Problem situation.

We recently installed a new window in the living room, and now we have a wide window sill, but there are no flowers on it yet. In technology lessons, I learned a lot about the use of plants in the interior (phytodesign) and decided to try myself as a phytodesigner.

Objective of the project.

To study the issue of using plants for home decoration and to find a plant that matches the interior of our house.

Project Objectives:

1. find out online where to buy indoor plants.
2. pick up several plants for the purpose of their further acquisition, find out their biological names.
3. get acquainted with the help of Internet resources with the technologies of growing these plants.
4. choose from the studied plants one that is most suitable for the conditions of our home.
5. use the data from my research to further care for the plant.

Study.

I went to a flower shop. A variety of beautiful plants amazed me. There are also decorative flowering:

Saintpaulia

saintpaulia or violet with various flowers,

azalea or rhododendron,

Cyclamen

cyclamen or alpine violet and others.

There are many decorative leafy plants that will decorate the interior well.

These are plants such as arrowroot, ficus,

Sansevieria

sansevieria (a very useful plant),

codium (croton),

Dieffenbachia

dieffenbachia

dracaena and many more.

Most of all I liked the decorative flowering plants.

At home at the computer, I continued my research. I visited various sites. From the information I received, I learned what kind of care these plants need, what kind of lighting they need, what size they can reach.

Choosing the best idea.

We discussed with relatives which plant is most suitable for our living room.

Decision:   decorative flowering plant will become an adornment of our room.

Select a specific plant.

The window of our living room faces the north side, there is no sun there, there is not much light in the room. All this allows you to choose a low shade-tolerant plant.

Multi-colored violets

My research has shown that indoor violet meets these requirements, otherwise it is called Saintpaulia (Uzambara violet).

Plant conditions.

This is what I learned from the Internet. the violet plant has oval leaves (sometimes with notches) collected in a basal rosette. Simple or double flowers have a color from purple, blue, red to pure white. The root system is superficial, so the pot for violets should be small and low.

Reproduction. Most often, the senpolia is propagated by leafy cuttings. For this, an adult leaf is selected from the plant. This sheet is cut with a sharp knife, leaving a stalk with a length of at least 5 centimeters. Then it is placed in wet sand so that the sheet itself does not touch the soil. The earth around the handle is a little rammed.

When planting, they use a greenhouse or cover the plant with polyethylene. When the stalk is rooted and the young growth grows, it is divided and each plant is planted in a separate pot.

Care . Violets do not like sharp fluctuations in temperature and drafts. The optimum temperature is + 18 ... + 24 degrees Celsius. They prefer bright light, but do not like direct sunlight.

Water the violet carefully in the pan. The surface layer of the soil should be constantly moist, but you can not fill the plant. Excess water from the pan must be drained. The leaves of the plant do not tolerate spraying.

The ground for violets should be loose, pass air well and absorb water easily. It is better to buy a ready-made earthen mixture for the senpolia. In order for the violet to grow and bloom well, it must be fed once a week with mineral fertilizers.

Conclusion.

Violet is fully suited to the conditions of our living room. You only need to decide where to get this plant. You can buy a young plant or ask someone for a leaf stalk. I have friends who have violets of various colors. They promised to give me one leaf from each plant. I will plant them in the sand and I will grow several plants.

Self-esteem and assessment.

Beautiful violet

I hope that in the future my plants will look on the windowsill as well as in the photographs in the textbook and on the Internet.

To your indoor flowers served as decoration of the interior, pleased you with their appearance and did not create trouble, we suggest you follow some rules for choosing and placing plants in the house.

Most people, choosing indoor plants, are guided by their size, decorativeness and value. And only after the purchase, having delivered them home, they are interested in what the conditions of detention and care should be. If such conditions cannot be created or the plant turns out to be very moody, the owners are upset watching it die.

