Make room for the gesneriads and they will reward you
This week I stumbled upon a copy of a half-century-old book on houseplants at a charity shop, and was astonished about quite how cyclical horticultural trends often are. On the cover were monstera leaves, a sealed carboy terrarium, a brass mister and (rather randomly) a sliced-open avocado all proudly displayed. Throw in an upcycled cabinet on paperclip-legs and an ironic beard, and it would be pretty much a gallery of ubiquitous millennial images. However, there is one group of classic 1970s houseplants that have yet to make such a resounding comeback, despite being arguably the best suited to 21st-century homes: the gesneriads.
This family of diminutive, furry-leaved plants from the damp tropical rainforests of the world are as simple to care for as they are beautiful. They are super-easy to propagate, so won’t cost you a fortune to buy, and will grow in cool, dark rooms, so don’t require energy-hungry supplemental heating and lighting to thrive. Many of us will still be familiar with the most famous of this group, the African violet, but there are loads of other trailing relatives that make striking specimens for shelves and hanging baskets for small flats where space is at a premium. They make me think of a far-flung forest in the depths of a British winter each time I water and prune them.
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