Gardendaze

A few weeks ago I post about my “fragrant olive” plant (osmanthus frangrans) and how it was a wonderful plant for winter because it was completely undemanding and it bloomed all winter.

Unfortunately, these plants are not always that easy to find and they are slow growing. So today and over the next few weeks, I will post about some other choices for great winter plants (and for some of you and more temperate regions, some of these may be plants that are growing in your yard. The Spoiler always says I live in the wrong climate. This winter I heartily agree with him!)

The first category of plants is “plants with interesting leaves.” Why is it that we spend so much time thinking about texture and foliage in the garden and not in house plants? We look at house plants 365 days a year. Almost no one looks at perennials that long!

So make those house plants work for you! Get colorful leaves, or variegated leaves or plants with interesting leaves at least. Even plants with green leaves can be interesting if they are, in the words of the plant geeks, “structural.” Let me give you some examples.

There’s green and then there’s green. Plants have green leaves to make energy (you know, photosynthesize it) from the sun. So that’s fine.

But what if you could have something more unusual? Something that was green and interesting to look at?

This is the ZZ plant (zamioculcas zamiifolia). It too, like the osmanthus a few posts ago, is tough and hardy and very undemanding.

Unlike the osmanthus, however, this plant is very easy to find.  I’ve seen it in box stores and supermarkets. And it thrives in low light situations and low water situations.

It even looks good with holiday plants. I saw this at an airport a few years ago.

So there’s nothing wrong with “green” plants–just choose interesting ones! Next week we’ll look at some unusual colored ones.