You do realize the 70s are back, don’t you? At least in terms of design. This has been slowly dawning on me over time, as I’ve watched macrame come back (didn’t like it then, don’t care for it now,) ‘boho’ style take over (everyone I knew in the 70s was doing the bohemian thing, with baskets and exotic prints from India covering beds and sofas, hanging plants everywhere.) For those of us who were young adults in the 70s, none of this is new, but it is further proof that everything comes back at some point: in clothes design, in furniture design, in home design, even in car design.
Like many of you, I often peruse sites like Houzz and Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy. I find the ‘new’ trend to be not-so-new, but then again, in a way it is new, with its own spin on that style of (cough) a few decades ago.
I swear I can smell the scent of patchouli oil somewhere.
I remember writing not so long ago of something I missed: the shops that seemed to be everywhere in that decade, full of houseplants. There was one just down the road from where I grew up and I spent hours there. Gradually, I filled my bedroom up with houseplants – hanging plants, plants on a white plant stand that I had, plants on the floor – they were everywhere. I would retreat to my room where I would tend to my plants and listen to music, a ritual I still enjoy.
(Not from the 70s, from the 80s, but you get my drift. This was my apartment in Cambridge. That sofa is still with us.)
Lately, I’ve been following some houseplant enthusiasts on Instagram and many of them are youngish twenty or thirty-somethings. Here is another resurgence from the 70s – young people are crazy about houseplants! They collect them. They hang them in their windows. They do everything they can to find one particular plant. They worry about them, they lovingly nurture them. I love this. This is something from the 70s I can get behind! And there are small plant shops appearing here and there – not enough of them, but they’re out there.
I’m learning from these young ‘uns (can you tell I’m reading Jan Karon right now?) I’ve found a couple of plants via their IG posts that I want for my cottage. They’re taking great photos. They’re decorating around their houseplants. They’re publishing books about them – isn’t that lovely?
I’ve also found a few podcasts that I love, one from England by a longtime gardening writer who loves houseplants, one from Margaret Roach here in upstate New York (I’ve listened to her podcast for years,) and I’m hoping to find more. I love nothing more than reading a book or listening to a podcast about gardening – outdoors and indoors. Especially as we get further into autumn and winter lies just around the corner.
If you’d like me to, I’ll try to compile a list of Instagram accounts and podcasts, but as I’m just now discovering these little gems, it might take a while to gather all the information together.
Speaking of the great outdoors, we had more rain yesterday – deluges at times – and I have a major leaf raking job ahead of me. Yikes. Today is sunny and beautiful, so I expect Mother Nature is telling me to “get to it.”
Don is working long days in New Orleans and he’s feeling a bit under the weather, so send him so good vibes, okay?
Happy Tuesday.
Yes..the 70’s do seem to be back! For some like me…there are parts that never left. I’ve always been a basket lover, and a plant lover. And, I would love to look at a list of indoor gardening blogs or instagram accounts. To me…it’s not home unless there are plants! Enjoy the sunshine…still traveling here…lots to see! ;)
I love baskets, too. I went for a few years without plants. Then I thought, “What am I thinking!”
Good vibes, on the way!
I have a houseplant holdover from the seventies—Boston ferns are the ones I still love most. We buy some every year to hang on the pergola at the lake. Just left two gigantic ones with my NY neighbor. I don’t really have any down South because of the jungle growing outside my door, but I do like to cut some “weeds” (which I have purchased as tropical plants at nurseries up North!) for my vases down here. That’s about all of the indoor space I can use in this tiny shack! Something green always makes it feel like home.
Now I’m missing the two-story ficus tree and the trailing philodendron that covered about forty feet of railing in our loft in San Francisco. Hope the current owner appreciated them, as I can’t bear to think that they were discarded.
Love Boston Ferns, though I’ve never done well with ferns, for some reason!
I had to leave all my Cambridge plants behind when I moved to CA because you couldn’t bring plants into the state. I still mourn them.
I too love house plants. I had my ‘jungle’ when I was single and then only a few plants when I was raising children as there wasn’t time to nurture a lot of them and the kids. Now that I’m back to living single again, I have houseplants. They make me feel better for one thing! Hoping Don feels better. I’m waiting to hear back from my Dr about an appointment to see if we can figure out this pain I’m having. Hugs!
I’m sorry to hear about the pain, Linda! I hope it isn’t too painful, my friend.
Love my houseplants and would love to see the IG plant list, thanks, gayle
Thank you, Gayle!
I would love your list of IG and podcasts. I’ve always loved my house plants and ever since my first apartment they have been an important element in my decor. More for how they make me feel than how they look. My oldest is over 30 years old.
I love the photo of your apartment from the 80s. I’ve never had luck with spider plants. Now THAT is the quintessential 70’s house plant.
I loved my spider plants! I have one now but it hasn’t produced babies. I had to leave all those plants behind when I moved to California, unfortunately. At that time, you couldn’t bring plants into the state. Sob.
I have had a love affair for several years with houseplants:) I’m glad the younger generation is hopping on board!
Love your blog!
Kandi
I am, too! Thank you, Kandi!
Don’s schedule has been fairly rigorous for more than a few months now; six months? Sending all good wishes!
I don’t know about the houseplant-resurgence thing. But it’s good, because plants inside a home are pretty and calming; and they bring in good oxygen, right? I’m down to nothing, though. All the darn remodeling, nothing in place as it should be; nowhere to really put a nice plant yet. (I’ve got is one little worn-out kalanchoe in the kitchen, but that’s IT.) I continue to smile over a ficus we’ve had, confined to a large floor pot indoors for so many years, which endured various transitions over time (since the mid-1980s…different houses, different porches, shut up for days on end in dark moving trucks, later outside and unprotected in the open yard, suffering the effects of frost and understandably VERY unhappy!), finally getting in the ground after 30 years, and now utterly thriving, free from its constraints and sheltered against the house in a spot it seems to enjoy year’round.
