Create your own Indoor Spring Display with herbs, plants and decorative items to bring a beautiful touch of Spring to any room
After Christmas the house looks so empty without the pretty Christmas decorations and with winter looming another 4 long months, a great way to cheer yourself up is to create your own touch of spring with a “Spring Garden Display“! As an artist I also get bored with my home looking the same and adding a touch of spring helps me add my creative touch! Plants are not only beautiful but they provide oxygen, remove carbon dioxide and filter out impurities in the air, a wonderful benefit during the winter months when we spend so much time indoors.
Here’s how easy it is!
Simply select fresh luscious greenery, flowers and decorative items to create a refreshing display to keep you inspired and looking forward to Spring.
Plants make me happy…they have always made me happy. Having gardened most of my adult life I have built a very strong connection with plants, the soil and the outdoors. Creating a simple Spring Garden Display is as easy as adding house plants and fresh herbs, flowers, forced bulbs and branches and mix them with pretty decorative items.
The benefit of adding fresh herb plants is multipurpose: for their beauty, their fragrance and for cooking a flavourful homemade meal. Cooking with fresh herbs is amazing especially in winter as they add incredible flavour in addition to providing vitamins and nutrients.
Growing herbs is very useful not only for cooking but simply for placing in a glass of water to infuse a lovely flavour. Rosemary is delightful in a simple glass of water or try fresh basil, thyme, mint, parsley or dill with cucumber. Herbs placed in hot liquids creating a tea or adding herbs to your favourite tea is pampering and nourishing as well. Why not a “sprigs of herbs” like lavender and rosemary in your hot steaming bath with slices of lemon or orange for a beautiful fragrant luxurious bath.
Selecting your Spring Garden Display Location
I have selected a sofa table in my kitchen where I keep some of my extra dishes. My kitchen is very small and I don’t have room for all of them in the cupboards and because they are so beautiful I am happy to display them with lovely plants. For this Indoor Spring Display I have selected blue and white dishes/decorative items as the bones or the “structure” for this Spring Garden display.
Simply add small indoor plants, herbs, flowers and branches placed in pots and vessels that coordinate with the “structure” you have selected. Because my home is small and is an open concept design, this Spring Garden Display can be seen from the kitchen, living room and dining room. Do keep in mind “view points” around the house so that you can enjoy your garden display from several areas in your home. Or why not have more than one Spring Garden Displays throughout your home!
- 1. Here are some suggested locations for a Spring Garden Display:
– a sofa table
– coffee table
– an entry table
– a kitchen island
– a kitchen or dining room table
– decorative plant atrium
– a simple corner of a room. Add a small table to elevate your Garden display off of the floor. Or add two small tables of different heights to create even more interest.
2. Keep in mind plants need natural light: Place your Spring Garden Display close to a window, patio door or under a skylight. There are some plants that grow best in alot of sun and some that do well in lower lit areas. Ivy’s and ferns for example do very well in areas with less light and don’t like direct sunlight.
3. After selecting your location for your Spring Garden display the next step is to see what plants you have available at home.
4. Purchase new plants, bulbs and branches. Be sure to check the optimum conditions that each plant likes in terms of light and watering. Each plant you buy should have a label that describes the lighting needed and watering required.
5. Pick flower colours that look great with your “structure”. In my display I have blue and white dishes so I decided to use white flowers, (see the white flowering apple branches and white narcissus flowering bulbs as well as a vase of chartreuse/lime green hydrangea flowers which blend well with all the greenery).
Select your theme and colour for your Spring Garden Display
Find 3, 5, 7 or more decorative items that look great together. Its a designer secret to use odd numbers in a decorative display. You can use lanterns, dishes, candle holders anything beautiful. There should be some kind of consistency to the items you select. Select a theme or colour for your display and your “inspiration” could simply be a vase or a picture or just pick your favourite spring colours. Then look for decorative items that coordinate with your inspiration piece. As you can see in my example I have blue and white dishes, and white pots/vessels to hold various plants. But also notice that I used antique silver candle holders because silver goes with everything. All of these items look great together and the plants scattered throughout helps soften all the hard edges of the decorative items. Use beautiful pots for each plant ensuring that it coordinates with your main theme. I also love plants placed in large glass lanterns, glass cloches or bell jars.
More Information when selecting your plants and herbs
- I love to select a variety of different plants, bulbs and herbs. You can use some of your existing plants and buy a few plants from local stores. Garden centres and florists have a better selection of indoor plants.
- When you go to buy new plants keep in mind that if you will be transplanting plants into new decorative pots, you may need to purchase potting soil as well.
- Check what decorative pots you have at home and decide if you need to buy a few more pots to display your new plants.
- Its hard to find herbs, forced bulbs and plants at Garden Centres in January and they start to show up in the stores mid February. This is because most growers focus on growing poinsettias up until December. Then after Christmas growers plant new varieties of plants usually ready to buy by February.
- Look for forced bulbs like tulips,narcissus, hyacinth,and daffodils in January and February. Bulbs have a gorgeous scent and the fragrance in your house will be amazing. Keep in mind that bulbs are at their best when they flower and then they can start to look dreary after flowering. You can remove the bulbs pots that are spent from your display and save them in the basement and plant them outside in spring.
