Strangely we appear to be 'on trend' with the RHS and its April theme of Inside Out Gardening. We look out onto our patio through a collection of houseplants such as pelargoniums from various sources, sansevieria from a college where my husband once worked, a strelitzia from my family. But the prize must go to the tobacco plants, an outdoor variety from seed gifted by a friend that flourishes indoors.
If we possessed more up to date 'tech' I would take a photo of this and send it to the RHS 'Readers' Letters'. They were sown in a warm place and planted out in a front bed by my husband. With their large tender leaves they seemed to be succumbing to slugs and snails so he dug them up and they overwintered in our back room. Within the last month they have started to blossom and produce lime green flowers. The sweet faint scent is more pronounced in the evenings
The practice of using bedding plants as house plants is not without precedent. Dr D G Hessayon has a section in The House Plant Expert. (Our edition is thirty years old but the series originally dates back to the 1960s). The nicotiana he recommends seems to be a more compact version Nicotiana hybrida. Ours are growing tall, with support. I cannot tell if this is the light conditions or just the variety.
I hope we continue to enjoy them throughout the coming months as they flourish in our below average conditions (18 degrees Centigrade). Modern homes might be too warm to sustain this practice. I look forward to the RHS revisiting this theme in months to come.
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