Combine different houseplants in one pot for a unique arrangement—check out these plant ideas and care tips!
Have you tried making houseplant arrangements with multiple different species in one pot? Create an impressive and personal display by combining plants that thrive under similar growing conditions!
1. Mini-tropics
Ferns that like high humidity, including the maidenhair fern ‘Fritz-Luthi’ (on the left), the sword fern ‘Duffy’ (on the right), and the bird’s nest fern ‘Crispy Wave’ (in the back), together with the variegated calathea ‘Freddie’ and the white-flowering peace lily, are perfect partners. Plant them in soil meant for houseplants and add aeration by mixing in potting gravel or lightweight expanded clay, biochar, or orchid bark. Place the arrangement in bright, indirect light and remember to make sure it doesn’t dry out.
2. Desert oasis
Cacti and succulents thrive on a bright south- or west-facing window. Provide drainage by first lining the pot with lightweight expanded clay, then fill it with a sandy, lightly fertilized growing medium, such as a succulent and cactus mix. Compose the arrangement from succulents of various heights, colors, and shapes. The arrangement in the picture below sports the upright euphorbia, or dead plant, Euphorbia platyclada var. erecta, the jade necklace spilling over the rim, the ‘Gollum’ jade plant, and a star-shaped succulent. Give your desert arrangement plenty of light and moderate moisture—always let the soil dry out between waterings.
3. Easy and elegant
The fern-leaf aralia Polyscias filicifolia hails from the tropics and thrives indoors in bright, indirect light or partial shade, planted in moisture-retentive soil. This elegant woody species can grow about a meter tall, but it is easy to keep shorter by pruning its shoots. In the photo below, its undergrowth is lush with sword fern and polka dot plant that enjoy the same conditions. In the bottle, there are cuttings of the beautiful hoya, waiting to be planted in soil.
Stop fertilizing houseplants during the darkest winter months and water them more sparingly than you would in summer.
4. The divas of houseplants
Aroids, or plants in the arum family, can be finicky companions at home because they are easily upset if the soil becomes too dry or too soggy. For aroids, it’s best to mix an equally airy and moisture-retentive substrate as you would for ferns, so they get sufficient moisture without their roots sitting in overly wet, compacted soil. The photo below shows a shallow dish planted with two different anthuriums and a variegated philodendron. The plant in the black pot is the ‘Black Velvet’ alocasia. Place these plants in generous indirect light. In winter, keep them away from drafts and remember to mist regularly.