In addition, when choosing a green pet, you need to think in advance in which place of your apartment he will be more comfortable, and where he should not be placed, so as not to cause discomfort to you. Do not forget that a beautiful and harmless-looking plant can harm your health, or, even worse, be poisonous.

Correspondence of the room conditions to the plant's vital needs for the microclimate is not the only selection criterion. The plant should be pleasing to the eye, so you should think about how it will look in this interior.

Here are a few rules of good form:

1)   In rooms furnished with single-style furniture with strict lines, it is better to place a small number of large single plants: in this case, the situation begins to serve the plants as a background, and they, in turn, soften the impression of the interior.

2)   If the furniture in the room is heterogeneous in style, a large amount of greenery can give the atmosphere an internal unity and distract attention to itself. For such rooms, the "green corner" (that is, a large number of plants gathered together), vines with large leaves, and flora are ideal.

3)   You can combine plants in decorative groups by combining the shapes and colors of leaves and flowers on both special stands and on the windowsill.

4) Pots or flowerpots can be matched to match the furniture and contrast with it. In the second case, it is important that bright elements (for example, pots and lampshades) are in harmony with each other.

5)   Light flowers and leaves look better on a dark background, bright - on a light background.

6)   Ampelic plants with small leaves “get lost” against the background of colorful wallpapers or walls with a strongly pronounced pattern, but plants with large leaves will stand out perfectly.

7)   In rooms with low ceilings, tall plants are best placed on the floor or on low stands.

8)   Do not overload the windowsill with flowers, so that small copies do not have to be placed in front of pots with larger ones: they may not have enough light.

In addition to aesthetics, it should be remembered that plants bring to a person not only benefits, and therefore it is necessary to place them taking into account the intended purpose of the rooms.

Everyone knows, for example, that plants produce oxygen. However, at night, in the absence of light, they breathe, like any other living creatures, so there should not be too many of them in the bedroom.

There is one more reason to keep some flowers in another room: there are species that produce phytoncides and aromatic substances in large quantities. In small concentrations, they are useful, but in excessive concentrations they only bring harm to a person, both on their own and because they can cause allergic reactions. In the bedroom you are stationary for a long time, and negative effects can manifest themselves most acutely.

The proximity of a large number of strongly smelling flowers is undesirable for a sick person.

For the same reasons, many plants should not be placed in the children's room, and species with thorns should be completely removed from there, like poisonous plants: it may occur to kids not only to touch them, but also to taste them.

Fine( 0 ) Poorly( 0 )

The question arises - where to put it? Is it better to place it on the windowsill so that it receives more light, put it on a stand or on the floor, place it on the wall or hang it from the ceiling?

In the article we will tell you where it is best to put your indoor flower.

Floor

The floor is just suitable for large flowers (neither hang them, nor put them on the table). Plants resembling trees (monstera, pahira, ficus benjamina) or palm trees ( yucca, areca) Designers love to use tall single plants. If you place a pair of identical plants opposite each other, then the room will seem symmetrical.

Carefully choose plants, because each of them gives its own effect. A tall and narrow plant will create the effect of a high ceiling. A low open plant will create the opposite effect. Large, heavy flowers can ruin your flooring, because of this it is better to lay a plate or plate under a flower pot.

Wall

Ornamental plants and creepers are usually attached to the wall. Due to the fact that very small pots are used for wall plants, plants need frequent watering.

For placing flowers on the walls, it is preferable to durable, not mottled pots with a deep and large tray.

Stand

If the plant has long arcuate stems, then it is best to place it on a stand or in a hanging basket, because on the bedside table or window sill it will not look attractive.

In the event that you have old furniture in your house, you can buy a stand made for antiques. If your house has new furniture, you can easily make a stand with straight walls of wood or metal and put a few pots on it.

