It's the middle of winter and I guarantee you I'm not doing any gardening out there in the frozen tundra right now. I know the entire eastern half of the country is shivering, but with all due respect to those of you in the south that think you've got it bad, I invite you to spend a few days with me.

It will be two more months before I can even begin to think about what I might do in the gardens outside. But I've got more than enough green going on right here in the house. Those who know me know that I live in a jungle during the cold months of the year. I haven't taken a head count of my houseplants, but it's a lot. Trust me.

Today happens to be Houseplant Appreciation Day and whether you've got one houseplant or one hundred, it's always good to be reminded of why it's beneficial to grow plants in your house (whether it's winter OR summer!).

Nothing adds a spot of color to a cold winter's day like amaryllis.
(Hippeastrum 'Temptation')

• Plants provide oxygen. Remember those oxygen bars that were so popular back in the '90s? You could go in them and breathe super-oxygenated air and it was supposed to provide all sorts of health benefits for us oxygen-deprived humans. Well, plants take your CO₂ and convert it to oxygen, so whether it's beneficial or not, you've got fresh oxygen right from the source when you have living plants in your house. Fresh is better, right? 





Bromeliads like it shady when they grow outside, so they make an ideal houseplant.



• Plants clean the air.  Certain plants are known to actually rid the air of toxins. We live with all kinds of artificial chemicals wafting through the air, coming from the carpets on our floors, cleaning solutions, and plastics everywhere. NASA conducted a study to see if plants could help rid the air in an enclosed space of various toxins and found that growing just one plant for every 100 square feet of living space could do just that. There's a long list of plants that help us in this way, but here's a list of just a few that are exceptionally good at it:
  
  
  
  • Peace lily 
  • Snake plant 
  • English ivy 
  • Dracaena spp.  
  • Anthurium 
  • Chrysanthemum 

Peace lily (Spathiphyllum cochlearispathum) is a real workhorse when it
comes to cleaning the air.

• Plants relieve stress. How many of us enjoy taking a walk through a garden, through the woods, through a park, when we're stressed about something? Studies have shown that environments that have live plants help reduce blood pressure and provide a sense of well-being when compared with those that don't have them.
  





This staghorn fern (Platycerium sp.) likes it in our bathroom, where the humidity
levels are naturally higher than in other parts of the house.



• Plants help people work better.  Again, studies have shown that working in an environment that has live plants will increase your productivity and creativity.
  
  
  

  

  Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema sp.) in my office, as featured in
  Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants



• Plants help fight disease.  Plants raise the humidity levels in the air around them, and who can't use a little more humidity during winter? Those of us who have to have our heat on during this time of year know just how dry the air can get. Higher humidity levels lessen your susceptibility to colds.

Orchids are one of the air cleaners and their beautiful blooms can last for several months.

One of my favorite houseplants (and one of the easiest to grow) is the Norfolk Island Pine. I got my biggest one a few years ago when I was participating in a program by Costa Farms. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Costa Farms is the largest houseplant grower and distributor in all of North America. Go to a big box store and you'll find that most of the houseplants offered there come from Costa Farms.

This Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla), which isn't a pine at all,
was about two-thirds the size it currently is when I got it just a few years ago.

I was fortunate to get to see their home base in Miami, Fl., a few years ago and seeing all those gorgeous plants being grown in ginormous quantities was amazing. I learned a lot about the company and how they do things, which just served to make me more appreciative of how the majority of my houseplants get from there to here.

Now that you know that houseplants are good for you, doesn't that just make you want to run out and get one? (Or two or three?) And if you aren't really sure just how to display your houseplants, let me offer a suggestion that has lots of ideas for how to do that - my book.

Amazon chose Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants as one of their Top 20 Books of 2013 in its category. I'm not sure exactly what the criteria was for that honor, but co-writer Jenny Peterson and I like to think it's because it's got oodles of ideas for how to use houseplants that enhance your particular home decor style, whether it's Classic Elegance, Cheap Chic, World Beat, Peaceful Zen, Modern Eclectic, Haberdashery, Traditional Mix, or Vintage Vibe.

Enter to win a copy of Indoor Plant Décor

I'd like to give a signed copy to one of my readers, so if you want to enter to win it, here's what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment to this blog post telling me your favorite houseplant

and

2. Fill out the Rafflecopter form with your contact details so I'll know how to get ahold of you if you're the lucky winner. I'll also use Rafflecopter to randomly choose a winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until midnight EST next Sunday night (January 18, 2015) to enter, but do it now so you don't forget! Good luck and go appreciate your houseplants! It's their day!

