by Melinda Myers
Add colorful flair to your holiday décor and gift-giving by including a few unique holiday plants. You and your gift recipients will appreciate their uniqueness and beauty throughout the holidays and beyond.
Poinsettias are a favorite, and now you can find unique colors from Pure White to Hot Pink and others with variegated leaves or flowers, which are actually modified leaves called bracts, like Sparkling Rouge.
Include some other unique holiday plants available from your favorite garden center. You’ll find a variety of cyclamen plants with plain or ruffled white, pink, rose, lavender, or bicolor flowers that look like shooting stars. The blooms hover over heart-shaped leaves with silvery highlights. These plants prefer cool, bright, draft-free locations. Water when the soil is dry just below the surface.
Use miniature cyclamen and poinsettias as a place card holder at your next gathering or to brighten any small space. Dress up the dinner table, mantle, or side table with one of the larger varieties. Large or small, any holiday plant makes wonderful party favors and hostess gifts. Place the plants in a decorative container, basket, or colorful tin for a more impressive display. Be sure to include care directions.
Add a bit of lemon fragrance with the chartreuse foliage of Lemon Cypress (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa, formerly Cupressus macrocarpa). Its narrow, upright growth habit makes it an excellent holiday plant. Grow it in a sunny window with six to eight hours of sunlight daily. Water thoroughly when the top inch or two of the soil is dry. Group it with other plants or set the pot on a gravel tray. The pebbles elevate the pot above the water in the saucer, avoiding root rot while increasing humidity around the plant. Those gardening in zones seven and warmer can grow this as a landscape plant. Those in colder climates can move it outdoors for summer and back inside in the fall.
Frosty Fern (Selaginella) with white-tipped, scalelike leaves has become a recent holiday favorite. It is a spike moss, not a true fern, and thrives in moist soil with good drainage. Use distilled or rainwater for the best results, and check soil moisture several times a week. This is a perfect plant for those that tend to overwater. Grow frosty fern with other houseplants on a gravel tray or under a glass enclosure like a terrarium or Wardian case, as it requires high humidity to survive. Place this plant in a bright location out of direct sunlight. Don’t be alarmed as the white tips will fade as spring approaches but the texture continues to add interest to any indoor plant collection.
Whether giving, receiving, or buying some for yourself, living gifts like these will brighten anyone’s mood and indoor décor.
Melinda Myers has written over 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, Revised Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.