thisNZlife

LITTLE HOUSE OF HOYAS

Ferns are so 2021. I’m ashamed to confess that despite my gardening credentials, I’ve killed most of the ferns I fawned over in NZ Life & Leisure ( September/ October 2021). But indoor plant fashions are as fickle as fiddle leaf figs; I’ve moved on from monstera and maidenhairs to calathea, hoyas and peperomias.

I‘m rather chuffed with my hoya collection. These evergreen trailing wax plants (seen at left dangling down the chest of drawers behind me) seem near impossible to knock off; all of my plants have survived for months without water. Perhaps that’s the key: treat them mean and keep them keen.

In the United States, the gardening industry’s PR arm, The National Garden Bureau, has declared 2022 the Year of the Peperomia. These succulent subtropicals, also known as radiator plants, come in clumping and trailing forms. Seek out silverstriped Peperomia ‘ Watermelon’, shiny burgundy Peperomia caperata or the dangly string of turtles, Peperomia prostrata. However my current foliage fancy piece, perched on the puzzle table, is the crinklecut prayer plant Goeppertia orbifolia (previously known as a calathea). Hailing from lush jungles, it’s quite happy in low light but requires more watering than most.

I only pray I don’t kill it.

Country Life

en-nz

2022-07-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-07-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thisnzlife.pressreader.com/article/282557316871357

NZ Lifestyle Magazine Group