I used to say, too, that you couldn’t kill a pothos. I think some of us in the late 70s had them trailing all over our living rooms.
I had some nice spiders, also hardy, but they got buggy so I had to put them outside about four years ago. Sort of forgot about them under the living room window, they rooted in the ground through their pots, and now I have a ‘forest’ of spiders in that section outside where they get a good combo of shade/sun. (My green thumb hasn’t been so green for awhile!)
Our easterly wind has calmed down somewhat. Feeling so sad for the homeowners ‘way south of us in Anaheim and ‘way north of us in Napa who’ve lost homes (here, in SoCalif, it’s the deadly combo of heat, wind and the very-dry temps …and the rain which broke the drought in this last year also then grew a lot of grasses and plants in the foothills which since have dried up and is now wildfire fuel). Images on TV were so heartbreaking, with deer running in broad daylight on the freeways alongside fleeing vehicles. When I was out yesterday, there was a lot of debris on the roads even though I was fairly close to home and sort of watching out where I was going. At one point I had to get out of the car and remove a large tree branch because I didn’t want to run over it. At the cemetery, they lost a huge, substantial palm tree, but I wasn’t surprised because it was a really, really bad Santa Ana yesterday. My eyes are gritty because we’re below 10% humidity. I noticed how muted the world was around here, and it’s because everything is covered in dust, which also clouded the horizon east and west. Too much loose silt from the dry river bed; even the lemon trees in the groves…or avocado trees in the orchards…are covered in dust. There’s just no sharpness to anything. We need a good washing, if it could ever just rain again here. I remember summer rains but we didn’t get any this year. Or getting rain as early as September about 20 years ago. For now, we’ll probably have to wait awhile longer; until then, we have rain envy!!
I have friends in Santa Rosa, both of them had to flee their homes. It’s terrible. I haven’t heard yet how they are today or the status of their homes. Horrifying.
I went thru the same houseplant craze in the 70’s. And yes I still miss them.
There was an old very Lacey fern and a big Christmas cactus among my favorites. I now have a cat that dismembers and chews on anything growing. It’s dangerous for him and upsetting for me, so no plants for me at the moment. It’s good to hear that young people are enjoying houseplants
again! Hope Don is feeling better soon.
Oh yes, if you have a cat that wants to eat the plants, that is dangerous!
best wishes and prayers for don to feel better asap and for you to stay healthy, claudia!
best wishes on raking heavy, wet leaves.
nice offer about gathering a list of houseplant podcasts, etc., but that will be for others. as for me, i have a few pothos or philodendrons that grow slowly in jars of water. fine for me … i do not have a green thumb!
kathy in iowa
I’m in from raking. Always tiring and it’s STILL humid today. This is the oddest October I can remember. I’m still running the air conditioner!
Way back then, I dipped into macrame and made a plant holder, but I didn’t like the process or the final product, so no more macrame for me. I was in a very high end department store yesterday (needed to go to the bathroom, and my daughter said this store probably had really nice ones…and it did!). We ended up browsing the clothing. I usually consider men’s wear department a snooze, but I’ve obviously never been to a high end men’s wear department. The tailoring and fabrics were outstanding. I especially coveted the men’s Armani car coat…$4,000. But back to the 70’s theme, I found wool jackets and coats made with weaves that were popular back then (and in the 80’s). Glad I have some of my blazers from that era. And in the women’s department, many many ponchos and capes, which I don’t like, but my daughter now covets a cape. What goes around, comes around…
It all comes back, doesn’t it? I’ve seen ponchos (I had a poncho that my mom crocheted for me and I wore it all the time on campus!) and capes. We (the older generation) don’t necessarily want them again, but the young ones, like your daughter? It’s all new to them!
Sending good vibes to Don. And you.
Thank you, Tana!
I love my plants, especially my spiders. What is the English podcast that you listen to? PS I used to do macrame in my early teens back in the 70s. I’d love some plant hangers now. I guess I should get some jute and get going. ;)
I’ll list the English podcast when I can compile the whole list, Laura. Get going on that macrame!
I did have many macrame hangars back in the day…. and have always loved my indoor plants. I have finished bringing in the geraniums, etc which will winter-over. We haven’t had a spider plant in many years, but early this summer my husband came home with one which I had outside our deck door. Hoping that it also makes the transition inside.
Patchouli oil…. when we were in college I used to go to a shop on State St in Madison called The Soap Opera (I think it is still there). I always bought Patchouli. One day when I was home from school, my mom asked me why I always smelled like Pine-Sol. I was indignant, but it is really quite funny!!
Enjoy the remainder of your Tuesday, and good vibes sent to Don!!
Don used to wear Patchouli occasionally, but I’ve never liked it! Now, neither of us can stand it! Isn’t that funny?
Spider plants are pretty hardy, I’m thinking it will make the transition just fine!
Wishing Don a speedy recovery. Get Well soon.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn. Sinus, stuffed-up head, sort of cold-like. But he’s hanging in there!
I, too, would love your IG list. I’ve always loved having houseplants and love the look it brings to room. On a totally separate note, I just booked tickets for Anastasia; we are going to NYC in December for a long week-end and I’m so excited. Jen
So excited for you, Jen! I know you’ll love it. And it’s a perfect musical to see in December!
I would love to see those lists when you finish them…Yes I am an indoor plant lover…so was my mother…I made macrame back then and sold it…Sending many good vibes to Don….get up there and start singing and dancing buddy! lol
He’s already doing it – even though he’s under the weather, he has no choice!