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During the long winters, years ago, in Northern New York, house plants were part of our home decoration. They lined our window ledges and filled up tables set up in front of the sunniest windows in our homes. I don’t think I can remember any home I visited that did not have some sort of house plants in them.
As a young bride I remember receiving many house plants from older family members and friends. It was just something the women did as their plants outgrew their containers they were divided or cuttings were rooted to make more house plants.
They were inexpensive decorations and they gave us benefits like humidity and purifying the air in our homes. We looked forward to any buds when they arrived and we knew we would soon see flowers that would increase the home décor and perhaps add fragrance to our rooms.
They seemed to survive with a minimum of attention and I think the only time I was able to kill any was when I over watered them.
Houseplants were also used to recycle our chipped or unusable crockery. That lovely blue milk pitcher that had a cracked handle now held ivy geraniums or that hand painted porcelain sugar bowl with the broken lid became a container to hold an African violet.
When tea cups got broken the saucer usually went under a clay pot.
It seemed like every home had at least one snake plant, a Christmas cactus, a wandering Jew, Philodendron, geranium and some begonias.
Often some female member of our community would have a wonderful great spider plant and she seemed to manage to make sure that soon all of us have some cuttings or even pots of them that she had prepared for us.
Back in the 40’s and 50’s we did not seem to have many fancy house plants such as we have access to nowadays. Now a Cyclamen easily graces my table during early spring until I can plant it out in the shady arbor. I had never seen a Cyclamen until I was about 35 years old! This was an exotic plant either out of our limited kitchen budget or not available in our country area.
I have since discovered that the Cyclamen in its many beautiful colors is a glorious and inexpensive houseplant that requires very little care.
Unless you are a person who leaves home for long periods of time, then houseplants may be the answer for your home decorations or gardening urge in the event you do not have any area for an outside garden.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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