Happy new year! As 2021 kicks off, it feels like a moment to think about new life…

I’ve always enjoyed houseplants, but over the past few years I’ve actually managed to mostly not kill them! I feel like this house has a nice mix of some light but also some darkness, plus I’ve been away lots and so they’ve benefited from benign neglect!

The houseplant story for this house really began at my housewarming, a week in. A co-worker very kindly brought me the quintessential home greenery, the spider plant. Hard to kill, easy to make more of them, yes! Relatively soon, I had cuttings growing. I took them to work, gave them as gifts, spread them to Dundee. I even posted one during the Covid lockdown! It survived and appears to be doing well. These days I don’t often actually plant up cuttings, but I usually have a collection kicking about. They clean the air so nicely, I’m told!

I had also brought some existing ones with me – the longest survivors are a peace lily which I suspect I’ve had for 15 years, and an aloe which has gone on to multiply into many pups. I’m pretty sure both were IKEA bargain corner buys!

Of course, with lockdown and getting kicked out of the office, I had a whole lot of work plants to rescue. And then when I bailed on Dundee I rescued most of them too…and realised I might have too many plants in one small house! Bromeliads and their various kids (one has had at least 6), a fantastic wee rubber plant, a kalanchoe on its second generation…and more spider plants. Because you can never have too many spider plants.

They all came in handy when my folks were selling my granny’s flat. It’s a pretty substantive Victorian place, so it definitely needed some stuff. Bless my mum, with about 3 plants in a giant living room she started worrying that it was too much. She has much to learn.