Simple indoor plant ideas from your own garden

What a journey we have all been on with our indoor plants over the last few years, don’t you think?! They’ve taken over our homes slowly but surely. They have won a place in our hearts.

How do plants make you feel?

I have been surprised at how plants can make your home a happier place. Indoor plants have made my home feel more peaceful, vibrant and nurtured. They have helped me have a greater connection to nature and I’m sure I feel calmer because of it.

Here are an assortment of my indoor plant collection.

What garden plants have worked for me.

All the plants that I have had most success with have come from my own garden. Simple, but true. I’ve tried numerous specimens from the nursery but haven’t had much luck. Either under-watering, over-watering, too much sun, or lack of sun have claimed their little lives. So, I want to encourage you to use what ever you already have access to in your own backyard. And if you don’t have much of a garden, reach out to a friend and ask if you can dig up some dividable plants or take some cuttings to try in your own home (or use the not so subtle approach of visiting with secateurs and trowel in hand!)

I’ve had the best success with hardy plants like Ivy, Scented Jasmine, Forget-me-nots and Pig’s Ear.

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Ivy

With the Ivy I simply pulled off a heel from a well established Common Ivy plant that I have growing on my front veranda (so established that it grows up into our guttering, that’s a story for another day.) I gently pulled off a 30 cm piece and pushed both ends into a pot with fresh potting mix. I love the look of shaped topiary ivy that you see in English country homes, but instead in a more relaxed, free-flowing Australian style!

The ivy is thriving and is shooting off new little plants in the pot, just to confirm to me that it is as happy as a pig in potting mix mud.

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Scented Jasmine

This amazing scented jasmine is the common variety with the white/pinkish flowers (Jasminum Polyanthum). It grows prolifically on my side fence and I’ve been carefully training it for 10 years, with the hope that it will one day cover the entire fence length. Even with the careful training it still has long runners that grow along the ground, each with little root systems. These are the ones that work a treat inside! This cutting only worked for me when I carefully dug up the new root system (and some soil around it) with the runner and re-potted it inside. My indoor jasmine plants looks like it’s been growing for months, but it came from the garden at this length and has started shooting some new growth since. It seems happy to live inside with regular water soaks and plenty of fresh air.

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Forget-me-nots

The forget-me-not has become a happy indoor plant by means of the same method. Digging a clump of it up and rehoming it in a beautiful aged terracotta pot! It really has been that easy. This beauty likes plenty of morning sun.

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Pig’s Ear

The pig’s ear has to be one of my all time favourite plants,  both inside and outside! The colour brings so much contrast wherever you choose to position it. I simply break off a small section off the parent plant in the garden, and keep it alive inside by placing it in a small plastic container of water that sits inside the textural wooden vase. It will shoot new shoots after a month or so with this method too. Generally I replace my pig’s ear cutting every few months or so (probably because it wants to be planted in soil and starts to wilt a little). So depending on how much of this plant you have in your garden you could plant it in potting mix once you see the new tiny roots shooting from the base of your cutting.

My hardy Jasmine plant, taken from a cutting and loving life!

You try it!

So, if you’d like to try my method of using these hardly plants inside your home, I say do it! And if not these varieties then try some plants that grow well in your area.

Put them in some interesting/textural pots and containers and make your spaces feel more alive! I’d love to hear about what indoor plants you’ve had success with, and particular specimens that you have a soft spot for. Leave your comments below because I’d love to learn from you too!