7 of the Best Plants for Decorating in and around your Home
Whether you have a large garden, an open entrance way or a terrace balcony, you can use plants to decorate your home and give it a nice, original look. In this article, we’ll tell you which plants are best for decorating in and around your house.
Which plants are best for decorating outside?
We don’t always have the spare time to dedicate to taking care of our gardens or the outside of our homes, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want them to look great. To do this, you should keep the following plants in mind. These are some of the best plants for decorating outside of your house, even if you’re only a novice gardener.
1. Geraniums
This is a herbaceous and bushy plant with the most beautiful and eye-catching flowers. They come in so many different colors – white, pink, red or lilac. The geranium is native to warm and mountain climates near the tropics, and will bloom every spring and summer.
Thanks to its striking color, this is without a doubt one of the best plants for decorating around doors and windows. They need direct sunlight, warm temperatures and watering three times a week.
2. Hydrangea
Hydrangeas are also well-known for their beautiful blue and lilac flowers (in a range of lighter and darker tones). They’re great for brightening up patios, from spring all the way through until fall. Fun fact: the color of the flowers will depend on the pH of the soil. If it’s acidic, they’ll be more blue-ish in color; if it’s neutral, they’ll pink; and if it’s alkaline, they’ll be white.
As for their care, hydrangeas need plenty of water to avoid the appearance of fungi or parasites. When flowering, they’ll also need a lot of fertilizer.
3. Ivy
This climbing plant originates from Asia. It’s the perfect way to naturally decorate the outside of your house, as it can climb up your wall as high as 6.5 ft. However, you’ll need to provide adequate support – some people put nails or screws on the corners of their houses and gradually guide the plant up towards them.
Ivy can also climb up trees. And don’t worry if you’ve not got a vertical surface for it – it can also create a soft carpet along the ground. It’s best to grow it in partially shaded areas, since it needs a lot of watering if placed in direct sunlight.
4. Lavender
This is one of the most common plants used for decorating, thanks to its beautiful color and its high tolerance of sunlight and high temperatures. Plus, lavender has a wonderful scent, which you can use to make your house smell great, or make air fresheners for your wardrobe or kitchen.
Although it adapts well to most soil types, this plant requires dry, sandy and calcium rich soil. It also needs plenty of light to grow, but won’t need constant watering.
5. Roses
Although many people believe the opposite to be the case, roses are perfect for beginners. However, they can be a bit of a pain – you might have to fight off plagues of ants if you don’t want to lose your flowers halfway through the season.
Roses can either grow in a bush, or as climbing plants, up to a height of 16f t. The stems are covered in those infamous thorns, and their beautiful flowers come in a whole variety of colors.
They need a lot of sunlight, constant watering (you might want to add a sprinkler system to make sure the ground doesn’t ever dry out completely) and you’ll need to prune them once the flowers have died. They’re good in the cold and frost, as long as it doesn’t drop below 20°F.
6. Jasmine
If there’s one plant we simply couldn’t leave off this list, it’s jasmine. Its beautiful white flowers will fill the whole area with their wonderful scent, even if its outside. Jasmine plants can grow to be pretty tall, and will eventually become a small, leafy tree. They’re therefore best suited to large patios or gardens.
The only downside to this plant is that they can make a bit of a mess, as they constantly drop petals. You should also be careful as it is particularly susceptible to fungus. It will need regular watering (once a week in summer) and plenty of light all year round. It can also survive freezing temperatures.
7. Primula
Finally, primula is another beautiful plant you could use to make your house beautiful inside and out. They can grow inside, and don’t need much water (too much and the leaves will go yellow) or too much light, as it can burn the leaves. The good thing is that they can survive low temperatures, although not below freezing.