The News
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Fresh air is often hard to reach for Mexico City residents, especially for those living in cramped apartment complexes with hazy gray views and trash-scented breezes.
Leafy potted plants can offer city-dwellers a convenient antidote, pumping oxygen into the stale air of nature-less homes and adding smart touches to any terrace or windowsill.
The city is virtually bursting with houseplants; any street-side entrepreneur can become a botanist with a truck full of bonsai trees. Tianguis and indoor markets such as Medellín and Jamaica offer some plant selection, but they're mostly dedicated to flowers.
The biggest and best offerings, however, can be found in the Viveros de Coyoacán plant market and in Xochimilco markets like the Mercado de Plantas y Flores Cuemanco inside the Parque Ecológico and the Madreselva stalls inside the Nativitas Park.
Viveros and Xochimilco both provide an overwhelming variety of houseplants tall and small that require minimal maintenance, and market vendors are generally helpful in doling out tips to keep leaves lush and green.
Botanist and plant fanatic Víctor Corona says the Xochimilco markets are larger and offer more plant diversity than Viveros, and plants, pots, soil and accessories typically cost less. On the other hand, he says Viveros vendors generally provide better customer service and have greater plant knowledge.
Corona has worked for nearly 45 years at the Jardín Botánico in Mexico City, run by the biology institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is also in charge of the Faustino Miranda campus greenhouse, a white-domed edifice of classrooms packed with plants in pots, baskets or growing from soil patches fastened to the walls.
MAKING A LIST
Walking down damp steps inside the greenhouse's "jungle" room, Corona perused the verdant tangle to compile a list of great plants to grow in the home.
Plants on the list require indirect sunlight; for example, light through a window or on a shady balcony. Watering is only necessary once or twice per week and fertilization only once a month, although a vendor should be able to help with the specific needs of each piece of greenery.
Corona suggests packing plants into the more porous clay or terra cotta pots; for plastic pots, a dish of water should be placed underneath to help retain moisture.
Raúl Torres, who works at the Viveros market, provided a general price assessment of how much each plant could cost. He says prices are greatly influenced by a plant's height, foliage development and presentation.
Bags of soil at his Local 5 booth run between 15 pesos for small packets and 40 pesos for larger loads. Enormous terra cotta pots cost 170 pesos, while 4-inch pots and plastic varieties will cost 15 pesos or less.
HIGH-RISES
Tall indoor plants will vary in size depending on amounts of light and humidity. Some grow very slowly while others shoot up fast and require leaf maintenance.
The Aralia Cheflera (Schefflera actinophylla), for example, can grow between 2-3 meters indoors and up to 5 meters outside. Its flat, glossy leaves form groups of green ovals that bow from the stem. Torres says the plant at 2 meters goes for 450 pesos, while a mid-sized plant costs around 110 pesos.
The Piña Anona (Monstera deliciosa) can reach up to 2 meters inside, with thin, tall stems standing upright and connecting to broad, lobed leaves. Plants in 6-inch diameter pots sell for 60 pesos.
Dracaena (Dracaena fragrans) plants offer a splash of color with stripes of white and green running along its long, thin and pointed leaves, whose layering gives them the nickname Corn Plant, or "maizera" locally. Small plants can sell at Viveros for 60 pesos, while mid-sized growths cost around 165 pesos.
Philodendrons have many varieties, some growing tall and others, like the Philodendron selum, spreading wide as they develop their spade-shaped leaves with slits down the sides. Medium-sized plants cost between 40-70 pesos.
Palm trees, or "palmas," are a regional classic with immense diversity. For varieties that won't sprout coconuts, Torres suggests the Palma Areca (Chysalidocarpus lutescens), or the Palma Camedor (Chamaedorea spp.); both are slow growing and lush with yellow-green fronds. The Areca sells for 70 pesos at 1 meter tall, and the Camedor for 30 pesos in a 4-inch pot.
LAYING LOW
Small and compact indoor plants are great ways to spruce up desks, windowsills and even ceilings. For wide-spreading types, trimming top leaves can help the bottom from browning or drying out.
Ferns, or "helechos," are great plants for hanging pots or open spaces on the floor.
The Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) is one of the most resilient houseplants with frilly leaves and long fronds spilling over their containers. The Adiantum, or Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris), is a clover-like sprawl of soft, thin bunches. Torres says both plants in hanging pots sell for 70 pesos.
The Aralia Arbólica (Schefflera Arboricola) can brighten any room with clusters of broad white leaves trimmed with pale green, or with leaves covered in splotches of white and green. A 50 cm plant goes for 50 pesos at Viveros.
The "Dwarf" Monstera Obliqua, the more demure cousin of the Piña Anona, boasts thin stems and spade-shaped leaves with holes reminiscent of paper snowflake cutouts. The plant can grow like ivy, or "teléfonos," if left untrimmed, and might cost around 50 pesos.
Peperonia plants have small, round and glossy leaves that smell faintly of cilantro; they cost about 40 pesos for each 6-inch diameter pot.
Bromelias also vary drastically in size and color. A small plant in Corona's greenhouse had burgundy blade-like leaves that arced downward. Torres carried a bromelia with thick, drooping leaves resembling an agave plant and with a spiky pink flower blossoming from the center, costing around 150 pesos.
The Cuna de Moises (Spathiphyllum) is small and squat with wide green fronds and makes a great windowsill companion. A plant in a 6-inch pot and measuring 40 cm tall costs 70 pesos, Torres says.
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