Ornamental house plants

Small Beautiful Ornamentals Small space should not be a limitation to your creativity. In fact, it should spur your imagination and be to your advantage. You may not have sprawling grounds, but you have a love of nature, a good eye, nose and hands. You need those eyes to see and appreciate the beautiful plants to which you will become attracted and your nose will sometimes lead your eyes to the heavenly scents that are irresistible. When your eyes and nose are in agreement, you will want those plants for your hands to nurture. Those plants must be yours and in your home.

For little space, it is better to have potted plants you can move around inside and outside on your balcony, verandas, porch, or by the wall wherever you wish, your collection is yours to create.

Purplehearts (Tradescantia pallid var. purpurea) for landscaping indoors.

Even in that, there is so much variety of colours and forms to choose and make up your garden. Blue fingers, purplehearts or Wandering Jew (Tradescantia fluminensis) is a plant I find very fascinating and classy. Maybe it is the deep purplish mauve colour or the velvety lush richness of its leaves or the shape of its leaves and shoots that seems so exotic. Perhaps it is also its versatility, growing in the vase, in water, in pots or in the garden row and beds requiring little watering. It brings an instant chic and elegance into the air.

“Pineapple Plants” Bromelia balansae

Alone in the vase, it holds its own with a definite statement of the exotic and beautiful. And with other plants and blooms, it defines the arrangement with its dark purple velvety dress. And you know the great thing about it, it is in the group of plants that don’t need any fuss, they thrive on their own like they know you have little time to give them attention. They have tiny, very tiny, dainty pink flowers with yellow eyes.

You can plant from cuttings, from the shoots or with the roots. It can grow in hanging vase or pot. It is a creeper while another. The Dracaena grows straight. Both are beautiful on their own and are also good complement to their plants.

The ponytail palm (Beauvarnea recurvate) is a sturdy bulb succulent plant. Why is it called ponytail? When you see it you will know why the name is so apt. I guess it is because the leaves are tapering thin and long; they even curl a bit. It doesn’t like much water so in the pot indoors and even if you forget it for a long time, it won’t suffer at all.

Flowering Dieffenbachia exotica, suitable for dark locations.

The Yucca is another beautiful and popular ornamental plant. Yucca (Agavaceae) are a genius of evergreen shrubs or trees grown for the architectural value of their bold, sword-shaped, clustered leaves and showy panicles of usually white or cream flowers. They make excellent container-grown plants, easy to care for. Needs full sun and well-drained soil. Water potted specimen moderately. Remove spent flower stem. Propagate by seeds or sucker, Hardier species can be propagated by root cutting or division. You plant from cuttings or shots and you need only to water it once or twice a week. ‘Rudiscolor’ (phormium tenax) like pineapple, you can plant from the shoot, cuttings and the root. Its two-toned, green top and a burgundy underside leaves; requires very little water even in the dry season. Pineapple plants as they are called like (Bromellia balansae) is so beautiful grown in full or partial sunlight. Dumb cane, Dieffenbachia exotica has variegated leaves you can plant from cutting. It will grow in about four weeks and it needs little watering.

Red edged Dracaena (Dracaena Maginata)

The leaves of Indian Cocoa, like cocoa yam plant, with prettier green and mauve undertones but no edible like cocoa yams. This one is purely ornamental and will decorate your surroundings. It takes about four weeks to grow and you plant from the roots. The Cordyline is beautiful and comes in the green white and wine or mauve varieties. You plant from cuttings and it will take about four weeks, to shoot. It doesn’t need watering much. It is slow-growing and has terminal sprays of white flowers and small globular white fruits. You can decide to be different and rather than growing in a pot, put it in a transparent glass jar or vase. It will form roots and grow and you can see the whole plant, the contrasting pale white stringy roots to the lush dark leaves

The Cordyline grows in partial sunlight. “Mother-in-law’s tongue” (Sanseviera trifasciatta), is common everywhere and has green or yellow-trimmed leaves. It doesn’t need much watering to keep growing and grows anywhere in full or partial sunlight.

Dracaena are slow-growing evergreen upright trees or shrubs with narrow strap-shaped leaves. Dracaena marginata ‘Tricolor’ leaves are cream-striped, rich green, prominently edged with red. Makes a very elegant and classy statement on its own, or grouped with other plants.