Home Plants Decoration Colour Highlights part 3

Silver and variegated foliage

Once you have discovered the hundreds of different variations on a green theme there are, it is worth exploring still further towards are some plants which are only ever seen in the more subtle colouring found in the which are variegated. Variegation is the feature present when a plant has areas of its leaves with colours other than the green of the rest of the plant.What may have happened as an aberration in a plant is spotted by the plant breeder and developed and used to best advantage. Some people don’t like their plants variegated, others can’t get enough and collect masses of examples for their gardens or greenhouses. There are many houseplants now which have variegated plain green versions and there their variegated forms.

Silver- and grey-leaved plants and those Silver- and grey-leaved plants are commonly grown outdoors to provide relief and contrast amongst brighter greens and it seems sensible to use this trick indoors too, adding one or two to a collection of foliage Some plants in the begonia family have remarkable silvery leaves with a real metallic sheen to them. Begonia metallica and forms of B. rex are two to look out for. They are worth growing simply for their marvellous leaves. Zebrina pendula has silvery leaves with a splash of green down the centre and is wonderfully easy to grow. Similar in leaf shape is the well-known tradescantia which is often overlooked but has the most beautiful cream-striped leaves. Many of the small- leaved ivies, bred especially for indoors, are variegated with either cream-edged or blotched leaves. Others appear to be splashed or spotted with silver or cream.

New varieties keep appearing with new colour variations. The scindapsus family which is similar to the philodendrons has many versions with silver, cream or golden markings. The pretty little plant Plectranthus coleoides ‘Marginatus’ has beautiful creamy- white edgings and splashes on every wavy leaf. In the peperomia family there are several exciting variegated types. Of the larger foliage plants look out for variegated forms of ficus, fatsia and fatshedera. There are many silver- or grey-leaved plants. One of the most spectacular is Rechsteineria leucotricha, which has soft silky leaves like velvet. The plant with the most silver-coloured foliage of any is the cactus Cephalocereus senilis whose long white hairs fully covering the plant are reminiscent of a silvery beard and are responsible for the common name, old man cactus.

Multicoloured plants

Many people choose to decorate and furnish rooms quite simply these days. Plain carpets and small-scale patterned flooring designs are selling far better than they ever used to. Walls are often perfectly plain or with just the merest hint of texture or colour-oncolour. This all has probably a lot to do with the size of house that most people live in today. New houses are often scaled down to the minimum and, without a doubt, the simpler and plainer the interior is, the more a feeling of space will be created. It may be just that fashion dictates pale colours and gentle fabric designs at the moment and before long there will be a great explosion of colour, and large bold designs will be in fashion again. But while we pass through a fairly restrained period in the history of home furnishings what we do need are flowers and plants to produce the spots of colour and the highlights to lift a simple scheme.

An all-white interior is the perfect setting for a few patches of brilliant colour and the stronger and bolder they are the better. In this situation you can mix colours together quite happily, sure in the knowledge that they can’t fight with any others in the room. In a pale-grey room a mix of deep red and shocking pink plus green would work well and in a neutral room, with either cream or beige walls and floors, you could happily mix flowering plants with deep yellow, blue and red flowers. Brilliant red or deep rust looks marvellous with sand and caramel colours and bright sunshine yellow really lifts an all blue-and-white scheme. One successful mixture of plants which always seems to work is a collection of brightly coloured primroses. These can be found in purple, orange, bright pink, red and yellow. It seems unlikely that they could all work together without clashing. Somehow they do, probably because each plant has a good measure of green leaves to relieve the potent colours. In cases such as this choose a plant with good strength of colour and a fair amount of flower. A small-flowered plant from the other side of a room will make little or no impact but something such as an azalea or one of the flowering begonias really gives value for money in terms of the colour it provides. Hydrangeas too have plenty of petal power and so do lilies and many of the spring flowering bulbs.

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