Love the idea of plants around the home or office but don't
want to deal with taking proper care of them or tired of trying to keep your
cat from chewing on the leaves or making a mess of the soil?
Welcome the ease of air plants, low maintenance plants that
grow without soil!
They get all of the water and nutrients they need through
their leaves. Each leaf is covered in smooth or sometimes hairy scales known as
trichomes which have the special ability to absorb water and nutrients. What
roots they do have are used only for anchoring themselves to rocks, trees or
other means of a support.
Known as tillandsia, these plants are a type of bromeliad
and come from areas of the southern United States, Mexico, Central and South
America. In their native setting, they thrive in areas receiving bright, but
filtered sunlight, warmer temperatures between 50 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit and
good circulation.
Sounds easy enough, so what are we doing wrong that they
end up dying anyway?
Ok, so we try again with a new order of plants.
They arrive and we follow the directions, yet again,
pondering what we did wrong the last time: Unpack them and submerge them in a
warm water bath for about 30 minutes. Shake a bit to remove excess water and
let dry for about 4 hours. Plan to put them in an east, south or west facing window,
somewhere with bright but filtered sunlight. A bathroom is nice since the
plants can take advantage of the humidity generated from our showers. A
screened in porch during the warmer months would be great. Somewhere where
they'll get enough light but not at risk of too much direct sun baking and
drying them out which is stressful if not kept hydrated.
While air plants can survive periods of drought and are
forgiving, they won't thrive if moisture isn't adequate. There are many crafty
ideas that have air plants glued to boards or stuck in bottles and the
directions just say to mist them once in a while with a spray bottle. That is
fine for the regular 2 - 3 times a week watering but ideally they should be
soaked every 2 - 3 weeks for a half hour or at least run water over them
thoroughly. Plants in bloom should be just rinsed rather than soaked. This
means the plants need to be taken off of or out of whatever means we have them
displayed.
Recognize signs that your plants need water. If they are
looking shriveled or getting dry tips or brown outer leaves, they need to be
hydrated. Before tossing a seemingly dried up plant, try soaking in warm water
for a few hours and observe if it plumps up and regains some green.
Too much of a good thing is lethal as well. Once a plant
shows signs of rot it can literally fall apart and is often too late. Also, be
sure to water during the daytime rather than in the evening. The plants need
circulation and light in order to dry adequately.
Even though there are plenty of Pinterest photos of really
neat ideas for air plants, I've learned through loss that they really don't do
well on the wall or as part of home or office decor unless they are actually at
or near a window. They can do well with indoor lighting, but it has to be
full-spectrum fluorescent lighting, not incandescent bulbs. The plants should
be no more than 3 feet from the light source and receive about 12 hours of light a day.
Finally, the death of many an air plant comes when
discovered by a cat.
These light, little things are no match for the delightful
play of being tossed around by bored house cats. So, after I had the perfect
cute little containers in which to display my new baby plants, I found them
missing, only to later reappear shriveled and disheveled when I vacuumed. Ok,
let's try again but put them inside bottles where I thought they wouldn't even
be noticed much less reachable...wrong. Little paws are good at fishing them
out anyway. Well now I hope I have a solution.
I put them onto a wreath that I hung on the inside of a
glass door. They're facing indoors so the wreath itself protects them from
direct exposure to the sun, yet they get plenty of light all day long. I wanted
to be able to take them down for their watering so didn't want to actually
attach them to the wreath. And best of all, the cats cannot reach them!
I started with one of those wire wreath frames. Wrapped
around that frame is burlap that you can get on a roll. The burlap is wrapped
around the metal frame (a straw wreath would work great too), overlapping the
edges as it goes around and around. Wrap tightly to avoid bulges and use a
safety pin to secure the end when done, and then hot glue down the edge of the
burlap roll. You can use your own creativity in sprucing up your wreath, but I
just happened to have one of those artificial berry garlands that are used to
drape mantels and doorways. This one was about four feet long. I tucked the
wire on one end under the gaps from wrapping the burlap and then wound the
garland around and around the wreath and tucked the other end under the burlap
as well. Add a loop of fabric or ribbon around one of the vines for hanging.
In the past I had made fairy gardens for my kids and saved
those tiny little plastic pots from the fairy plants. I hot glued them here and
there around the wreath, pressing them firmly onto the burlap. Then viola, they
made perfect little homes to just sit my little air plants! Now when its time
to water them, I just remove them, plop them in the sink and then either spray
them thoroughly or let them soak for 20 minutes. Let them drip off a bit and
put them safely back into their little pots!
So time will tell!
