Certainly no-one buys a plant with an intention of killing it as soon as possible; nevertheless there are those among us, who, like me, have the tendency to do it anyway. But even knowing it I keep buying them not because I am sadistic, but because there is nothing which decorates a house better than a strategically placed pot of green.
So, how to creatively approach this problem? Here are a few hints which come from experience (not that I’m very proud of it, mind you):
1) This one you probably heard before – if you tend to forget to water your plants, go for cacti. Not that this method is foolproof – I had an entire collection of cacti at one time in the past and managed to dry out every single one of them…
2) if you tend to flood your plants to death with too much water, go for bamboo-like plants. They actually like standing in water.
3) In general, when choosing a plant you cannot just use the criterion of what would look lovely on your coffee table – you have to focus more on which plant’s requirements you’ll be able to meet – or at least have a chance to.
4) There are some plants which simply refuse to live in certain places. So if you managed to kill off ten ferns in the last year, it’s time to let the idea go and switch to a different plant.
5) At the same time, if you go through your plants at the same rate that I do, sooner or later you’re likely to stumble upon a plant which miraculously seems to be resistant o your lack of talents. My advice? STICK TO IT!!!
6)) The sad truth is that those plants which bloom, while more attractive initially, tend to live even shorter… So start with something with decorative leaves if you want to try a long-time relationship with your plant.
7) In theory there are always artificial flowers, but it’s quite difficult to find nice ones and, let’s face it, they can never substitute the real thing. Not to mention that they act as dust-catchers and get dirty at an amazing rate. But I discovered that there is one kind of artificial plant which looks quite good when it comes to interior decoration and is perfect to supplement the number of life greenery at your home – artificial ivy branches. There’s just something of the “old English cottage charm” in ivy, and the fact that they flow down from the pot and are easy to arrange just adds to their attractiveness.
And if really, really nothing helps, you can always move to the Netherlands, where plants and flowers are so cheap you can easily keep replacing them…