Instructions for how to make this succulent wreath is one of eight DIY
projects in Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
If you would like to purchase a signed copy of my book, just click here. A link for purchasing is also on the right side sidebar on my blog. To purchase an unsigned copy at a discount through Amazon, click here.

The Winter That Was, Is, and Is To Come

Where did January go?  Or the beginning of February?  It seems like it was just Christmas, then New Year's, then it started to snow.  And the bottom dropped out of the thermometer. Then it snowed some more and the wind blew.

I confess that I wasn't around for three weeks of this winter loveliness (???) but thanks to the internet and the Viber app, I heard and saw more of what I experienced before I started my travels. There were pictures that I had hoped to post, showing a beautiful snow we experienced in the first week of January, but the snow we got next put that one to shame.

Then I left.

As many of you know, Mom and I spent two weeks in Ecuador, visiting Karina and her family, who live in Quito, Ecuador's capital.  Karina lived with Romie and me and our two daughters for a year in 1993-94.  She became a beloved member of our family and I've gotten to make the trip to visit her three times now - once every 10 years or so.

I'll be blogging about our adventures there in several posts, so for now I'll just say if you EVER get a chance to go to Ecuador, jump on it.  Don't think twice.  Just do it.  I promise you won't be sorry.  It's a beautiful place and so are its people.

Just three days after we returned from Ecuador, Mom and I were once again winging our way to another destination - the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle, Wash.  My co-writer, Jenny Peterson, and I were speakers there, giving two presentations related to our book, Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants.

Jenny (on the right) and I talk about "What Style Am I?"

This flower show marks the beginning of the spring season for me, with its fabulous display gardens and speaker presentations that fuel my imagination for the coming season's gardens. Even though we still have a couple of feet of snow on the ground, I just know that the snowdrops are pushing their way through the soil under all that and in a few weeks, crocus will be blooming in shades of gold, white, and purple.

Hang with me in the next few weeks as I take you on a tour of life in the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest at the middle of the earth and then show you the beautiful things I saw in Seattle.  I won't lie to you - those three weeks away were likely what has allowed me to keep my sanity during this winter of one giant snowstorm after another.

We're sure to have more winter, but by the time I finish sharing my experiences with you, it will almost be spring and time for grandchild number two to enter the world.  Hannah's going to get a new cousin!

Older daughter Kara and Baby Fritz!
27 Jan 2014

"Indoor Plant Décor" - It's Everywhere!

Well, not everywhere, but Jenny and I continue in our march towards world dominance and I'm happy to say it's progressing quite nicely.  More news on that in a bit.

Background: Croton / Bloom: Abutilon

Up here in the soon-to-be frozen hinterlands of Northwest Ohio, plant lovers have brought their gardens inside, where they can live happy as clams until we all go back outside together, sometime around April or May. Tender perennials and tropicals now occupy all kinds of indoor space next to the year-round residents and you might think we have a bit of a "plant problem" if you walk into my house right now.  Let me tell you, it's not a problem at all. 

My husband Romie has always said that he loves it when the plants are all inside for the winter because he feels like he's living in a jungle. This is a man whose dream is to live in a cabin in the woods up on a remote mountain.  Just him and nature.  This is sort of like that, right?  Yeah.

In any case, before you ask, yes, it takes some time to water these 100+ plants (I haven't really counted, but this figure is likely well below the actual number), but when we water, we get to admire their finer qualities up close, and that's a big reason why we have them in the first place - they're real lookers, these houseplants!  They also help to filter the air, which is a plus for my allergy-plagued hubby.

So, back to ruling the world...  Our book, Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants, is doing very well and is popping up all over the internet in some pretty cool places!  There have been some giveaways, including one which P. Allen Smith has been hosting for the past week over on his blog. 

If you have our book already, you know that Allen loves it and gave his recommendation, which appears on the back cover:

"Kylee Baumle and Jenny Peterson's passion for designing with indoor plants makes them the perfect guides to help us make new, fresh and stylish additions to every room.  The brilliance of Indoor Plant Décor is its clarity in communicating their creative ideas."

- P. Allen Smith

We even got a line on the COVER!  Woot!

We were featured in the September/October issue of the Saturday Evening Post magazine, as well as garnering a spot in their online site.  They really liked one of our DIY features that goes along with each design chapter in the book, and you can see the video they made of themselves making our cork planters, as well as a really fun interview they did with the two of us. 

