house plants

And here’s one I made before the programme.  I try not to do that, but as I have to load the car up with Woodland Trust talk kit, go to work, go straight on to Billericay, and do the talk starting at 7.45pm, I don’t see when anything is going to get composed on Monday.

I am almost resigned to the prospective demise of the Norfolk Island Pine.  I don’t see where it can go inside.  The Systems Administrator, in a moment of unusual firmness, vetoed the idea that it could live in the sitting room permanently.  I said that it would not be permanent, only from now until about late March, but it was still a No.  I have to admit that a conifer over 4m tall and more than a metre across would be horribly in the way, and probably an eccentricity too far even for us.

The spider plant that spent the summer in the porch has been moved to my bathroom.  I bought it at a WI produce stall for 50p when I was doing a talk, and was thrilled to find it.  I used to grow them when I was a child, and haven’t had one for years.  It has made a large number of trailing stems over the summer, with babies of various sizes, and I couldn’t work out where to put it for the winter, since it can’t stay outside, and I think needs to be warmer than frost-free.  We don’t have many house plants, due to a lack of surfaces to put them where the cats wouldn’t knock them over, and the fact that in winter much of the house isn't much better than frost free, so the choice of species is actually quite limited.  Cyclamen, mainly.  And Norfolk Island Pine, while small.

The Systems Administrator said that the spider plant could not live on the dining table, as it would take up too much space and the cats would attack the babies, which is probably right on both counts, so I ended up putting it in my bathroom.  That has a heated towel rail and stays warmer than most of the house in winter.  Plus the S.A does not seem to share my nostalgic enthusiasm for the spider plant, and in my bathroom won’t have to see it.  The bathroom is not very big, and the spider plant, sitting on an old blue and white dinner plate, had to go on the counter by the sink, where the babies hang down in front of the door of the cupboard containing clean face flannels and spare loo roll.  It is rather in the way.

What I really need is a nice 1970s macramé plant pot holder, then I could hang it up.