Ceiling

The best place for climbing plants is the ceiling. The stems can calmly hang down, and their appearance will attract the eye. If this plant is somewhere in the flower bed, no one will even look at it. But if it hangs in a basket, then we will definitely stop at it. Such a plant instantly transforms a window or wall. Plants should not be hung where people constantly go, and the plant can interfere. After hanging up, check again that everything is holding tight. Pay particular attention to the hook that is cut into the ceiling.

The plant must always be in good condition. But caring for such a plant is not an easy task (watering it is much harder than plants standing on the floor and stand). It is also necessary to climb and check the soil every time.

Windowsill

People who treat flowers like dogs or cats like to place their flowers on the windowsill. Of course, you can put plants on the windowsill, but standing in a line flower pots can not be called special beauty. To do this, a low, bushy single plant in the center of the windowsill, or a narrower and higher one with a non-symmetrical arrangement, is more suitable.

It is better to choose a plant in which light can emphasize the beauty of the leaves (hypoesthes, irezina). You need to choose a plant that is suitable in size and color. A small flower in the background of a huge window will not look very beautiful.

Shade the windows on the south side. In the summer - the sun, in the winter - heating, so often look in flower pots to prevent overdrying of the soil. You can also place a hanging planter above the plant on the windowsill.

But the choice is naturally yours.

With appreciation, Flora Life.

A familiar picture - the flowers on the windowsill - sometimes causes mixed feelings. I recall geraniums on a lace napkin, and the windowsills of Soviet florists full of flowers — these impassable dusty jungle, pots in stains, windows that cannot be opened because they are barricaded by the “army of green”. Perhaps because of such associations, many owners today are not in a hurry to acquire plants, preferring to leave window sills free.

Meanwhile, everything could be different! Green spaces - the most relevant means of decoration. Decorators, designers and just amateurs are looking for new interesting forms and ways to introduce greens into our city apartments. And even the classics of the genre - the aforementioned flowers on the windowsill - now look lively and fresh in good interiors. How to achieve this effect?

Soundly evaluate your chances
  Decorators, of course, do not have any special rules regarding the colors on window sills. Unless, it is necessary to take into account the features of growing plants. Say, shade-loving plant species planted on the south side are also likely to have a pale appearance. And do not count on lush flowering if the windows face north. In this case, the designers unanimously advise to completely free the window - both from plants and (if possible) from curtains. In order to let at least a little sunshine into the originally dark interior.
Decorate as if you're not dealing with a windowsill
  In the design of the windowsill, all the same techniques work as with any other type of decor. And this, perhaps, is the key thesis that needs to be learned: start decorating the window, how you would decorate a shelf of a shelving or fireplace, and you will surely achieve noticeable results.



Come up with a plan
  Worst of all - a random pile of pots and flowers. To make the window sill look decorative, and not turn into another burden of the interior, we need a concept.
  Go from plants that you like, or build an exposition through a selection of interesting flower pots or pots that will rhyme with interior details. An idea can be any, but it should be. Here are some examples.


1. When less is better
It is most reliable to follow the path of limitation: two large spectacular plants are preferable to an assortment of ten slurred plants. The void around the plant on the windowsill will attract more attention to the pot than if it turns out to be part of a single green mass.


2. The path of self-restraint
  Better are the simplest identical pots than a collection of all kinds and stripes. Want the simplest terracotta? Let only she stand on the windowsill. For example, in the interior of the photo, the idea of \u200b\u200bcolor restrictions worked - all the flowerpots are white, in the same style, but the shapes are different. Moreover, not only on the windowsill, but throughout the interior.

3. Combine flower girl
  Any problems with the quantity, color and design of the pots can be avoided if you plant your entire garden in one box, container or flowerpot. The main thing is that all plants in it are satisfied with a single regime of watering and lighting.






4. Make a composition not only of flowers
  Flowers, by the way, like pots, are completely optional on the windowsill. It can be a still life, say, with only one flower or without it at all. Some pots do not need flowers and can successfully act as a self-contained decor item.


