Houseplant

The history of houseplants is intertwined with the history of container gardening in general. Ancient Egyptians and Sumerians grew ornamental and fruiting plants in decorative containers. Ancient Greeks and the Romans cultivated laurel trees (Laurus nobilis) in earthenware vessels. In ancient China, potted plants were shown at garden exhibitions over 2,500 years ago.

In the medieval era, gillyflowers were displayed in containers.[3]

Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose, by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1633. Indoor citrus trees were popular in this era.

During the Renaissance, plant collectors and affluent merchants from Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium imported plants from Asia Minor and the East Indies. Creeping groundsel was introduced in Malta and the rest of Europe in the 15th century as an ornamental plant.[4]

In the 17th century, fascination in exotic plants grew among the aristocracy of France and England. Inventor and writer Sir Hugh Platt published Garden of Eden in 1660, a book which directed indoor plant growing methods.[5] Wealthy British households purchased imported fruit trees, especially citrus trees, to grow in specialized orangeries.[6] Less wealthy people would also grow plants, especially flowers, indoors.[7] Orange trees became less fashionable as international commerce in oranges became more widespread.[8] Succulents, such as aloes, were also cultivated.[9]

In the early 18th century, windows in London became wider and brighter, expanding the opportunities for the lower classes to grow plants indoors.[10]

The expansion of European colonialism brought Europeans into contact with a wide variety of new plants, especially tropical plants more suited to growing as houseplants. Explorers and botanists brought over 5,000 species to Europe from South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.[5]

Forcing plants to bloom out of season, especially bulbs, grew in popularity during this era.[11] The decorative pot or cachepot specifically for growing houseplants (as opposed to a simple terracotta pot, or a decorative vase) was developed in this era as ceramic manufacturing took off.[12]

Plant breeding developed in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These innovations were drawn and presented in the botanical gardens and in private court collections. At the end of the 18th century, flower tables became part of the salons. Furthermore, nurseries were flourishing in the 18th century, which stocked thousands of plants, including citrus, jasmines, mignonette, bays, myrtles, agaves and aloes.[12]

The earliest portrait of Charles Darwin, 1816, holding a potted houseplant

The Victorian era saw the first use of houseplants by the middle class, which were perceived as a symbol of social status and moral value.[13] Some foliage plants which tolerated the typical gloomy and snug environment inside a Victorian house became popular.[14] The quintessential Victorian plants were palms (such as kentia palms and parlour palms), the cast iron plant, and ferns. Ferns were grown in Wardian cases, an early type of terrarium. Geraniums were often placed on window ledges and in drawing rooms and were the most affordable houseplant for the average Briton.[12][15]

In 1818, orchids were introduced to Europe when they were used as packing material for the shipment of other rare plants.[12] German ivy was introduced in the United States sometime in the 19th century as a houseplant.[16][17]

Other typical Victorian houseplants included mop-head chrysanthemums and yuccas.[15]

At the end of the 19th century, the range already included begonias, cineraria, clivia, cyclamen and flamingo flowers, but also leafy ornamental plants such as silver fir, ornamental asparagus, lilium, snake plant, and rubber tree.[5]

In the early 20th century, there was a turn against houseplants as they were seen as dated relics of the cluttered Victorian era. When there were houseplants, the more architecturally shaped cacti and succulents were the most common.[15] In the 1920s, commercial houseplant production began in California, focused on the Kentia palm and the pothos, later expanding to include Philodendron and Araucaria species in the 1940s.[5]

During World War II, houseplants became more common in offices, which began to more closely resemble the domestic environment as more women entered the workforce.[18]

By 1960, Florida produced more than 55% of American houseplants, and has since remained the main producer of houseplants for the American market.[5] Philodendrons, rubber plants and geraniums were mainstays of the postwar era.[19] Many plants entered the United States and the United Kingdom through the influence of Scandinavian design, which featured plants.[15] Tropical plants like bromeliads, birds of paradise, and philodendrons were popular accents in tiki-themed spaces.[18] The postwar years also saw a broader commercialization of houseplants. In the 1960s, plant care labels were introduced, and garden centers became ubiquitous in the 1970s.[19][20]

A lush display of houseplants fit into the environmentalist and hippie movements in the 1970s; a large indoor garden is characteristic of 1970s design.[21][22] Leafy plants were popular, particularly ferns and spider plants, often in macramé hanging planters.[18] Monstera deliciosa, ferns, aloes and snake plants (Dracaena sp., usually sold under their former genus of Sanseveria) were also popular.[23] Terrariums and bottle gardens began to appear as well.

