Surinder Chadha is welcoming us into his indoor garden today.
I live in northern New Jersey, where I have a large outdoor summer garden from May through October. Being an avid gardener, I also have an indoor winter garden from November through April. For indoor gardening, space is an issue. Luckily, my home has high ceilings, and I hang most of the large plants from the ceiling. Some hanging baskets are as large as twenty inches. Every year I have between 80 and 100 indoor plants, including multiple varieties of begonia, philodendron, yews, ferns, Tradescantia (Tradescantia zebrina), ivy (Hedera helix), geranium (Pelargonium hybrids), and spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). In addition, I have a few very fragrant blooming plants such as queen of night and jasmine, as well as a collection of spring- and winter-blooming cacti, jade plant (Crassula ovata), ever blooming oxalis, pepperoni, snake plant (Sansevieria sp.), and a few other varieties.
Surinder’s indoor garden. The large windows and skylights keep that multitude of plants happy.
A large begonia gets enough light from these windows to stay in full flower. The contrast to the drab, winter view outside couldn’t be stronger!
A flowering plant of Oxalis triangularis sits atop of shelf of beautiful treasures.
A blooming begonia takes place of pride.
Plants tumbling down from hanging containers make this beautiful room feel like it is in the middle of a jungle. Not a bad trick when it is actually the middle of winter!
More lush, happy, hanging plants frame the view. If you want to recreate this look in your own home but aren’t lucky enough to have as much light as Surinder, try starting with a pothos (Epipremnum aureum), which is the plant that is tumbling down the right side of this photo. It is incredibly tolerant of less-than-ideal conditions and can fill nearly any room with greenery.
Do you turn the inside of your home into a garden to survive the winter? Send us pictures. We’d love to see!
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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Comments
Surinder: Do you do anything special to add moisture in the air to keep your plants healthy? Also, for plants that have come inside from outdoors like the dragon wing begonia, do you treat them in away to avoid bringing white fly or other insects into your beautiful interior spaces?
Surinder, with all your lush greenery, you can’t have the winter “blues”. All your plants look as if they are thriving. How do you water all the high hanging plants?
NWPhilly, we use an organic spray on plants before we bring them indoors for the winter, although there are still a few that will have whitefly through the winter-we spray those with a mixture of dish washing liquid and water, and try to keep the humidity high
beautiful,i love plants
Surinder, love all those windows that provide light. No reason you have so many lovely plants in the middle of the winter.
Good morning, Surinder. Your collection of houseplants and how you display them is really quite outstanding. I can't help but wonder...what came first? ...the beautiful light filled rooms that seemed to beg out for greenery? or the plants themselves and you did some serious remodeling? The results are all just perfect and, however it came about, it was meant to be.
What a lovely home and indoor garden you have created! Thank you for sharing your healthy plants and your light-filled home. Just gorgeous!
Surinder, this is just the tonic needed for a foggy, snowbound day (here in IL). Thanks for sharing your gorgeous indoor garden!
It's great seeing your indoor garden again, Surinder. What a great way to keep the gardening passion going and keep the winter blahs at bay!
Love the loveliness. Especially the oxalis... which I found out is a weed down under.... Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
The begonias are especially lovely. I have lots of indoor plants in pots large and small, but none hanging like in your beautiful display. Wonderful!
It's so beautiful!!
Very pretty!
Love it!
Excellent!
i like it
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