Choosing House Plants: To match your decor

Decorating with House Plants can give a better impression about you than decorating with traditional things like pictures, vases and other ornamentations. House Plants make perfect accents and can make your spaces look inviting and speak volumes about your personality. If you pay attention to the growth and flowering habit of plants and choose according to your decor you'll find that your plants blend in seamlessly and minimize the cluttered look of so many house plant collections.

Rustic or Southwestern Furniture

If your home furnishings consist of natural, unvarnished woods and lots of knotted pine and dark metal. Take these plants into consideration to compliment your decor without the kitsch factor of a Pinata.

• Adenium Obesum
• Euphorbias: Crown of Thorns and the columnar types
• Cacti
• Succulents: Christmas Cactus, Kalanchoe, Echeverias
• Chenille Plant
• Pot Chrysanthemum
• Ornamental Pepper
• Columnea
• Calamondin Orange
• Cyclamen
• Gloriosa Lily
• Tartogo aka Bottle Plant
• New Zealand Tea Tree
• Calla Lily
• Norfolk Island Pine
• Cast-iron Plant
• Ponytail Palm
• Jades
• Monterey Cypress
• Staghorn Fern
• Begonias
• Madagascar Palm
• Yucca

Classical or European Furniture

Lots of dark or stained woods with intricate carvings. Instead of a candy dish filled with striped hard candy try some of these plants for decoration. Make sure to apply the arthritis ointment in a room away from the parlor where you receive quests so their olfactory system is not over come. You may have to cut down on the number of cats you own.

• Cyclamen
• Azalea
• Ivy
• Ferns
• Palms
• African violets
• Slipperwort
• Bush Violet
• Primroses
• Gloxinia
• Strawberry Begonia (not really a Begonia)
• Piggyback Plant (only "houseplant" native to North America)
• Amaryllis and forced bulbs in the Winter
• German Violet
• French Hydrangea

Contemporary Furniture

This looks is easily recognized by the use of brushed steel and glass and furnishing with clean lines. When you've bought every piece of blue glass in your state to "give it some color" try some of these plants and get rid of that blue glass. If you limit your trips to IKEA to one per year this look can be maintained.

• Cacti
• Asparagus Ferns
• Yucca
• Snake Plant or some nicer (read more expensive) Sanseverias.
• Euphorbias- columnar types
• Amaryllis
• African Blood Lily
• Tartogo or Bottle Plant
• Streptocarpus-(The Giant leafed)-Wendlandii
• Bromeliads
• Aeonium
• Sweet flag grass
• Ceropegia Woodii
• Umbrella Sedge
• Yucca
• Madagascar Palm
• Screw Pine
• Staghorn Fern

"The World Traveler" Furniture

This decor is recognized by the use of woods like Bamboo and natural fabrics. Sometimes this look is overdone with the use of multiple Buddha busts, restrict yourself to one per room so try these plants instead. The next time you find yourself traveling through Namibia leave the fertility dolls behind they're cheaper at Pier 1 Imports.

• Orchids
• