Hanging pot plants are the décor darlings of the latest international design fairs. From London to Miami, designers are stringing up plants in upside-down planters, in cantilevered wall-mounted boxes, in new-look macramé pods, even in whole gardens plots suspended mid air.
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Planters of the Future
Just weeks ago in June, at the International Design Festival in Berlin, Werner Aisslinger's sprawling 'Home of the Future' featured a wonderful hanging indoor market garden.
Less high-tech, at the Milan Furniture Fair in April, was Hive's colourful and tactile stand adorned with Mona Alcudia's Menagerie collection – a series of cream wall-mounted, egg-shaped pots, which sprouted steel topiary frames in the shape of elk, moose, reindeer and ram horns, all covered by a tangle of small-leaf vines.
At London's Clerkenwell Design Week in May, Boskke's pop-up shop featured dozens of gravity-defying sky planters hung from the ceiling paired with energy-saving light bulbs. Together they created a veritable growing and glowing canopy.
And in another collaboration, Boskke offered a hanging vegetable garden with each plant suspended mid-air either in sky planters or in kokedama, a Japanese technique of wrapping moss around a plant's root ball.
Yes, after years of being banished to the dustbins of minimalist architects and less-is-more decorators, indoor plants, in general, and hanging pot plants, in particular, are making a comeback.
Foliage Fun Indoors
From the latest topsy-turvy planters to new versions of the vertical wall pocket, from retro hanging baskets to crafty macramé planters, designers are having lots of fun bringing hanging plants into our homes again.
Some of the best ideas are old ones revamped:
Macrame planters now come in bright neon colours.
Hanging ceramic pots are available in fun shapes, such as jelly moulds.
Conical or egg-shaped pots in creamy white or charcoal grey satisfy the minimalists.
Tillandsia (air plants) tucked into glass balls and dangled near a window refract light.
Wire baskets suspended along a row of bracketed hooks create an indoor cascade of foliage.
Potted plants shelved in boxed frames look great in mid-century or retro interiors.
Vintage wooden drawers affixed to the wall can be filled with trailing plants to striking effect.
Plants in recycled cans hung up with chain suit an urban industrial loft.
Plants that like to hang around
So what plants will thrive inside? Short of installing a modular hydroponic, sunlight-simulating system, such as Danielle Trofe's Live Screen seen in Milan this year, you'll need some hardy adapters.
Jennifer Stackhouse, a gardening editor, writer and blogger at gardendrum.com, says plants need high light levels to do well inside for more than a few weeks. "Flowering plants like an orchid would be okay indoors for four to six weeks while in bloom, but would need to be returned to a high light spot outside after that."
"The best plants to use are leafy ferns or peace lilies (Spathiphyllum)," says Stackhouse, "or Streptocarpus, which has flowers. For plants that hang over the edge of the pot, it is worth trying String of Pearls (a succulent) or Spider Plant (Chlorphytum comosum), which has green and white striped leaves and puts out little satellite plants. Hoya is another usually long-lived hanging basket plant."
Jennifer Stackhouse's top tips for looking after indoor hanging plants:
Sunlight
Plants need lots of natural light. To check a hanging spot indoors, hold your hand over a piece of white paper and see if it casts a shadow.
Maintenance
Regularly water, remove spent flowers and leaves, dust leaves and check for pests.
Pests and diseases
Signs that a plant is unhappy indoors include yellow leaves, poor flowering, mealy bug (an insect that attacks the stem, foliage and roots) and scale.
Fertilisers
If growing extremely well indoors or flowering, give plants an occasional feed of liquid fertiliser.
Extremes
Central heating, draughts, cold or heat via window glass can all damage plants. Ferns drop their leaves in a cold draughty place.