And then there was a review over at Southern Living magazine, by senior writer Steve Bender, a.k.a. The Grumpy Gardener.  Like I told Steve when thanking him for giving our book some real estate on the site of their popular publication, it's always an honor to have some of The Grump's snark thrown your way.  But seriously, I love this review a lot because what he says he likes about it is exactly what we wanted to do when we set out to write the book.  That spells success, as far as I'm concerned.

Our book was also featured in an article on Parade.com and in the same week, we learned that Indoor Plant Décor was on Amazon's List of the Top Books for 2013 in our category!!!!!!!!!

 This is how it looks on Amazon, even though we're #18 out of the top 19. 
We don't care how they show it.  We're just pleased as punch to be on THE LIST!!

Making the Amazon list is just about the best thing that could have happened to us as authors and something that took us completely by surprise.  Of course, we're extremely happy about it and we hope that all the readers that made that possible are enjoying our book.  If you've purchased a copy of our book, thank you!  And if you haven't, we're suggesting that you do.  Here's where you can get it:

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble (it's in their bricks and mortar stores too)
WoollyPocket.com
Powell's Books

and...

If you want a signed copy for yourself or as a special gift for the holidays, you can order that right here (see the right-hand sidebar).  I'll even gift wrap it for free!  Just let me know in the notes section when you pay, who you want me to inscribe it to and if you want it tied up in a bow.

Can I just make one more really important point about our book?  You might be tempted to think that it's just for gardeners and I can see how you might think that.  But it's also for those that like to decorate their homes.  You see, this is what our book is really all about. 

Plants can add panache and give your home a personal touch in ways that a pillow or curtains can't.  Plants go with every style, no matter what yours is, and our book helps you choose those that will enhance it.  There's a big wide world of houseplants out there - something for everyone - so let us help you get started!  It's kind of like eating potato chips.  You won't be able to stop with one.

Anyway, just wanted to share some of our good news with you!

Celebrate National Indoor Plant Week with "Indoor Plant Décor" (A Giveaway!)

It's National Indoor Plant Week and no one is happier to celebrate this than my co-writer, Jenny Peterson, and me.  We wrote a book about houseplants - Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants - which was released by St. Lynn's Press in April of this year.

I'm sure that the fact that this specially designated week is in September is no accident.  It's this time of year that we begin to take more of the gardening fun indoors if you live in the north.  I've already begun to bring in some of my tender plants (a.k.a. houseplants) that spend their summer vacation on the patio, the deck, the front porch, and in the garden.  For me, here in Ohio, first frost is just a few weeks away, give or take, according to the whims of Mother Nature.

Jenny and I decided it would be fun for each of us to do a giveaway on our blogs in celebration of houseplants.  We'd like to help you use them in your décor in stylish and fun ways.  So, we are each giving a copy of our book away!

To be entered, leave a comment on this blog post, telling me what your favorite houseplant is and what you like about it so much.  If you have more than one favorite, you can tell me all of them!  Do it by midnight EDT on Sunday, September 22, 2013, and on Monday, I'll use Random.org to pick a winner and announce who gets their very own copy of Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook For Houseplants.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I suppose some of you are wondering what my favorite houseplant is.  It changes for me, and right now, I'm enjoying this trio of bromeliads.

These were a gift from Lechuza, makers of those great stylish self-watering planters.  Several of their containers are featured in our book and we got to present a signed copy to them when we visited their booth at the IGC (Independent Garden Center) Show in Chicago last month.

These bromeliads belong to the genus Guzmania.

Bromeliads aren't hard to grow and are one of the plants listed in the "Moderately Manageable" chart in our book. These bromeliads shown at the right (Guzmania sp.) do like water in their "cups," so even though these are growing in a self-watering planter, I will fill them up every now and then, taking care not to overwater.  They don't like direct sun (it will burn their foliage), so they're ideal for growing in the house.

They're also readily available, inexpensive, and as you see, come in a variety of colored blooms.  (Actually, the colored parts you see aren't the blooms.  You can see a bloom starting to peek out from the reddish-orange one.  The colored parts are leaves that change color when the plant is ready to bloom.) Other bromeliad types have gorgeous spotted or striped foliage.

Did you know...

...that tillandsias (sometimes called "air plants") are a type of bromeliad?

...that the pineapple is a bromeliad, too?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So now, tell me your favorite houseplant and you're entered to win a copy of our book!  For your second chance to win, go over to Jenny's blog - J. Peterson Garden Design - and enter there!