Once the holidays are over I’m sure if I had to do it all over again I would over do it. So I’m grateful for a month like January where I can get grounded and renewed for the seasons ahead. Before you know it spring will be here. Winter is a good time to reflect and dream with new ideas for the warmer seasons to come, to think of changes in your personal landscape and environment. Being surrounded by healthy plants both indoors and out is known to improve our daily lives. To thumb through articles and look at pictures of landscapes, flowers and plants is a winter tradition. Maybe consider adding some foliage plants to our indoor rooms. Sprouting new ideas for our surroundings is therapeutic. I read the other day that new ideas are just like babies….messy, confused but full of possibilities! January is a month for what I call “wet cement” ideas….some dreaming for possibilities are formed but not yet written in stone. Maybe some seed catalogs will plant a seed in your imagination. Imagine some change in your surroundings and landscape and dare to dream for this year!
If you are looking to add some living plants to your home and office but don’t have a “green thumb” you may want to consider Tillandisia.
Tillandsias are what some would call “air plants” and what is more readily available than air? This plant is a great way to air out your “Green”-ances. Tillandisias are low maintenance plants that only require some water. Most varieties do fine with a weekly misting or take it in the shower with you.
Larger plants should be dunked into water in a sink for 10 or 15 minutes a week. Bright light, but not necessarily direct sunlight is recommended, which will produce some color in the plant. After soaking the plant drain the water out of crevices. Tillandsia will also at times produce a bloom that will flower. They also produce pups or “babies” that create a whole other plant.
When using Tillandsias for terrariums or art projects they cannot be used with potting soil or dirt (they are airplants). You can use sand, rocks, pebbles or bark chips. You can also creatively mount the plants on a wire frame, or glue them with a Tillandsia adhesive on wood such as a favorite piece of driftwood.
There is a plant for any season and any place, even in the dead of winter. A friend told me recently that plants aren’t that hard, you just have to think like a plant. And they make great friends during the long winter days indoors.
