Create an Interior Tropical Garden to Brighten up those Long Winter Nights
By Mark J. Donovan
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One nice way to add a little color to an otherwise dark and bleak winter season is to create an interior tropical garden in a small area of your home. An interior tropical garden can simply consist of a few green tropical foliage or flowering plants strategically arranged in a small alcove in one of the rooms of your home.
Besides its aesthetic beauty, an interior tropical garden or meditation garden is an excellent way to improve both your mental and physical well-being during the cold winter months. Not only do the tropical plants provide color to the drab white backdrop outside your windows, they also help to humidify and purify the air inside your home. |
For our home we arranged a small cluster of tropical garden plants in one of the corners of our family room to create a mini tropical garden paradise, and to remind us of warmer and more soothing places. To create our interior tropical garden we selected Dracaenas and Croton plants of various sizes and placed them at both floor and waist level to create both texture and depth.
| In addition, we included a back light behind the plants to provide them with supplemental lighting and to set a meditation type mood for the garden. We also included a small fountain to add the sound of running water in the background and to provide some additional texture and landscape to our little tropical garden oasis.
Maintaining an interior tropical garden is also fairly easy to do. Just make sure the plants are properly watered and receive adequate lighting to keep them healthy. |
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Note that not all tropical plants require the same amount of lighting. Some require minimal lighting while others require much more. Talk with your local garden center to see what plants are right for your targeted interior tropical garden area. In general, however, it is wise to choose an area in your home that receives plenty of natural light during the day.
In addition, it’s also important that the room be kept at a fairly constant temperature between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so don’t arrange your interior tropical garden in a three season porch or room. Also, arranging the plants too close to a window could cause the plants to become stressed. When necessary prune away any browning or wilting leaves. Finally all plants need to be regularly fed. Every two to three weeks the plants should be fed with a quality house-plant fertilizer.
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One word of caution, some plants such as the Croton is toxic to pets and even humans. Also, the Croton plant can stain surfaces and irritate skin if its leaves are damaged and its white sap comes in contact with objects or skin. So again, talk with your local garden center to see what is right for your home situation.
So add some color and warmth to your home this winter and create an interior tropical garden of your own. By transforming an otherwise empty space in your home into a tropical garden paradise, you’ll breathe cleaner air and feel mentally better during those long winter nights. In addition, you’ll spice up your home décor by creating a lush green tropical oasis.
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