This year it dawned on me - I'm surrounded by my houseplants inside all the time, but I don't think of them as container gardens. What is the difference between growing houseplants and having an indoor container garden, anyway?
Technically, houseplants are plants grown in containers, just like the plants in my container garden outside. But for some reason my houseplants don't seem like gardens. I buy them already mostly grown, and then they sit in my house and look pretty. I water and fight mealy bugs occasionally, but really don't need much care from me.
Whereas my outdoor container gardens seem to need constant attention - watering, feeding, pinching, re-planting... now that's gardening!
Would it be possible to get that much needed gardening fix during the winter if I just grew more fussy houseplants? Or is there something special about the veggies and annual flowers of summer that typical foliage houseplants just can't live up to?
So my mission this winter is to find flowering and edible houseplants that need enough care to make me feel like I'm actually gardening indoors.
Fortunately, there are a lot of great houseplant websites out there with lists of plants to get me started. Here are a few of the best I've found:
The University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension's "Guide to Selecting Houseplants" at http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/Horticultur...
Virtual Garden's Time Life House Plant Pavilion at http://www.vg.com/cgi-bin/v2/gemag/s=4551
The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension's simply titled "House Plants" page at http://www.uaex.edu/hort/orn/housepl.htm
The Garden Gate's Sunroom at http://garden-gate.prairienet.org/sunroo...
I'd love to hear your suggestions of your favorite plants for indoor gardening. (I think I'm going to need all the help I can get :).
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