Plants and Flowers

Contrary to existing stereotypes, plants will be perfectly blended with an interior of any style. The main thing is to choose suitable plants. Plants of clear and distinct forms (Sansevieria trifasciata, Monstera deliciosa and dragon tree), or - for sharp contrast – ferns with feather-like leaves or pink azalea will suit direct and elegant bent forms of furniture from steel, glasses, marble and varnished wood.

Furniture from bamboo and rattan, small lockers and wattled shelves, low little tables and seats can be decorated with orchids, wax plants, jasmine, etc. Japanese notes to an interior can be given by bamboo, azaleas and Bonsai plants.

English and French styles of furniture are in harmony with bushy and gentle blossoming plants: cyclamen, camellia, and also palm trees and treelike tub-gardening plants.

Tendency to natural beauty, and flowers as one of its best expressions, is natural for the person. However to become successful in decorating own house with plants, you should know a lot of them. Therefore flower design will best do good expert on a phytodesign.

But to cover all window sill with flower pots does not mean to interlace harmoniously alive plants in an interior. The modern phytodesign has developed many laws and rules. Something from these regulations can be successfully replaced with presence of good sense of taste. But there are such aspects which need an advice of the expert to understand.

Corner stone here, as in everything that concerns design of a dwelling, are the sizes of an apartment. The spacious a room, the larger plants and their amount. Treelike plants have decorative qualities, especially such large-leaved species, as dragon tree, philodendron or a ficus bengalese which are perfectly looked in rooms with a few items of furniture (in halls and vestibules). For small rooms it is better to select average or small species with wide and gentle leaves.

Especially beautifully plants look on a modest, softened background. If the pattern on wall-paper is fine or absent at all, it would be better to choose large-leaved plants. And on the contrary, bright pattern of wall-paper demands filigree fern leaves.

Light angle is also important when designing an interior with plants. The good effect is achieved, when tone of curtains, wall-paper, or furniture upholstery is repeated in plants. If the interior is built on contrast of black and white, rich colors of plants will give freshness to the general image of the room.

Recently we aspire to surround the life with natural materials whenever possible. And what can be closer to the nature, than alive plants? In the interior design they in an increasing frequency serve as the main decorative elements.

Already in the first half of the last century indoor plants became completely common phenomenon. Plants from distant tropical countries became the most popular among Europeans. Plants from tropical areas for the first time arrived to Europe in the XV century when travelers from Holland, England, Spain opened the new countries. That very way the majority of modern indoor plants came to the Old World.

To the East Europe decorative plants have got even later. Nevertheless greenhouses have proliferated very fast. Often they were located in wooden houses warmed with furnaces. There were grown overseas exotic plants and so-called delicate cultures - pomegranates, lemons, tangerines.

In rich houses of Europe greenhouses turned to the whole winter gardens. Usually greenhouses were located near to the big halls.

However, even those who did not dream of own greenhouse, - people of average estate, commoners – can do such pleasure to themselves and decorate a window even with one flower.

Such indoor plants, as palm trees, ficus, Chinese hibiscus, ceriman, pelargonium, various citron and many others have already been known in the XIX century. All of them have been brought from Oceania, Australia, Africa, India, China. Almost the same plants are loved by people now.

The foliage of some trees, bushes and plants in general is decorative. In the winter, especially in the morning, when you do not want to stand up from a bed and all around seems so cold, plants will help you to get warm. Collected in the autumn and dried in a book multi-colored maple leaves will effectively look on the curtains from grey, not bleached flax. You can sew with several accurate stitches these leaflets to curtains, and they will for certain warm your room, making it cozy and warm.

In a vase you may put dried cereals.
If you are bored from your chandelier, do not hasten to throw it out. Try to fix on a thread dry maple leaves. They should hang at a different height, there should not be too much of them, and such decoration should not impede movement through the room. At a light waft (it can be an open window) leaves start to whirl, and if touch each other, make light pleasant rustle. If leaves are fixed close enough to a chandelier, they will look very beautiful, when you turn on the light.

These small decorations will prolong summer in your house and will calm you.

The most frequently met variant of a winter garden is a place for rest or small drawing-room. In both variants you should provide for place for a small table and several chairs or armchairs. If you plan to have a rest here with all your family or to receive guests - increase this area in the plan due to reduction of amount of plants and flowers; if want to use a garden basically for their cultivation - on the contrary, reduce a zone of rest. A gangway, in any case, should be left sufficient not to create the feeling of narrowness.

Sometimes the inhabited space is completely united with a winter garden - in this case it is possible to place a cozy nook in the heart of a room, completely having opened perimeter of glazing for a stream of sunlight.

If you have plans to construct two-storied winter garden, it is a good idea to provide for a gallery in the plan of the second story - it will give the perfect opportunity of contemplation of the extensive and high room filled with light.

