There is one thing about collecting house plants – the fact they are living means they need looking after to enable them to look their best all the time. There is something really satisfying about being able to display lots of different types on a stand, such as the one I have in my sitting area near the patio doors. I have 28 indoor plants currently and many of those are the offspring of earlier gifts or purchases. I do seem to have green fingers – this was evident out in the garden over many years. I then managed to employ that skill with a couple of indoor lilies and many of the orchids dotted around. The secret to owning and displaying these indoor treasures is to water them at the right time and in the case of all my plants, with rain water from the outdoor bins. I was actually unaware that indoor plants thrived with rainwater until a relative told me that the reason the leaves on several of mine displayed nasty brown tips was entirely due to my modus operandi! Since then, when I trimmed off every brown point, I have held the plant over a clean washing up bowl, carefully pouring only enough rainwater over the compost until it starts to pour out of the base, into the bowl. The plant is then placed on a conveniently flat rack on the draining board and allowed to sit several hours until no more water comes out. Nothing is likely to damage a plant more quickly than over watering or leaving it in water if the roots don’t like that.

Orchids are often considered difficult to care for, but in general, most of those sold in this country will have been mass produced along the same theme. They do not like their roots clogged in normal plant compost, but only thrive with orchid bark in the pot. Their roots like the lightness and they too need rainwater poured over the medium only, not the leaves. I hold my plant pots above the collecting bowl and pour plenty of rainwater over until it floods out below. I gently squeeze the pot to encourage excess fluid out. The pot is then drained in the same way. If I need to water several plants at the same time, the first ‘shift’ have to be moved off the rack on to a series of strategically placed moping up cloths and very absorbent tea towels, retained for the purpose. The indoor plant collection give me great joy but they do take rather a lot of planning to get them watered in the right way to keep them their deep green glory.

How we display our plants matters too. I have 3 large ficus weeping figs, 2 variegated and one plain green. They have all grown from very small, almost bonsai sized specimens and over the years have needed occasional ‘potting on’ into bigger pots. That is going to be quite a job this time as each of mine are now fully mature and large. The need the same watering regime, then when drained sufficiently they get wheeled back to their comfort spots. 2 are on a small piano in the front window to lap up daylight but not direct sun, and the large plain is on it’s own little planter support.