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Introduction: Living with Plants
by Scott D. Appell
We have become a nation of savvy gardeners, indeed! Over the past decades, devoted amateur horticulturists have successfully executed some remarkable gardening feats: we landscape and plant our own property, grow and force Belgian endive destined for our dining table, cultivate and utilize astounding arrays of edible and medicinal herbs, and we employ sophisticated plant propagation techniques—all outdoors.
But what about gardening indoors? What has happened to the ubiquitous houseplant? For the past forty years, successive generations of apartment dwellers and garden-less homeowners have had ample opportunity to get inspired by a multitude of gardening columns in the daily papers, an ever-growing supply of plant-related books and periodicals, as well as groundbreaking TV and radio programs. But there is still one major flaw: all along, houseplants have been relegated to the windowsill, or perhaps treated as botanical specimens that had to be cultivated beneath cumbersome, unattractive artificial lights.
With the help of potted houseplants, this dining room has been transformed into a lush indoor landscape. [Photo: Victor Schrager]
A sad fate, in view of the fact that wonderfully challenging and unconventional ways to cultivate houseplants existed more than 150 years ago. Unfortunately, the techniques of the time have been all but forgotten, relinquished to the horticultural archives. One purpose of this handbook is to rekindle an interest in those wondrous, forgotten contraptions and Victorian esthetics—combined with modern sensibilities and budgets. It is possible to live surrounded by potted plants, creating a warm, temperate or tropical environment inside—without the luxury of a greenhouse or garden room!
Due to a lack of adequate natural ambient light, most homes will require artificial lighting to accommodate an indoor landscape away from the windowsill. The products enabling this venture have evolved greatly within the past few decades, allowing us to remove houseplants from cramped windowsills, dispense with unsightly light hoods, and create pleasing interior designs using various methods of illumination. Modern indoor gardeners can choose from a greatly expanded repertoire of tropical or temperate plant material, and are able to rely on safe, chemical-free, biological pest control techniques.
Expand your mind and esthetics. Peruse this handbook, enlarge your houseplant collection—and grow along with it. You will never look at houseplants the same way again.
Scott D. Appell is director of education for the Horticultural Society of New York and a member of the Publications Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He is a contributing author to Smith & Hawken's Book of Outdoor Gardening and Rodale Press' 1001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas as well as a botanical consultant for Gardens by the Sea: Creating a Tropical Paradise, published by the Garden Club of Palm Beach. In addition, he has written three books, Pansies, Tulips, and Lilies, all published by Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, Inc, New York. His private consultation company is called The Green Man.