Houseplants

Our greenhouse features both blooming and foliage plants to enhance your interior living spaces all year long. We have hundreds of foliage plants for all types of light conditions and something to fit any space in your home or office. Choose from bonsai, cyclamen, bromeliads, orchids, palms, begonias, cacti and more. Come and see our inspiring displays which showcase our large variety of plants to fit any lifestyle. Our knowledgeable staff will help you match your needs with the perfect plant. Homestead Gardens is proud to participate in the "Living Green" movement. With our wide selection of lush, beneficial, houseplants to choose from, we'll be happy to help you find the right kind to incorporate into your living or work space.

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Houseplants Are a Great Antidote for Winter

Banish the winter gloom from your home with an assortment of houseplants from Homestead Gardens' Greenhouse. Bright bolts of reds or yellows or purples in the form of tropical flowers...graceful, soothing green fronds...sprawling palms or compact African violets....turn your home into a tropical oasis. And, the added benefit is that many of these plants are proven to scrub the air in your home of many different pollutants!

Today, stress is a part of life. Choices, responsibilities and many other factors can cause fatigue and stress in our lives. The typical person spends 90% of each day indoors, away from the natural world; many stresses can be traced back to our indoor environment. Making plants as important to your interior design and decorating as the paint color or carpet texture helps relieve our stress and taps into a great source of natural mental and physical health benefits.

Benefits of Houseplants

→ Reduces pollutants such as Benzene (paint, smoke, plastics), Formaldehyde (wood, carpet, foam), TCE (cleaning solvents) up to 87% in as little as 24 hours.
→ Increases a rooms humidity
→ Just 5 minutes a day spent caring for plants can dramatically reduces stress levels
→ Certain plants can reduce pollutants up to 87% in as little as 24 hours
→ The presence of plants can provide an over-all senseof health and well-being

Recipe for Your Rooms

→ 1- 8”-10” (container size) plant per 100 square feet
→ 1- small 4”- 6” (container size) plant in your personal breathing zone (6-8 cubic feet) (ie. desk or night stand)   
→ 15-20 plants per 1,500 square feet
→ Generally plants with large leaves have a higher transpiration rate and increased ability to reduce toxins.

Top 10 Houseplants

Chamaedorea (Bamboo Palm)
Dracaena (Corn Plant)
Epipremnum (Golden Pothos)
Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily)
Hedera (Ivy)
Aglaonema (Chinese Evergreen)
Chlorophytum (Spider Plant)
Dracaena ‘Janet Craig’
Boston Fern
Philodendron

*Source: Dr. B.C. Wolverton, How to Grow Fresh Air, 25 year study, 1996, NASA research

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Making a Terrarium Garden

A terrarium garden is a garden planted in a container enclosed in clear glass or plastic, which supports plants in a more or less self-contained environment requiring a minimum of regular garden maintenance. Once the terrarium is planted, water present in the container is constantly recycled within the container through natural evaporation and condensation cycles. Very little additional watering is necessary and the plants should thrive on a daily basis with adequate sunlight.

Terrarium gardens have been popular for many years and there is a wide variety of types and styles of terrariums from which to choose. The simplest terrarium can be made from goldfish bowls, large bottles with a large opening or any other container that encloses the plants, either partially or entirely, and allows sunlight to enter through a clear, colorless material. A colored or tinted glass or plastic material would limit the amount of sunlight available to the plants growing inside the container. A completely enclosed terrarium that traps and holds most of moisture would be selected for plants that require high humidity. On the other hand, a terrarium that has an opening at the top for the venting off of excess moisture, would be recommended for plants which require a dry climate to grow well.

Plant Selection

1. The available growing area in a terrarium garden will be quite limited in size and planting the plants in an enclosed container can be more difficult since it could only be done through a small, high opening. Therefore, selecting small, slow-growing, dense-foliage plants would be best.
2. Select the types of plants based on their common moisture and light requirements. For example, all the plants in the same container garden should like dry soil and high light conditions.  If one were to mix plants with have greatly different moisture and light preferences in the same terrarium garden, some would thrive, while others would not.
3. Design the garden with plants of various growing heights, forms and leaf textures, as well as coordinating flower and foliage coloring to best advantage.

