It’s what some call the oxygen factory. In a seven-acre greenhouse at Costa Farms headquarters in Goulds, FL, more than 600,000 Boston ferns are lined up as far as the eye can see. It’s a visual experience so surreal, there aren’t really words that can do it justice.
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| Fern house at Costa Farms |
Now that we’ve put away all the holiday decorations and taken down the Christmas tree, I’ve been able to move our houseplants back to their normal locations. Most of them had temporarily turned our bedroom into somewhat of a conservatory. I didn’t mind having so many plants in the bedroom, but it was a bit crowded in there. Plus, the living room looked extremely bare once the holidays had been boxed and stored.
Like I’ve written about before, I’m new to growing houseplants, despite being an outdoor gardener nearly all of my life. But spurred on by a consumer survey project by Costa Farms, our house is now teeming with houseplants. I honestly don’t know how we ever lived with out them, but I keep shuffling them around the house to find combinations and locations that not only please the eye, but also please the plants.
During a celebration to ring in 2011, one of our close friends put his infant son in our bedroom to sleep while the festivities continued in other parts of the house. Upon exiting the bedroom, he commented to me, “You sure do have an overabundance of plants.” His comment made me realize just how much our home has changed since the introduction of nearly 20 houseplants over the past few months. This change is extremely evident in our bedroom — the sunniest room in the house — where many of the houseplants sit near the eastern and southern-facing windows.
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I had the opportunity to visit Schaefer Greenhouses in Montgomery, IL for the first time today, and was in awe at the quality of the holiday plants, the friendliness and professionalism of the staff, and the exquisite cleanliness of the greenhouses. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a garden center or nursery where sanitation was so obviously a high priority. Needless to say, I came away impressed with the Schaefer’s operation.
Why am I smiling so broadly? Until a few months ago, there wasn’t a single plant living in our house, and now, well, I’m surrounded by houseplants. And I haven’t paid a dime for them.
For the past few days, I’ve been trying to decide where to put new plants that I received courtesy of Costa Farms. The plants are part of Costa Farms’ O2 for You series of houseplants, but since we have at least two months of warm weather left here in central Illinois, I wanted to keep them in the outdoor garden for as long as possible.
This morning, it occurred to me that the perfect place might be to place the houseplants — pots and all — into some small bare spots in my patio garden.
The heat of summer returned today, not with the vengeance it had in late July, but with enough humid spite to sap your energy if you stayed too long in it. My eyes were sagging and feet were dragging as I walked from up the driveway to the front door upon returning home. But the challenges of the day disappeared as I caught sight of the large box with PERISHABLE … RUSH … LIVE PLANTS printed on the side in large letters, courtesy of Costa Farms, a grower located in Gould, Florida.
