One of the primary objectives of any plant purchaser is to beautify their place — be it their home, office, or any other place of their work. This reality especially stands its ground for those who may not be very keen enthusiasts of the gardening process or its life cycle, from sowing seeds to the eventual harvest.

For them, the entire process is tiresome, time-consuming and less rewarding. Such buyers usually opt for seasonal flowers that may survive beyond the occasion for which they are purchased. Similarly, gardeners working with different organisations and corporate companies also tend to opt for seasonal flowers and plants. They continue to prepare plants or make purchases from the nurseries throughout the year as the seasons change. This helps to keep the gardening space continually beautiful for onlookers.

Along with seasonal plants, however, gardeners and such purchasers also opt for a few plants that are not only beautiful to look at, but also survive for a long time. Here, the word survival does not refer to surviving a season or two, but a stretch of a few years to decades.

While one can find many delicate vines and ornamental plants that require effort and time, if the idea is to ‘just plant it and let it care for itself’, then gardeners and local purchasers have quite a few favourites.

A hardy plant, with minimum water and sunlight requirements, is likelier to survive at the workplace and give your cubicle an aesthetic upgrade

Snake plants, types of palms, varieties of pothos or money plants are some of the very commonly grown plants that can easily — albeit sadly — survive lack of interest and indifference, even from their growers.

Today, we will be discussing varieties of very common plants, hailing from those ornamental plants and vines that continue to beautify the house, yet remain mostly ignored throughout the year. You may have even seen these plants growing at your own house or in your locality, and it is highly likely that you come across many of these on a daily basis!

These plants are extremely helpful to continue to keep your space green. One of the core reasons that delicate plants and those plants which need daily care tend to die is overwatering! The personnel hired to tend to the plants — the make-shift gardeners and not the real ones — usually consider their prime job responsibility to simply water everything.

Most of these make-shift gardeners do it to an extent that they tend to waterlog the ground, resulting in water-pooling in pockets. This standing water results in root rot and the eventual death of the plants. Hardly any flowering, fruiting and ornamental plant would survive such a daily onslaught of watering.

When you ask such gardeners how they tend to their plants, they are likely to reply with ‘daily watering’ as a response! They do not recognise the fact that, sometimes, water itself becomes the plant-killer. How long, how much, when and where on the ground or the plant one is watering, makes a huge difference to the plant.

There are, however, certain hardy plants that may survive without water for longer stretches. It is easier for a gardener not to water such a plant for a week or so and get away with a thriving plant at the end.

For such gardeners, this is an easy way to make their supervisor happy! These plants are life-savers for them, as the seasonal ones continue to die due to the lack of proper gardening guidelines and provision of excess water.

You may have come across people decorating their terraces and drawing rooms with colourful hangings. Similarly, some employees and workers tend to decorate their workstation or cubicle with water-filled money plant bottles or small plastic pots with a unique variety of cactus.

Most of these nature-lovers are far better than their own company’s corporate gardener, when it comes to actually understanding, caring for, going through the science and life cycle of, and ensuring the provision of what is required for these plants.

I can recall one of my ex-colleagues narrating how he shortlisted plants that may survive in bottles filled with water in an air-conditioned environment, rather than in soil and open air with access to sunlight.

Similarly, another colleague grew a few plants in one long pot and took care of them for a year. Later, he selected one of the plants, which grew best in such conditions, and distributed dozens of those plants, in pots, among his friends in that organisation.

Many private organisations, government offices, medical entities, hotels and educational institutes are currently ensuring greener pastures at a larger scale, within and around their vicinity, for their employees and also for society, as it is a key stakeholder.

There is a growing trend among multinationals to adopt a local park or take over a traffic junction for beautification. Not only is there an air of positive competition among them, their gardeners are actually doing wonderful jobs.

Many organisations with gardening landscapes even enter into local competitions held by horticulturalists. The colourful floral arrangements and flower beds, aesthetically decorated ornamental plants, vine blankets and tastefully grown fruit trees in the background complete the overall gardening canvas at such organisations. Their gardening teams actually deserve applause and recognition!

Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel ‘DocTree Gardening’ promoting organic kitchen gardening

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 2nd, 2024