Soil

The growing medium in that will be used is a commercial potting soil. It should be clean, have a high organic content that will hold moisture, but is free-draining.

Drainage Layer

There should be a drainage layer below the growing medium which consists of, from bottom to top, a layer of pea gravel, a layer of horticultural charcoal and a layer of long-fiber Sphagnum moss. The pea gravel will provide a drain field to which any excess water will go, away from the root zone. The layer of charcoal will provide a natural filter for any accumulating water to prevent it from putrefying and killing the plant roots. The thin layer of moss will act as a screen to prevent soil particles from washing into the drain field.

Tools

For planting:
A funnel made from rolled up stiff paper and a tool made of a wooden dowel with a cork at the end

For watering: 
A turkey baster or small watering can with a long spout

Planting

1.  Wash the terrarium with soap and water and rinse thoroughly.
2.  Sterilize the terrarium in a mix of 1 part chlorine bleach to 15 parts water and rinse thoroughly and let dry.
3.  Place the rolled up paper funnel in the terrarium to be used as chute to fill the bottom layer. Add a ¼ to ½ inch of pea gravel to the bottom of the terrarium.
4.  Add a thin layer of horticultural charcoal over the surface of the pea gravel, about ¼ inches thick.
5.  Place a thin layer of the Sphagnum moss over the layer of charcoal.
6.  Add the potting soil medium evenly over the drainage layer, to a depth of  ½  to 1 inch deep or more, depending on the size of the root ball of the largest plant to be planted.
7.  Remove plants from their containers and gently spread the roots out. Make a planting hole large enough to accept the root ball. Tamp the soil firmly around the plant roots. If working space becomes limited, use the dowel and cork tool as a tamping tool. 
8. When all the plants have been planted, apply water in small amounts around each plant’s roots. Use the turkey baster to direct the water precisely to the root area.
9.  Clean any splashes of soil on the inside of the terrarium with the paper towels. Do not use any chemical glass cleaner to clean the inside of the terrarium.

Maintenance of the Terrarium Garden

1.  Monitor the water content of the soil. Water only when necessary using a mist sprayer to control and limit the amount of the water being applied.
2.  Add no fertilizer to the garden for at least one year after planting. Check plants for nutrient deficiencies by checking to see if foliage color begins to yellow or the plants lack normal vigor. Use a water soluble houseplant fertilizer which has been highly diluted to 10% of the strength for normal houseplant applications.
3.  Remove dead leaves promptly and keep the terrarium tidy.

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Growing Bonsai at Home

Few people are not enchanted by the beautiful decades old miniature trees growing in small containers. It is a true art form in gardening to train such wonderful plants. So many are drawn into growing a Bonsai themselves, but find it to be a much more daunting task than they expected.

Dwarfing a tree that may normally be expected to grow 50 feet tall in the ground is a challenge in itself. Add to that, the tree must be trained in such a way as to look in proportion to its now diminutive size. This is done mostly by severely restricting the natural growth of roots and branches, but keeping the plant healthy at the same time. The amount of time given to care for these plants can be considerable, as they require attention to watering, shaping and pruning.

Those who still wish to grow Bonsai plants may wish to start with an “indoor” version, where the dwarfed plant is a tropical or sub-tropical species that otherwise would be considered a houseplant. They can be grown indoors without special attention to adapting to a year-round temperate climate.

Indoor Bonsai require bright light, but not direct sunlight. They must never be allowed to dry out.

What we call “outdoor” bonsai are the plants that are not at all suited for indoor life. Conifers, maples and oaks would be nearly impossible to keep alive living permanently indoors. Their requirement to grow primarily outdoors and experience the cold of winter would not be met indoors and they would soon decline in health.

Homestead Gardens sells indoor Bonsai plants which have been trained to basic form. Starter plants are available as well as a selection of ceramic Bonsai pots and decorative accents. Care sheets are available to give you specific information about caring for your particular type of Bonsai. There are local Bonsai Clubs, with members who have taken up this gardening art form as a serious hobby, and have the skills and experience over many years to assist the novice Bonsai owner successfully grow these amazing plants.

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