To provide comfortable conditions both for your rest and for plants in a garden, it is necessary to find the compromise settlement, which meets both conditions.

Parameter of relative humidity is vital for good health – and it is directly connected to the temperature. Parameter of humidity can reach 100 % on cold surfaces of the glass. In case of insufficient airproofing of double glazing, the condensate of atmospheric moisture can be gathered between internal surfaces of glass sheets, creating unpleasant for appearance effect of “breath”.

To avoid negative consequences and create a rational microclimate in winter to a garden you can with the help of correctly selected systems of ventilation and heating. The main thing, which you should determine in your choice - quantity indicators of temperature and humidity, characteristic for favorable influence of air both on your health, and on plants. Such range of comfort is narrow enough and makes for temperature - from 20 up to 22 degrees, and for relative humidity - from 40 up to 60 %.

The system of heating which should maintain temperature in the set range, whatever it is, always has support from the solar energy, which penetrates into a room through the big glazed surface, however such support can not provide the required temperature during a cold season - in that case heating of a premise can be made in various ways. Among them: connection to the system of central heating; independent electric heating; a warmed up floor; heating by the fresh air heated up in the conditioner, etc. In practice there are also successful combinations of these systems.

Well thought over variant of selection and placing of the heating equipment provides equal warming up of the entire room.

Winter garden is a beautiful and complex organism where everything is interconnected. Designing of a winter garden includes a number of parameters.

To make winter garden function normally, the owner should consider its location, form, direction, and slope of roof, ventilation system and an opportunity of shading, which are determinatives for a possibility of constant object’s use. In this connection the owner should in due time and thoroughly learn what opportunities of use gives winter garden and what demands are made to it.

Because of extensive glazed surfaces, microclimate of a winter garden differs from that typical for usual internal premises. It depends first of all on temperature and humidity of the air inside the glazed volume.

On the one hand, constant changes of temperature and humidity of the external air within one day (daily range), and throughout the whole year (seasonal), force it to work in extreme conditions. On the other hand, the smooth surface of a cold glass reacts to an increased humidity in the other way, as for example, the usual plastered wall: porous plaster can absorb and keep water vapor invisible to an eye; the glass sheet, on the contrary, collects them directly on the surface in large drops of dew. Therefore internal rooms of a house adjoining to a winter garden are exposed to the certain influence of such neighborhood to some extent. Such neighborhood may be negative, if there is no appropriate heating, ventilation and protection against excessive solar influence.

The photosynthesis, which influences growth of plants, substantially depends on intensity and illumination spectrum and also duration of illumination. Too little light exposure leads to lengthening of shoot, reduction of the leaf surface and reduction of chlorophyll formation; prevalence of blue-violet radiation slows down growth, and excessive red radiation accelerates it. An optimum mode of photosynthesis guarantees correct plants development.

Required high levels of light exposure for exotic plants cannot be provided with usual decorative light devices and demand special equipment. Moreover, such levels are incompatible with long stay of people; therefore certain time should be given for lighting of a garden. The tropical origin of the majority of room and hothouse plants causes their requirement in 12-16-hours light day.

The most effective and popular light sources for artificial illumination are – natrium and metal-halide lamps. Natrium lamps give powerful light in orange and red spectrum, which promotes growth of plants and flowering; using of natrium lamps increases flowering by 20 % and more. Some deficiency of blue radiation is compensated by the natural illumination from windows. If plants are placed in the closed or strongly shaded rooms almost without natural light, natrium lamps should be used in combination with metal-halide lamps, which are less effective, but have higher blue radiation contents. The best effect is achieved at simultaneous use of these two types of lamps.

In practice lamps with mirroring bulb are economic and convenient. They allow to direct all radiation on plants rationally, to make the lighting device compact, lightweight and convenient in maintenance.

Glass covering is as important as construction systems and choice of materials. Glass covering of the winter garden is made from insulated glazing units: here architects and customers have wide enough choice of quality of the glass and decorative furnish. Some may be please with metal inserts or even stained-glass window.

Today two materials are used for glazing of roofs: glass and polycarbonate. In a case of glass roof, triplex is made in addition - two glasses are put together by means of a special tape that allows glass to be stronger, and at the moment of a strong blow not be broken into small splinters.

Polycarbonate doesn’t require such security measures, as its resilience allows it to push away subjects which can fall to a roof during a strong wind or hurricane. The incline of the glazed roofing part, as practice has shown, should make not less than 20 degrees - at a smaller incline removal of water and snow from a roof becomes complicated; besides greater steepness gives more free-of-charge solar energy received by light demanders and heat-loving plants during winter time when the sun is low above a skyline. The frame of a winter garden should be strong enough to maintain the weight of the glass. Besides it should have good heat-insulated properties and be simple in maintenance.