Pretty in pink – my indoor garden

I had such a delight putting together these plants which I’d summered-out in the shady part of my garden, tucked away from view. I bring them up just as they’re starting to bloom and look good so I don’t have rag-tag plants all the time.

This year I got to the garden store and got some sheets of moss to put around the base and make them look really nice. It covers up a variety of sins and only took about 5 minutes to do.

Mostly I’m just revelling in all these pink things blooming at once and how pretty the shapes and forms look together. The one in the right hand corner is an orchid my horticulture buddy gave me, which she thinks is Oncidium ‘Twinkle’. The cyclamen, which another friend gave me a few years ago is the common one you can pick up in grocery stores and garden centers here in New England. It has a really attractive leaf and these lovely pink flowers that almost dance out.

I like this composition because of the different shapes of the pots, the leaves, the textures, the colors – it all seems to work against the background created by black bamboo table it’s on. Also the plants are not in plastic pots – they’re in terracotta and the cyclamen’s in a glazed, ceramic bowl which adds to the display.

I picked up a fern last year as I thought I needed one in my plant combination. I’d seen something similar in a magazine and it adds that textural touch. There’s also another orchid in the back that my friend Marylyn gave me this year which I added as its large bladed leaf contrasts well with the Twinkle orchid’s narrower leaf.

So there are three bladed leaves here, one small and narrow, a larger one in the far corner and the fern’s, which is a textured instead of a smooth, sharp line. They work well with the sheet moss and the cyclamen with its dancing flowers and exquisite, heart-shaped variegated leaves, where the silver edging frames the green leaf within.

I hope this inspires you to make your own indoor garden.