Living Wild (eBook)

OUTDOOR GLAMOUR

HOME GROWN

The silhouette of our home attracted us to it from the very start. Being able to add tropical greenery around it was the dream.

Outside the home of Irena Stein, I styled a grouping of plants that love indirect light.

I’ve spoken a lot about bringing the outdoors in, but there are times of the year—spring, summer, and parts of fall, depending on where you live—that you can keep the outdoors…outdoors. Basically, what I’m saying is that our indoor plants can also take a much-needed summer vacation.

Indoors, we work hard to recreate the climate that our plants need to thrive by providing them with humidifiers and misting them weekly. Thankfully, when the seasons change and it gets a little warmer outside, we get to take a break and allow the outdoor elements to do the heavy lifting. But what nature can’t do is arrange our plants and planters around the exterior of our homes in a way that is stylish and practical. That, my friends, is up to you.

Before you move your plants outside, you’ll need to slowly acclimatize them to the elements by bringing them outside for a few hours under shade and then back indoors overnight, repeating this process for at least two to three days and gradually extending the amount of time they spend outdoors. Once you’ve checked the weather and made certain that the temperature will remain above 50ºF/10ºC at night (and some houseplants can tolerate periods of lower temperatures), then you can have fun styling them around the exterior of your home.

Just as bringing tropical plants indoors can transform your home into an exotic destination, the same goes for styling plants outside. If you live in a mid-century modern home in Chicago but want to feel as if you’re in Pasadena, California, during the summer, you can style sago palms (Cycas revoluta) and fan palms (Chamaerops humilis) on your terrace or veranda. If your look is more desert than tropical, more Arizona than Peru, you can style cacti and succulents around your outdoor space and your home will look just like the area you’re trying to recreate.

The style of your home is one thing to consider, but take note of the local climate too. For example, if you live somewhere that gets a lot of rain during spring and summer, you’re not going to be successful using desert plants outside. By the same token, a fern-heavy look that requires high humidity is not going to work in an arid climate. Sometimes you have to work inside of the box to make sure the plants that you’ve moved outdoors for the season return alive and healthy when fall/winter comes.

As someone who has lived most of his life in an apartment without access to an outdoor space like a terrace, patio, or deck, when my wife and I purchased a home it was of utmost importance that we had an outdoor space to turn into a beautiful garden. Fortunately for us, we were able to purchase an American Colonial-style home, built in 1905, with alluring surroundings. Tucked between evergreens, it felt quaint, and I knew it was a home we needed to claim as our own.

As a lover of tropical plants, I knew that I would gravitate toward them when I had the opportunity to create a garden of my own. During my time in California, I was always drawn to homes surrounded by a cluster of large palm trees. So when it came to styling the front of our home, which faces north, I went with a large spindle palm (Hyophorbe verschaffeltii) as our statement plant (see pages 42–47). I dressed it in an off-white planter in the style of our home, so it looked as if it had been growing there long before we arrived. I surrounded the palm with other tropicals, including a Philodendron bernardopazii, P. xanadu, an Australian tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica), and many others to make our home in Baltimore, Maryland, feel like you might need your passport to get here.

The east side of our home, which gets plenty of morning sun, is where I styled my collection of small and medium cacti and succulents, creating my own private Oaxaca desert. With these desert plants styled in porous pots of all shapes and sizes, this area has a very different look and feel from the north side of the house.

LIKE-MINDED INDIVIDUALS

A styling concept I love to utilize is creating groupings. Here I’ve styled a group of cacti and succulents together to create a “desert” moment on the east side of our home.

BLURRED LINES

Having a deck to enjoy during the warmer months expands the space you have for indoor/outdoor living.

Blurring the line between indoor and out is easier when we’re able to fold the accordion doors back and create one large room.

Another grouping of plants—these specimens love full sun during the spring and summer.

Lastly, when it came to the south side of our home, which is sun-kissed all day long, plant styling our deck with sun-loving specimens was a must. When taking your indoor plants outside, never place a plant that prefers low light levels somewhere that gets direct sun from the south and west. That will be the death of that plant. To keep the look clean and consistent, all the plants on the deck are in terra-cotta planters. I layered a grouping of plants on the right corner, so as not to block the path to the staircase.

Unlike the eastern side of the house, where we don’t have a lot of foot traffic, here on the deck we do. During spring, summer, and fall, it’s a lively space for hosting parties, for quiet mornings with a cup of coffee, and downtime with the family. If you’re styling cacti in high-traffic areas like this, be mindful to work in thornless plants. Here, I’ve used a large pencil cactus (Euphorbia tirucalli), a large standard spineless prickly pear and small variegated prickly pear cactus (both varieties of Opuntia ellisiana) and a Euphorbia ingens. I also added a few other sun-lovers, like a ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata), sago palm (Cycas revoluta), and gold dust croton (Codiaeum variegatum ‘Gold Dust’).

On the left side of the deck, I positioned a large majestic palm (Ravenea rivularis) to balance out the other plants and hide the umbrella stand. On the table top, I styled a Caladium lindenii ‘Magnificum’ in a white clay planter. Its patterned foliage works so well with the striped umbrella.

When styling the exterior of a client’s home, I use exactly the same strategies and techniques to ensure not only that the plants thrive in their new outdoor locations but also that they’re able to move back indoors safely at the end of summer.

TIPS FOR PLANT STYLING OUTDOORS

Make sure you’re aware of the weather forecast and what the temperature highs and lows will be. A low of above 50ºF/10ºC at night is necessary before you move your plants outside.

Acclimatize plants slowly by bringing them outdoors under a shaded area for a few hours and then back inside for a few hours, repeating this step for two to three days before leaving them outdoors for the season.

The type of light your plants require indoors will still be the case outdoors. If your houseplants thrive in bright, indirect light, placing them in dappled or lightly shaded areas will be perfect. Any north-facing area of your exterior will work.

If you have direct-sun-loving plants like cacti, succulents, ponytail palms (Beaucarnea recurvata), or crotons, you’ll want to gradually relocate them to sunny outdoor spots. Try placing them on the eastern side of the house for a week or so before moving them to the south or west side of your home for the rest of the season.

Beware of local wildlife that might like the taste of your houseplants. Plants like Calathea and Alocasia are tempting snacks for rabbits and deer.

If you’ve purchased a plant during spring or summer and have kept it outside all season, make sure to have a plan for its position once it has to come indoors.

PATIO PRINCIPLES

A detail of the plants I styled outside the home of designer Jamie Campbell and artist Drury Bynum.

On their patio table, the centerpiece is a Song of India (Dracaena reflexa) and a Peperomia obtusifolia.

The patio should be treated like an extension of the home, so I styled Jamie and Drury’s with additional plants, lanterns, and pillows, to make a spring evening feel a little warmer.

GREENHOUSE GOODNESS

On the side of the gorgeous home of Barbara Voss is a little greenhouse that will make any plant lover jealous.

While Barbara usually uses the greenhouse to shelter her outdoor plants, here I’ve styled it for a little party—I filled the perimeter of the room with plants and hung staghorn ferns from above, then, with the help of stylist Jamie Campbell, prepared the table for a party. A grouping of succulents in one corner.

TIPS FOR BRINGING YOUR PLANTS BACK INDOORS

Place the plant in its planter in a vessel that’s large enough to hold the entire planter. Fill the vessel to the top with lukewarm water. Let the plant sit there for 10 to 15 minutes, washing out or killing any pests that might be in the soil.

During that time, take a damp cloth and wipe the foliage down, removing any pests, dirt, or debris. Once the 15 minutes are up, remove the plant and planter from the vessel and allow the soil to drain out for a few...