apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Having a really, really, really heavy (that is also weighed down with rocks) pot with a wide base helps to avoid the larger plants getting knocked over when my cats start running like mad throughout the house.

Also, we found that spraying a diluted hotsauce onto the leaves was excellent for keeping my two furballs away from our houseplants. One nibble of that, and they weren't coming back for seconds!

i like them big and small and everywhere. i have a few trees in a few rooms and little plants in every room (other than bedroom and basement), particularly the sunroom and office. also, big happy hanging ferns don't take up any table/shelf space.

Does anyone know what kind of plant that is in the picture? It's gaw-jus!

big plants are great, but to a limit that they still remain proportional to the room. as much as i love fiddleleaf figs, that plant in the picture overwhelms the space and blocks one of those great windows. the feel of that room would have done well with something a little lighter and more airy, like maybe a small jasmine tree.

of course big plants can always be complemented by smaller ones. the more the merrier.

After years of having small houseplants, I'm seeking the opposite. I love all of my little plants, but they each require so much attention! It's almost exhausting trying to keep all of their preferences and feeding schedules straight- I feel like I'm running a plant daycare center. After all of the effort that I've put into keeping my apartment green, it might be really nice to reduce to a few large "statement" plants.

Plus, it would be nice to free up some shelf space and get some "vertical" going on...

PS- Cats will be cats. Mine picks on my favorite plants mercilessly, chewing up the ends of the leaves, digging out the roots, even pushing them off the shelves (which must be hard, because she's only a couple pounds and these plants are heavy.) Moral of the story: nothing is safe from a feline assassin.

lol - feline assassin! SOunds like my kitty.

Kathy

My darling dog snacks on the dirt in flower pots, so I dressed the dirt with rocks and stones. "Even better!", she now gets a look of intense concentration as she nibbles and mouths the smallest of the rocks then adds them to her collection on her dog bed.
My house plants are about to have their own non-stylish hardware cloth barriers around the pots. I think I will try the diluted hot sauce first.

Man, my cat, too. Only she just likes to lay on top of them and yank leaves out. Not to eat, not to play with, just for the sake of yanking them out.

I have oodles of small plants in the house and find that I quite like the look. I tried to grow a lemon tree but there wasn't enough sun so it's now living with a friend. I wouldn't mind some other kind of tree, though. Greenery is underrated, in my opinion.

I think a large floor plant is a great way to warm up a room if you have the space. But I also agree that the on in the image above is a bit overwhelming to the space. What are some people's favorite large house plants? The palm I got at IKEA does OK, but it doesn't really like how dry the air gets here in the winter.

The "bum around the corner". Nice. Gotta love that San Francisco "liberal" attitude.

I love large plants but the ceilings have to be high so that it doesn't overwhelm the space.

Years ago I trained my very clever cat to use the toilet and it all went well until he discovered my beautiful and very large potted ficus. It all went downhill from there. I soon had to get rid of my beloved ficus and provide him with a litter box. He never went back to using the toilet and that was the last time I had a large potted plant on the floor.

michpc - a dracaena or rubber tree might work in your dry air. Or a humungo euphorbia or cactus.

I find the bigger plants are generally easier to maintain and more cat-resistant (which is not to say totally.) I have lots of plants in various sizes.

Oh, hello... the ponytail palm (featured two posts down) would do well in dry air.

Melanie -- It's a fig tree.

I love one large, overscale plant in a room. But I detest multiple plants in a room unless they've been chosen and edited really really well.

I have one very tall plant in a very heavy pot in my dining area, but our ceilings are high, there's not much else in there except the table & chairs and plans for floating shelves on the opposite wall. Thankfully my dog only eats dirt and rocks outside! My aunt was moving to FL so I asked her for her plants vs. her leaving them for the new home owners. It's sort of like one of those tropical palm corn husky type plants. All I really know is I love the look, I can't kill them, and they can summer on the patio if I choose.

Big plants indoors can also do wonders for your air quality. I have a big peace lily in the bathroom, which are easy plants to take care of because it 'whines' when it isn't watered. (The leaves get all droopy but perk right back up after a good douse from the watering can) I also have two huge (and getting bigger) elephant ear plants on my deck right now, not sure where they will live when it gets colder outside, I only have like 4 windows in my entire apartment. I also have various smaller plants that float around the house. I have to agree with an earlier comment sometimes it is hard to remember which ones need more sun, and which only like to be watered on the weekend, but when I walk in the bathroom or kitchen that little spot of green make it worth it.

