5 Easy-To-Grow Indoor Flowering Plants

If you’re a gardener and a mother, chances are you’ll receive an indoor flowering plant for Mother’s Day. The timing is good, because it doesn’t take much effort to keep the flowers going through winter, and who knows what this winter will bring?

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

What’s to like?

Indoor flowers keep us cheerful and they liven up a room, making it feel much warmer! But there is more to it than that. Virginia Lohr, professor of horticulture of Washington State University, makes some interesting claims; that plants improve mental functioning in children, and reduce domestic violence, probably because of their known ability to reduce stress and calm us down. “In short,” she says, “plants makes us better, more civil people.”

Be colour wise

Lighter-coloured flowers show up better indoors than deep reds and purples. Good mood boosters are plants with light pink, lavender or yellow flowers; they also tend to fit in with most decor.

Other tips

• Give flowering indoor plants pride of place, where they will be easily seen.
• Indoor plants don’t like extremes of temperatures, so keep them away from heaters and windows because of the drop in night temperatures.
• Feed with a liquid fertiliser once a month to keep them flowering.
• Plants need less water in winter. Feel the soil with your finger and water when the soil starts to feel dry.

Cyclamens are the indoor plants most associated with winter because they thrive in the cold and don’t stop flowering. The hardest task will be to choose a plant from the huge variety of pink, red and purple shades, not to forget pure white. The latest trend is ‘hand-painted’ flowers that look like tulips, in various shades of pink.