Trailing Plants

A pothos gets put on top of a bookcase because there was nowhere else for it. Some weeks later a stem has crept over the edge, felt its way down the shelves and is resting its tip, rather pleased with itself, on the skirting board. Trailing plants are like that: adaptable, forgiving and very good at filling the high, awkward corners of a room. They are also easy to misunderstand, because the shelf, the hook and the top of the wardrobe offer a quite different climate from the windowsill.

This book explains what those high and hanging places actually give a plant, and how to keep long stems full, leafy and handsome for years rather than months. The first part deals with care: light, watering, compost, feeding, training and propagation, all looked at from the point of view of a plant that lives above head height. The second part is a set of detailed plant profiles, from pothos and heartleaf philodendron to string of pearls, hoyas, ivy, peperomias and the trailing cacti.

What you will find inside

• How trailing plants grow, from aroid climbers to succulent strings and runners, and how to read the plant in front of you
• Light for plants that hang: window aspects, how quickly light fades away from the glass, a simple light survey of your home, and grow lights for shelves and dark corners
• Why high and hanging pots dry faster, how to tell when to water, and a weekly round that keeps a mixed collection in hand
• Compost mixes for aroids, hoyas, succulents, peperomias and forest cacti, and why a layer of crocks in the bottom of a pot does more harm than good
• Choosing hanging containers indoors, dealing with drips and weight, and arranging shelves by height and drop
• Training on moss poles and hoops, pinching and pruning, and bringing a leggy plant with a bare crown back to fullness
• Propagation by cuttings in water and compost, by simple, serpentine and air layering, and from plantlets, tubers and single leaves
• Pests, problems and diagnosis, with a troubleshooting table for quick reference
• Getting a Christmas cactus to flower again, coaxing a hoya into bloom and leaving its spurs for next time, and looking after plants while you are on holiday
• Summer baskets outdoors with trailing fuchsias, ivy-leaved pelargoniums, bacopa, creeping Jenny and their companions, plus a month-by-month calendar and a glossary

Who it is for

If you have just brought home your first pothos, this book starts at the beginning and explains each term as it goes. If you already have a shelf of strings and hoyas, you will find plenty on the finer points: compost recipes, flowering routines, cultivars, and the plants that need a cool winter rest. Timings are given by season and month, so the advice works wherever you garden.

Trailing plants are generous things. Many of them will root from a cutting, recover from a hard prune and reward a little understanding with years of cascading green.