Does anyone know... is it good (for a tree of course!) to keep a Japanese maple inside by a sunny window?

ty8975: Thanks for your post - I was thinking exactly the same thing!

I would love some large scale plants but I...don't know how to decorate with them. I feel stupid, but even my little plants just huddle on the windowsill. I can never figure out how to integrate them into the rest of the room.

That's why I live in the East Bay ;)

Masik- A Japanese maple will tolerate a good bit of shade. So it would probably get enough light by a sunny window, but I am not sure what a constant year round temp. would do to it. It is a deciduous tree and is used to having the temp. drop considerably in the winter and stay low for a while. Do you live in a climate where it is too cold for the tree to overwinter outside and you want to bring in in for the winter? Or do you just like the look and don't have any outside space? I have a happy potted maple on my houseboat deck in Seattle...it stays outside all year long, and doesn't require anything more complicated than frequent watering :-)

I've decorated with small, and medium plants and 3 large ficus trees throughout my home. The trouble started after I "found" a starving, ferile mama cat that had given birth to 6 male kittens in my window well.

The kittens loved to use the dirt in the larger pots to relieve themselves so as soon as I caught one of them in the act, I paid a visit to a nearby thrift store and bought a bunch stainless steel forks. I arranged about a dozen forks per large pot with tines facing up and also distributed some used up potpourri which further discouraged any furtive trips to dirtland.

As far as nibbling goes I provide the cats with a long tray of catnip greens and as long as they have their cravings satisfied they seem to leave my greenery alone.

I would also like to see more posts about indoor plants besides the standard kitchen herb garden (which I have and is lovely, but I'm not always sure how to integrate plants elsewhere in my apartment...)

It'd be great to hear more of what people's favorite mid to large size plants are - I need ideas! :-)

Nancy_Claire - thank you for your answer! My question was really silly I guess... I live in SF Bay Area and have a HUGE backyard, so plenty of sun and winter temp is above frizing... thus no need to actually HAVE it inside except my silly wish... Right now it's happy outside with my succulents (which I do bring inside when it gets cold.

Oh shit! Yeah, I had to move my big plants outside because new kitty likes to pee in the soil...luckily it's summertime, but I don't know what I'm going to do come winter. I do love a statement plant, though. You can't go wrong if it's placed well.

I'm pretty sure you have all the responses you need re: the tree....I love your room...just sayin'.

Oops...I love the "Oly Studio" photo of the room....

@shockthebourgeois I only get plants that have the same feeding schedule. If it doesn't survive my Sunday watering, I can't be bothered!

I've got a beautiful hibiscus tree that we keep in the living room, and then several other small plants around the house.

mabaihua, I have had great success with rubber plants (a type of ficus), schefflera, and monstera. They are all relatively easy to grow and are medium-to-large in size. I like to arrange several potted plants of varying sizes together. But I also have several large plants that stand on their own.

I agree with kitchengraffiti about choosing plants that all tolerate the same conditions. It makes life easier.

bum? who uses that term these days?

Thanks jessicawrites!

If you really want to have success with indoor plants, try to stick with tropicals inside. If you don't have a lot of light look at the Dracaena family; Cragi, Marginata, and Massangeana are the sturdiest. For palms Kentia, Rhapis and Bamboo (it isn't really related but the stalks are similar). In the ficus family Benjamina, Fiddle leaf (pictured), Ali and Rubber tree work really well if you've got some nice bright indirect light. Bringing outdoor plants inside can be risky if you don't know what you're doing. You'll notice that plants do do much migrating in the wild, they prefer to adapt themselves to one spot and stay there. Indoor air tends to be dryer and have much less movement than outside. It's also shocking to a plant to be suddenly put in the sun after adapting to shade (and vice versa). Overwintering to avoid freezing temps is another matter, just don't expect an outdoor sun plant to be happy in your somewhat sunny living room. Stick to plants that are adapted for indoors and you'll have much more success.