- For a beautiful display its important to select plants with a variety in leaf sizes and shapes. Some plants can have teeny tiny leaves, some are feathery like ferns, some are spiky and others have large glossy leaves, so select a variety of leaf sizes, plant shape and plant heights. Ivy’s are beautiful vines with shiny glossy leaves and are readily available and very easy to look after.
- Also consider having a variety of different colour foliage. Select plants with dark green, bright lime green and grey green and any other uniquely coloured foliage to create interest and excitement in your Indoor Garden Display.
- Select flowering branches whether real or artificial to add height in your display. The branches in these images are silk apple blossom branches and look very realistic but there are beautiful live branches that come in season that would look fantastic. Look for branches in nature that have beautiful shapes, they could be dead branches or alive, they could be flowering branches or just leaves. I particularly love cutting branches in early spring that have not leafed out yet or blossomed yet and I cut them, place them in warm water and before you know it the branch will leaf out or blossom. If that’s not possible branches are available at your local florist. Ask what branches are available and what is coming in the next few months. Forsythia are beautiful spring branches with bright yellow flowers. Cherry, plum, almond or apple flowering branches are gorgeous and pussy willows are one of my favourite spring branches! and they have a unique earthy smell. I love just cutting branches from a shrub/tree that still hasn’t leafed out and watch the bright green little leaves open before your eyes. Simple green leaves on branches are just as beautiful as flowering branches and are great for those who don’t want flowers in their display.
- Sometimes plants won’t survive even if you have done everything to help them survive. If a plant dies, don’t feel bad just replace the plant with something else.
- In the fall I prepare to bring in my outdoors herbs, I replant them in pots to place in the house. I always feel bad that I invest so much money in flowers and herbs for the summer garden and I try to bring some of them in and continue to enjoy them throughout the winter. Geraniums from the summer garden also do very well in the house and they will continue to flower and grow quite large.
- Get to know the names of the plants, pay attention and care about each one. Check the top of soil with your finger to see if its dry and if so water. Under watering can kill a plant but also over watering can do the same. Here is a great article on how to look after plants if you are a newbie to plant care. https://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Indoor-Plants
8. I find that the light from my patio door is not the greatest and some of my plants don’t do well, so I trim these plants of dead leaves. Removing the dead leaves helps the plant put energy towards new growth.
9. If your under a tight budget to buy new plants take clippings of your friends plants and root them yourself. Here is a a great article explaining how to root plant cuttings yourself https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/projects/rooting-plant-cuttings.htm
9. If a plant dies, fill in the empty spots with a new plant.
Grow your own herbs or force your own bulbs
- Here is a great article to learn to grow your own herbs/plants https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a20705923/indoor-herb-garden/
- To save money you can learn to “force bulbs” indoors and it’s easy! You can purchase bulbs in the fall and place them in cold storage fooling them into thinking they have been through a winter and then they will blossom in January or February. Bulbs create a dazzling display and the aroma is amazing. Check out this article to learn how to force bulbs https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/blog/index.php/2017/11/21/forcing-bulbs-its-easier-than-you-think/
- You can grow lavender indoors as well which is a beautiful and fragrant herb. Here’s more information on tips on how to grow lavender indoors. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a20705663/how-to-grow-lavender/
You can have more than one display in you home!
You may want to have a display on a main level where you spend most of your time, or if your full of energy, one Spring Garden Display on each level, or one in each important room that you or your family spends alot of time in. Just consider that you will have to pay attention to the plants. Here is another example of a small Spring Garden Display in a rectangular basket I have on my coffee table. I have placed several small Ivy, a silk peony plant, two large wooden candle sticks and a crystal decanter and that’s it. I can replace the silk white peony with forced bulbs like daffodils or narcissus when they start to arrive in the garden centres and when the bulbs are finished flowering I can replace it with something else.
Protect your furniture from water damage
Please keep in mind that you must carefully protect antique and expensive furniture from water damage when placing your Indoor Garden Display on furniture. Place plastic dishes under pots where necessary or thick plastic sheeting inside baskets to stop any water from touching your delicate wood.
Creating an Indoor Spring Display is a multi-purpose endeavour which helps to:
- Cheer you up and bring a touch of spring into your living space.
- Add oxygen, use up carbon dioxide in the house as plants are known to cleanse the air and improve your health.
- Provide colour, texture and fragrance in the room.
- Provide herbs for cooking, fragrance and garnish.
- Keep you in touch with plants and soil which nourishes the soul.
About Artist Kimberley Cook:
Artist Kimberley Cook AFCA CSPWC has been painting in Oils and Watercolours for over 25 years and she loves to make her surroundings beautiful whether in her home, studio or garden with her creative ideas and wants to help others create their own gorgeous space! To Kimberley “creating is like breathing” a very necessary part of her life.
The painting in this article is her latest Oil Painting in her “White Peony Series” titled “Pastel Peonies”. If you would like to purchase this Original Oil Painting for $1895.00 or would like to see more of her Artwork see www.kimberleycook.com
