Garden Center Haul
By Alina Avery
As I’ve mentioned 12059 times, Matt and I have been trying for an “industrial chic”, “indoor jungle” theme in our new apartment. Meaning we’re going for lots and lots of plant life. We’ve accumulated lots of smaller plants over the years, most of which made it with us from NYC, but wanted a few bigger anchor plants to pull everything together.
We picked up a few from Ikea and Home Depot but we hit the jackpot when we finally ventured to Mahoney’s Garden Center.
We really had our eyes out for a Fiddle leaf fig tree. Like this one.
This one is from The Sill and [spoiler alert] it’s $550… (!)
We weren’t trying to break the bank, so we opted for a few other plants that would give a similar look. Here’s what we brought home:
This guy actually is a fiddle leaf ficus, but has some growing to do still. Which probably worked out for the best since we’re not really sure how we would have gotten a full size tree all the way home in our Honda Civic.
This plant is similar, but the leaves are slightly bigger. It’s another ficus (as is the rubber plant behind it, from Home Depot). It needs to have it’s lower leaves trimmed, which the salesperson (gardener?) told us could give it more of a tree-like look.
The plant on the left is from Ikea (and surprisingly sharp, we call him Spiky) but the right plant is the last of the three additions to our big plant collection. We loved the big palm fronds. I think Bisous does, too.
And last but not least, these two made it home with us!
These are our favorite types of indoor plants. They are super easy to keep alive and fill out nicely, making them great fillers for in between more exotic or sparser plants. We’re still finding more permanent homes for each of the new pots, but it already makes everything feel more lively and healthy. The apartment has a lot of open space so it’s nice to fill it with big leaves!
We’re not expert gardeners, but we’re learning and hopefully our thumbs are green enough to keep our new buddies alive and thriving. Any tips?
