Unsung icons: House plants Certain greenery is making a comeback
COMEDIAN DAVID SMIEDT TAKES AN IRREVERENT, BUT APPRECIATIVE, LOOK AT THE CLASSIC THINGS THAT DEFINE YOU-BEAUT AUSSIE LIFE
REGULAR READERS OF
this column will know that it’s often a celebration of the past – items in our hearts, hearths and homes that will probably never be seen again. Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s for the best. Whether through aesthetic shifts (maybe shag pile on the wall wasn’t the best idea after all), technological advances (make sure the telephone cord is long enough to stretch from the kitchen into the broom cupboard) or irreplaceable clumsiness (how many times have I told you Mings don’t bounce?), we generally laud and lament trends lost to history. Weirdly enough, this has included plants – examples of botany which, through no leafy fault of their own, have become subject to the mores of style. Yes, even Mother Nature can have trouble staying on trend from time to time.
Look at the living spaces of any millennial worth their single origin, however, and you’ll see flora roaring back onto shelves and into planters, often in vessels purchased from the newly resurgent decor force that is Kmart. In other words, it’s greener than Kermit’s reflection, and some of the previous generation’s greatest potted hits are making a most welcome comeback.
No longer is it about the austere minimalism of the lone phalaenopsis making a singular creamy stand, like a supermodel drooping under the weight of her head. The aspidistra – the name alone once held a comforting, middle-class sophistication for a generation of Australians – is having an elegant revival with its fluid foliage. Also known as the cast-iron plant for its legendary toughness, it’s basically Chuck Norris in a planter.
Then there’s the oh-so-hilariously named Mother-In-Law’s
Tongue (because it’s sharp-edged, geddit?). It’s a yellow and green banded beauty that now goes by the way-sexier title of Viper’s Bowstring Hemp. It’s another example of intense durability – floral and hardy, as it were – that more often needed dusting rather than watering. En masse, it formed the original green wall.
Back in the day when you couldn’t quite afford a mushroom sectional, a cocos palm took up enough space to fetchingly draw the eye. As a bonus, their waxy finish caught the track lighting just so, as long as you were scrupulous with the duster. And boy, did our domestic greenery give your average suburbanite with a penchant for pretension a whole new vocabulary! Why call it a Swiss cheese plant when you could roll the luxurious vowels of Monstera deliciosa around one’s mouth?
Another two-toned splendour that was as fun on the tongue as it was in the conservatory was the philodendron, especially when added to a rustic copper pot or well-secured macramé hanging display. For those who liked their fecundity a little more delicate, there was the maidenhair fern, a term which didn’t bear too much semantic analysis. Ditto ficus, which sounded dirty but wasn’t – unless, of course, it was incorrectly potted, and then it could be filthy.
Way before we got our head around recycling, potted plants on their last tendrils were hastily transplanted into the garden, only to regroup like a burgeoning colonial power a year or two later. We were also briefly fascinated by air plants. Nestled in glass globules suspended by fishing line, they were chic additions to any space – until you copped one to the forehead, having convinced yourself you could navigate the living room without turning the light on.
Right now the sculptural impact of the fiddle-leaf fig has become a decor darling as terrariums fade into the self-watering background, and succulents and cacti are having another moment. As with flared pants in particular, and the colour peach in general, indoor plants have come and gone. And yet, for all the if-it-didn’t-happen-on-Insta-didit-even-happen stereotyping that millennials cop, it’s this generation that is leading the way into a bold new celebration of indoor greenery. And for that they have our thanks and applause. #wellplayed.
ALSO KNOWN AS THE CAST-IRON PLANT FOR ITS legendary toughness, THE ASPIDISTRA IS BASICALLY CHUCK NORRIS IN A PLANTER