In the 1980s, houseplants were often limited to large, lush statement pieces, particularly in bathrooms. The rise of shopping malls with large skylights created a new place for plants to be grown.[18] In the 1990s, moth orchids became trendy.[24] The 1990s also brought a wave of interest in artificial plants.[25]

"Living walls", mass planted vertical gardens, emerged as a trend in 21st century interiors.[26]

Beginning in the mid-to-late 2010s, fashionable plants from earlier decades were revitalized and popularized by social media, especially Instagram, with "plantstagram" becoming a major driver of trendy plants. In 2015, 5 million Americans took up plant-related hobbies.[27] In 2017, 30% of American households purchased at least one houseplant.[28]

Interest in houseplants exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.[29] With people forced to spend more time indoors, many sought to fill their homes with houseplants. Plants were mentioned on Instagram an average of more than 3,000 times a day in July 2021 and the hashtag "#plantmom" has been used more than 2.6 million times.[29] Plant sales in 2020 were at an all-time high, which brought concerns about the environmental impact of the industry.[30]

Some of the most popular plants in the 2020s are the Monstera deliciosa and other aroids,[31] as well as the fiddle-leaf fig. This era saw a larger interest in growing plants with interesting or attractive forms or foliage, rather than focusing solely on flowers.[31]

Houseplants are also grown in a variety of media other than potting mix, often in a hydroponic or semi-hydroponic system. This may overlap with aquascaping. Materials like sand, gravel, brick, expanded clay aggregate and styrofoam may be employed.

Some epiphytic plants may be grown mounted, either with their roots in potting mix and their stems attached to supports, or with their roots wrapped in sphagnum moss and attached to a vertical surface with wire. This can also overlap with the practice of kokedama.

• Aglaonema (Chinese evergreen)
• Alocasia and Colocasia spp. (elephant ear)
• Anthurium spp.
• Aphelandra squarrosa (zebra plant)
• Araucaria heterophylla (Norfolk Island pine)
• Aspidistra elatior (cast iron plant)
• Begonia species and cultivars
• Bromeliaceae (bromeliads, including air plants)
• Calathea, Goeppertia and Maranta spp. (prayer plants)
• Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant)
• Citrus (compact cultivars such as the Meyer lemon)
• Cyclamen
• Dieffenbachia (dumbcane)
• Epipremnum aureum (pothos)
• Ferns and plants treated like ferns, such as Asparagus aethiopicus (asparagus fern) and Nephrolepis exaltata (Boston fern)
  

  Ficus elastica, or the rubber plant, is a common house plant but is also a tree which can grow up to 30–40 metres (98–131 ft) tall in the wild.
• Ficus spp., including Ficus benjamina (weeping fig), Ficus elastica (rubber plant) and Ficus lyrata (fiddle-leaf fig)
• Hoya spp.
• Orchidaceae (orchid) spp.
• Peperomia spp.
• Palms, such as Chamaedorea elegans (parlor palm) and Dypsis lutescens (areca palm),
• Philodendron spp.
• Monstera species (Swiss cheese plants)
• Heptapleurum arboricola (umbrella plant)
• Sinningia speciosa (gloxinia)
• Spathiphyllum (peace lily)
• Stephanotis floribunda (Madagascar jasmine)
• Streptocarpus, including Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia (African violets)
• Tradescantia zebrina (purple wandering Jew)
• Pilea peperomioides
• Scindapsus pictus (satin pothos)

Snake plant, Dracaena (formerly Sansevieria) trifasciata, is known as one of the toughest and most common houseplants.

• Aloe spp. including Aloe vera
• Cactaceae (cacti)
  • Epiphyllum (orchid cacti)
  • Mammillaria
  • Opuntia (paddle cacti, including the prickly pear)
  • Zygocactus (Christmas cactus)
  • Gymnocalycium mihanovichii (chin cactus)
• Crassula ovata (jade plant)
• Echeveria spp.
• Haworthia spp.
• Dracaena spp., including plants formerly in the genus Sansevieria, such as the snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue, Dracaena trifasciata.
• Senecio angulatus (creeping groundsel)
• Senecio rowleyanus (string of pearls)
• Yucca spp.

There are many species of cacti and succulents that stay small enough to do well as houseplants.

Note: Many forced bulbs are also temperate.

• Crocus
• Hippeastrum (amaryllis)
• Hyacinthus (hyacinth)
• Narcissus (narcissus or daffodil)

• Hedera helix (English ivy)
• Saxifraga stolonifera (strawberry begonia)