How to get started with houseplants
Aida Van Dyk shares her retirement village unit with her husband and 400 plants. Joanna Davis gets her growing tips.
Retiree Aida Van Dyk is so busy, she has had to cut back her houseplant collection: She has gone from having 500 to 400. But there is no risk of her sitting idle: She has taken on a new hobby – tropical fish.
Van Dyk was runner-up in New Zealand Gardener’s 2021 houseplant heroes competition, proving that houseplants are not just for millennials.
She started her new hobby in a similar way to her plant obsession – helping out one of her daughters who was moving.
With houseplants, she had to look after a Monstera deliciosa. With tropical fish, it was a whole tank, when her daughter moved to Auckland.
‘‘She said: Mum can you look after my tank?’’, Van Dyk says. ‘‘That was seven months ago. I started with one and then I got excited: I bought too many fish and got overstocked. So then I bought another tank.’’
She now has five.
Van Dyk lives in a villa in a retirement community in Bethlehem, Tauranga, with her husband, Jacko, a man whose good-natured patience is tested by his wife’s obsessions.
He has been encouraging his wife to give away plants.
‘‘When [my daughters] visit they say: please, please can I have this plant? and my husband says: Take as many as you want. Your mum is too busy.’’
Currently under contention is a 2-metre-high fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) that one of the daughters wants.
‘‘She will take it. I think I have no choice,’’ Aida concedes, admitting she needs to cut back. ‘‘I probably have to reduce. ‘‘Some are getting bigger too. ‘‘The monstera is huge – it is nearly going to the ceiling.’’
But she says she loves her home and keeping it packed with plants. ‘‘I love decorating the house with the houseplants. You change them around and they are so beautiful.’’
Not for her the busy retirement village life of daily coffee groups and afternoon drinks. ‘‘I am not a socialising person; I am a stay-at-home. My husband is the one who always books us for a holiday. If he was going to rely on me, we would not go anywhere.’’
Van Dyk has some recommendations for others who want to begin or grow their plant collection in retirement:
Ficus benjamina
‘‘I love foliage and I think a lot of Ficus are easy too. They don’t need a lot of attention. They do get scale every now and then.
‘‘You need to keep them happy in one spot; they don’t like moving around.’’
Philodendrons
‘‘Philodendrons are really beautiful plants but people need to know what they are buying.
‘‘Look for tiny chocolate spots (Botrytis fabae) – they tend to multiply. It is like a fungus. You have to cut them to stop it spreading.’’
Watermelon peperomia
‘‘The watermelon peperomia (Peperomia argyreia )ismy favourite peperomia.
‘‘They grow really well but once you over-water them, they start losing their leaves. If you underwater them, the leaves hang off. If you have only a few, you can keep on top of it.’’
Mother-in-law’s tongue
‘‘Mother-in-law’s tongue, or Sansevieria, don’t need much care. No spraying. You can have a tall one and a dwarf one.’’
Dracaena ‘‘Dracaena
are really good lowmaintenance plants. There are lots of varieties to choose from. My favourite is the Dracaena massangeana.’’
ZZ plant
‘‘You don’t really have to water ZZ plants (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) often. I probably water my one once a month, even in summer. But I water it completely so that the water is running out, and then put it inside and let it dry. In the winter, I hardly water it.
‘‘For people who don’t like watering often or who worry about pests, it is a good one.’’