5. Work with the scale of plants
  If the windowsill is small, why not populate it with succulents and other miniature species. Mini-gardens are now in fashion, and the choice of suitable flower pots is fabulously rich - you can not restrain yourself and allow yourself any. The main thing is not to deviate from the general line and support the idea of \u200b\u200ba single scale.




  If you want even more conceptually, you can plant mini-plants in glass flasks or, say, in dishes: in cups, mugs, milk jugs, sugar bowls. For larger species, pots, watering cans and other utensils are suitable.


6. Plant not in pots
  The idea is not new, but certainly bright: why not decorate the interior of a kitchen pot with an enameled kitchen kettle of Soviet times? Plant flowers in mugs, jugs, glasses. Let the windowsill resemble a shelf of a dining room buffet, and not a good old window.



7. Edible-inedible
  Why not organize a mini-garden - it's beautiful, tasty and healthy. The owners of the pots in the photo decided to set up a garden of herbs on the windowsill, and the pots were painted with slate paint and signed. There is a good concept.



8. Uniform
  It happens that flowers adorn the windowsill for a long time, look well-groomed and feel good, only they are not encouraging. Tired of variegated pots, and the familiar landscape. What to do?
Plants can be changed. Which now they do not sell flower pots - even textile, though knitted, even concrete. Changing all the old flowerpots to new, identical ones, however, can be difficult - each flower needs its own size. A simpler option is to wrap the pots with paper. Well, needlewomen can sew or knit clothes for the season. In addition, rearrangement will help revive the exposition - swap plants with rooms.

9. Rhythm and symmetry
  The principle of placing flowers on the windowsill can also form the basis of your concept. For example, the human eye enjoys rhythm and symmetry. Try not just to take the same planters - arrange them at the same distance along the plane of the window sill.
  Tip: Do not be too frequent. In order for the beauty of the plant to fully manifest, there should be air around each pot.

10. Major and minor
  With all the pros, the path of asceticism is not for everyone. The desire of the city dweller to turn the window sill into a green oasis, in general, is also completely understandable: yearning for nature, you want everything at once - and loaches, and cacti, and pelargonium, and ficus.
  A collection of plants is not being collected in an instant, and therefore it is not always possible to maintain the uniformity of a pot.
  In this case, the key to your botanical success is a successful composition. So that the eye does not sink in solid greenery, select one or two large and expressive plants that will attract attention and become the semantic center of the garden. The rest let them serve to fill the space (act as a background).



10. To a new level!
  Even if the windowsill is wide, it is better not to put pots of the same size one after another. No one will see the second row, unless these are large specimens a cut above the rest. It is better to think about how to organize several levels. Say, in front of the windowsill, you can put a flower table or a banquet, at or just below the windowsill. If its width allows, you can place a jardinier or stand in several floors.


11. Horizontal
  Across the window, they often make a shelf for plants - although it eats up a lot of light, it gives additional floral places.
  Tip: Think about how you will wash the glass and open the window for ventilation.






12. Vertical
  Do not forget that pots can be hung. Traditionally, planters hang out along the window frame, but this option is not the only one. Rails and hooks allow you to attach a cough anywhere.

Accommodation

In order to achieve the greatest visual effect from your plant, you can first advise his purchases to take a closer look at the room where it will stand. Perhaps the plant is acquired to live a boring room with a bright color spot or greenery. In this case, the first thing you should do is ask yourself the questions given in PLANTS IN THE HOUSE and go with a list of suitable plants to the flower shop. When you bring the plants home, try different ways of arranging the pots to see where they make the best impression.

In other cases, when plants are needed for specific purposes, your choice is already: for example, it is advisable to close an empty fireplace or separate different zones in the room. The location of the plants in this case is determined in advance, so you need to soberly assess the environment before making a decision. All of these tips are geared towards perfect cases. At least 50% of indoor plants buy "in the mood": you see the plant in the store, you like it, and when you get home, you begin to figure out how to care for it. In this case, you should find a place for the plant where it would receive as much light and heat as it needs, and take care that the environment and lighting shade its beauty.

