Keeping house plants happy

Press, 24 October 1978, Page 12

Keeping house plants happy

Foliage House Plants in Colour. Compiled by Richard A. Anderson. Photography by Peter Hallett. Published by Andersons of Napier, pp. 80. $3.75. Looking after a household of pot plants is a bit like having pets — the creatures cannot actually talk to you but they know what they need. If the light is too bright, the soil too dry or too wet, the bugs biting, they react accordingly. All this is quite demanding. One’s conscience is stricken by confrontation with the silent, drooping reproach of an ill-treated pot plant. How could you

leave it there in that draught . . . fancy forgetting, to water the poor gasping thing .. . look at it, wilting away there in that dark corner . . . And then there is the problem of selecting the right plant for your needs from the ever increasing range available in plant shops and pot plant boutiques. It can be very hard on the ego to take home a healthy subject only to have it curl up in disgust on you a week later. Where did you go wrong? “Foliage House Plants in Colour” is every person’s guide to growing happy house plants. The 80 page, soft-cover book contains splendid colour photographs by Mr Peter Hallett, of Napier of 102 pot plants on which loving care and attention has obviously been lavished. These are not exotic breeds from an overseas interior decorator’s guide, but a selection of the most sought-after and readily grown species available in New Zealand. The captions list each species by its country of origin, and give its botanical name as well as its common usage name, where applicable. A concise description of the best situation for each plant, and advice on watering is ready reference to consult before buying. It may also provide the clue to poor performance of estabished plants. Mr Hallett’s skilful photograph}’ puts the plants in attractive containers and settings, showing those most suitable for standing pots and for hanging baskets or macrame hangers. Group plantings also illustrate the effectiveness of contrasting foliage. The book has been compiled by Mr Richard Anderson, great-grandson of the founder of .1. N. Anderson and Son. The sections on the practical care of house plants at the beginning of the book are sensibly written in layperson’s language to help the amateur enthusiasts for which the publication is intended. Soils — in fact, soil-less potting mixes — temperatures, watering, fertilising, sunlight or shade, and even cleaning are covered. This basic information is just what the novice — the largest increase of house plant lovers is in the 18 to 30 years age group — needs. The house plants in this new book grew up under the careful guidance of a nursery which began in Napier in 1889 when John Anderson set up as a jobbing gardener. The present nursery, an efficient production line of pot plants, remains very much a family concern.

Third and fourth generation Andersons operate the company, which last week marked both the opening of its new 46,000 Sq.it greenhouses, anu me publication of “Foliage House Plants in Colour.” Ninety-year-old Mr Andrew Anderson, who helped his father prepare Anderson’s first catalogue and pioneered the company’s expansion in pot plants in the 1920 s and iboOs, was on hanu lor me celebrations.

The pot plant business grew from John Anderson’s interest in propogating maidenhair ferns. Now the nursery has an almost 90-strong staff who tend a year round total of 38,000 plants in varying stages of ueveiopmeiiL, i.lanv are destined for export to Australia, the United States, and the near East. In small, dome-shaped P.V.C. houses, or huge, half acre hot houses the latest techniques are appued. rtpuUi 160,0uu chrysanthemums are reared a year, 20 varieties maturing and flowering ail year by scientific duplication of nature’s ways. To produce autumn conditions of short days and long, dark nights mechanised blinds are drawn over the growing houses. Poinsettias get similar treatment. Chrysanthemums are Anderson’s most popular plant. Such is the demand the company is kept busy supplying the local market, from North Cape to the Bluff. With individual trickle watering and fertilising, ■corii.ro>.cd numiduy, nea„ and air circulation an ever-widening range of plants flourish. More than ever, new z.ealam.ers want not just green growth, but the fringe benefit of flowering species. Varieties new to New Zealand are constantly sought by the nursery. Often it will take two years to build up sufficient stocks to put a new import on the market. If Anderson’s is a nursery in the true sense — some “parent” plants from which cuttings are taken are many years old — it is also a comfortable, protec d environment tor some treasured old timers. A number of seven and eight foot high palms are 80 to 90 years old. The 60-year-old cycas revoluta fsago palm), illustrated in the book, seems to have decided to celebrate its appearance in a glossy publication A few weeks • :e staff’s surprise, it suddenly began to n oom —tor only t e third time in more than 40 years. the present site of the nursery is on land thrown up by the Napier earthquake. It is its third location in its 90-year history, now being further expanded by the development of the seven-acre block on which the new complex is being built. The new green houses are the latest development of an opaque, fibreglass material which provides an even, diffused, and shadowless light. The new houses, built by Fletcher Brownbuilt. are designed to meet New Zealand needs, and to supply the company’s expanding export market. The plants come south, and go overseas by air. Andersons instigated the first airlift of live nlants in New Zealand in 1956. They hired a DC3 freighter to supply the Hay’s shops in Christchurch. Since then the wooden crates have been replaced by streamlined, specially lined cartons, and the advent of light, soilless potting mixes now makes air freight much more economic.

A VIEW OF BOQKS