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– Photo: H. Vibhu

Green home: Indoor plants adds to the beauty of the house.

Building a house with a provision for a small garden inside is a trend these days. The open space with the skylight can become a soothing corner that can be decorated with palms or some indoor plants. Even if you do not have any extra space devoted for a garden inside, indoor plants can enliven any place.

One needs time and effort to make the plants look healthy and shiny. A lot of care is not involved but a few important tips such as wiping the leaves clean, keeping the pots near windows or in places where the light enters the house and using only bio-manure is worth following.

A nearby nursery can give you a list of indoor plants. It is up to the house owner to decide which ones choose. There are climbers such as Philodendron or Syngonium. ’

There are different types of palms that can be kept indoors, such as the ladies finger palm or the red palm or the licola palm. There are also plants such as Diffenbachia and Schelffera to choose from.

The indoor plants also need to get some sunlight once a month. But one should not pick the pots from inside the house and expose them directly to sunlight. The pots should be kept in the shade for some time to help the plants adjust to the new environ. The plants should not be fully exposed to sunlight. They should be kept in a semi-shaded area.

While taking the plants back, the process should be reversed by keeping them inside the shade for some time before they are taken indoors.

Landscapist and horticulturist Jacob Varghese said that chemical manure should be avoided while nurturing indoor plants as one does not want the plant to grow very big inside the house.

The place where the plants are to be kept would depend on the kind of plants chosen, he said. If the leaves are light, they should be kept near a window where the sunlight enters the house. However, if the pigmentation is dark, it can be kept away from sunlight too.

Like the plants outdoors, the ones kept indoors also check pollution. It increases the oxygen content in the room, clears the atmosphere and takes up a lot of dust. Lucky bamboo is among one of those easy to maintain plants that can grow in a cup of water. There is little maintenance involved too. One can also use decorative pots for indoor plants. Depending upon the growth of the plant, one also need to re-plant them after two years or so.

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