The lighting needed by plants can be natural or artificial. The light of an ordinary bulb directed in the evening on a separate standing leafed or flowering plant greatly enhances its attractiveness. It is best to use lamps with a point source of light or spotlights, however they give a lot of heat. Turn on the lamp and hold your palm over the sheet nearest to the lamp. If you feel warm, it means the plant is too close to the lamp.

PLACEMENT OF PLANTS IN THE ROOM.

SUSPENSION TO THE CEILING.
  There is no better way to place a climbing plant than to plant it in a container suspended from a ceiling or on a matte crown in a wall. Nothing interferes with the falling cascade of the stems, and the appearance of living plants hanging in the air is especially eye-catching. We pay attention to plants in a basket under the spring on the wall of the house, while we don’t even look at such flowerstones in the flowerbed below. A suspended single plant can visually increase the height of the composition of plants standing on the floor or revitalize a dull wall or a deep window. Unfortunately, hanging baskets have their drawbacks.

They can not be hung in places where under it will walk the passage, nothing should interfere. Be careful when choosing a container and make sure that it is securely suspended; the mount must withstand the weight of the container with the ground after watering. A plant in a hanging basket should be in good condition. Miserable ivy or a dangling trunk of a climbing philodendron can only both represent a room. It is not easy to take care of the plants in the hanging basket, it is much more difficult to water them than those standing on the floor or on the windowsill.

LOCATION ON THE SILL.
  On the windowsill, plants are usually placed by people who relate to them as pets. This does not mean that a professional decorator would not use window sills to place plants, but you cannot call a neat row of pots placed on the windowsill a spectacular sight. From the point of view of the external effect, it is better to use a single plant low and bushy, if it is located in the middle of the window, or tall and narrow with asymmetric placement. Choose a plant in which the beauty of the leaves is emphasized by the light falling on them or the light shining through them, for example, hypoesthesia and irezina.

Undoubtedly, one should choose a species that would be in harmony with the surroundings, a small nondescript plant on a large window is unlikely to look beautiful. The southern window in the summer must be shaded. More often check if the earth is dry in the summer and the central heating batteries in winter can force you to water the plant endlessly! If the view from the window is not important for you and the willows do not need a lot of light, consider whether there is also a hanging planter over the plant standing on the windowsill.

LOCATION.
  A place for a large single plant on the floor: a large pot on the table will look bulky. Usually, plants with an attractive crown shape are taken as such, but other types of plants can also be resorted to. In solitary arrangement, tall flowering plants or tall vines with large leaves (philodendron, monstera, etc.) look good. Designers love such tall solitary plants. Two identical plants on both sides of the door give the spacious room symmetry; a flower pot, standing near the door to the garden, as it were, continues the garden in the room.

Choose a single plant carefully. Tall narrow plants will visually raise the ceilings, and low open ones will create the opposite effect. Keep in mind that a container with a plant can damage the carpet, so place a plank or cork plate under it.

PLACEMENT ON THE STAND.
  Some indoor plants with long arcuate stems look unattractive if located on the bedside table or on the windowsill. Such plants should be installed on a special high pedestal pedestal or placed in a hanging basket. If your house has antique furniture, you can buy an antique or an antique style stand, but if you have modern furniture, it is very easy to make a wooden stand with straight walls. You can buy a metal or bamboo stand and place several pots on it for details.

PLACEMENT ON THE WALL.
  Ornamental flowering plants (to enliven a smooth light wall) and creepers (to decorate paintings, windows, etc.) are usually placed on the walls. Since, as a rule, small pots are used, the plants should be watered more often, but when they are so high it is difficult to determine when the watering is necessary. With this method of plant placement, choose strong, not too variegated containers with a sufficiently large and deep pan.