We are all about plants and greenery here at Woven Rosa, our home is packed full of a variety of plants that were gifts, weekend market buys or stolen from the garden. The greenery provides a fantastic contrast with some of our vibrant colours and adds an exotic flair to any room.

We have both grown up with an eclectic mix of houseplants gracing our homes, which explains our love for an outdoor feel indoors.

Apart from the obvious visually pleasing aspect of owning house plants, there are so many other benefits to owning an indoor plant.

HERBS

Although the aesthetic aspect of house plants makes for a feast of colours and really makes the summery conservatory feel like your indoor garden another sense that is triggered is smell. Non more so than Tom’s favourite type of house shrubbery, herbs. In his eyes there is nothing better than cooking a dish with every ingredient home-grown or handpicked and with a section of indoor herbs his thirst for home growing is quenched. Our personal favourites are mint and basil, not only for the taste but also for a natural room freshener, just give them a rustle like you would a young nephews hair and you can leave the oust under the sink. Another couple of herbs that we have in our conservatory are coriander, lemon thyme and parsley all offering a different shade of green and a host of different tastes and flavours when added to your cooking.

BIG AND BOLD

Big leafy plants always look great in conservatories and make fantastic indoor plants with their tough and resilient nature they are pretty low maintenance all year round, the terminator of plants. Coupled with a ceramic pot they will give your a conservatory a middle eastern, hanging gardens of Babylon vibe. One of our favourite big leaf plants are Philodendrons, easy to care for, just stick them in indirect sunlight in the corner of your conservatory. Water them occasionally and the plant will tell you when it is thirsty by drooping so you can figure out a watering schedule from the cues. Featuring on many Woven Rosa photo shoots, Philodendron’s are one of our top super models always trying to steal the show. Another big leaf big personality plant of ours is the bird of paradise plant, this South African giant will jazz up any conservatory and is a real neck breaker. Caring for this African lady is a little more challenging as she is used to the outdoors a little more than the Phili but with a splash of water and a careful eye on her, she will definitely pay off with year round ‘palmy’ leaves transporting you to Caribbean beaches on a grey February morning.

SPLASHES OF INDOOR COLOUR

Flowering conservatory plants can give you that pop of colour in your conservatory if you haven’t yet bought your Woven Rosa rug or cushions. With flowers becoming more of a regular feature in British homes they were a fixed addition in many of our Latin American home stays, brightening the already colourful places that we visited. One of our favourite Peruvian pastimes was snapping the spectacular colonial doorways framed with blooming bougainvilleas. The love for these colourful plants stemmed (I know, I couldn’t resist) from my parents conservatory as a kid which had a bougainvillea hugging the top windows and roof. I didn’t realise then that they were also comfortable keeping warm indoors until I started growing my own. Although not the size of my Mum’s majestic purple queen, my slightly smaller princess gives me a nostalgic kick every morning. A new favourite of mine since visiting a botanical garden in Colombia are Orchids. All the rage in the naughties they still haven’t lost their charm in my eyes. Delicate and proud almost looking down on other plants the Orchid is the lady of house plants, teamed as a threesome on your windowsill can really transform your space into a sanctuary just next door to the chaos of real life. Easy to look after, just make sure you water them around every week and move them around the conservatory varying the light intake to see where they thrive the most.

SPIKY

The Mexican countryside is filled with Agave plants, some wild yet most cultivated to make Mezcal (a tequila like spirt held with great pride amongst locals). The liquor is quite something, taken with a lime sprinkled with powdered grubs and salt it was the ice breaker of many great relationships we made in Mexico. However it wasn’t until I saw the spiky Agave plant indoors that I realised how much of a fantastic indoor plant it made. Growing to massive heights when farmed, if kept well indoors you can restrict it’s height making it a great talking point and solid patch of greenery in your conservatory. Be careful with the spikes however, used to line peoples properties in Panama as a security plant it can give you a nasty prick if given the chance. No British home would be complete without a cactus, a great present and seemingly indestructible they line the tables in our conservatory. Our favourite has to be the polka-dot or bunny ears cactus, synonymous with Latin America it will add a unique shape and style to your conservatory. It also grows quite well for a cactus and can reach 4 feet. Only needing watering every 3 weeks or so it makes a great plant for wayfaring folk who like to spontaneously extend their road trips.

HANGING PLANTS

Hanging plants crashed back onto the scene a couple of years ago with knotted rope pots falling from our ceilings. A wonderful way to add a splash of green to a wall in a conservatory or a fence facing window. When I look for a hanging plant I think the droopier the better, especially if you’re hanging it from a certain height. My favourite has to be Ivy, extremely common around the UK crawling up old houses they also make a stunning hanging plant, it needs moderate care and can grow by the day, you can let your vine explore her new home which will reshape your conservatory into an indoor secret garden. A tropical twist that we discovered in Costa Rica was using a coconut shell as the pot for a plant, strung up with some natural brown rope it makes for an delightfully organic hanging basket. Luckily we learnt how to make these so get yourself to the coconut market and check out (how to make coconut bowl blog).

We love learning new things and seeing how people transform their places into their own slice of heaven so please share with us any tips or trick and any pictures of indoor plants that brighten your day.