Cover your plants in style

Get the best out of your potted plants. Indoor plants are a growing trend, one that is being embraced for reasons from health benefits to stress reduction and pure aesthetic enjoyment. It might be overwhelming to know which plants to buy and which indoor plant pot covers to choose, we have you covered.

The benefits of Indoor Plants

Plants have been scientifically proven to improve your mood as well as the air quality of your home. Plants act as powerful air filters, reducing the concentration of harsh chemicals that are often present in our homes, the result of cleaning products, pesticides and more. In fact, one indoor plant can improve air quality by up to 25%, a recent study showed.

Overall wellbeing may be hard to quantify, but most of us can attest to how having a few plants in a room make us feel more relaxed, help us concentrate and even boost productivity!

What to Plant

Not all plants will cope with the unnatural environment of a room, with artificial light, reduced airflow and no natural water. Whenever we’re asked what indoor plants people should start with, we suggest the following: Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily); Peperomia Axillaris; Ficus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig); Bromeliad species; Phalaenopsis (Moth Orchid); Pteris ferns; Calathea; Anthurium; Zantedechia (Calla lily or Arum lily); Adiantum (Maidenhair Fern); Asplenium (Bird’s Nest Fern) or Ficus Repens (Creeping Fig).

How to Grow

Drainage: Whichever option you choose, be sure to consider drainage. A stunning container with bad drainage will damage your plants, so is of limited practical use. Using good potting soil and coarse materials helps to ensure that your plants are happy and healthy.

Size: Finding the right size container for your plants is imperative. Not only is balance in size important aesthetically, but having the wrong size container can also prevent your plants from growing. If needed, be sure to repot your plants to the right size container before placing them.

Positioning: Sunlight is a key consideration for all indoor plants. Before you choose a container, make sure your plants will survive in the position you are planning to put the container in.

Jazzing them Up

A great way to make your plants look even better is to use pot covers, such as the beautiful range that we used for this shoot. To add different shapes, textures and colours to the display we used the Tusca, Gabriel, Dune Orchid and Era Matt ranges imported by First Dutch Brands and available from Builders.

To use a pot cover, simply slip the plastic pot the plant came into inside an appropriately sized pot cover. Not only do they look so much classier than a black plastic pot, but they help with balancing the plant, and you don’t need to bother with transplanting the plants. And when you’re bored of the plant in the pot cover, you can switch it out in seconds.

We use a number of pot covers of different colours in different rooms, and we rotate pot plants through the rooms to keep things interesting. If the plant begins to look weary, we take it to the ‘plant hospital’ outside to recuperate, and give another plant a chance indoors.

Remember:

Pot covers aren’t pots! Don’t plant directly into them, because they don’t have drainage holes.

When you need to feed or water your plants, remove them from the pot covers and allow them to drain, then pop them back in the pot covers in pride of place in your home.

These pot covers are all available from your nearest Builders.