Exotic and shapely, fantastical and alluring, houseplants are a seductive if frustrating joy to many.
While their fronds can excite and their flowers delight, the challenges of keeping them looking lush and pert can overwhelm even the most dedicated gardener.
Tuhura Otago Museum gardener Danielle Lomas said despite the challenges the benefits were worth it.
Looking after houseplants was "really really hard".
"My message is always if you are having bad luck with houseplants don't feel too bad about that ... it doesn't mean you are failing as a gardener."
Many popular houseplants originated from very different climates such as hot and humid tropical rainforests of South America.
"And then we are bringing them to Dunedin, putting them in houses and keeping them in a pot."
A trip to the museum’s tropical butterfly garden provided a great opportunity to understand just how different the environment was for the plants when growing in the wild.
One example was the fruit salad plant, Monstera deliciosa, a popular houseplant that is common throughout Central America.
In its natural habitat it would scramble across the forest floor until it found a tree and then it would "launch" itself up a tree trunk to find sunlight, often growing to well over 10m high.
"So that will be its typical behaviour, but obviously we struggle to recreate something like that."
Another example was the moth orchid, Phalaenopsis. "They are a rainforest plant."
In the wild the moth orchid could take root on the branches of other trees or even on rock faces.
"They actually don’t need soil to grow in."
"It is really easy to overly care or overly water some of the plants like that which are used to perching on the top of branches."
When it came to houseplants her advice was to try different species to find one that thrivedin the conditions of your home. "Sometimes it is just a bit of trial and error."
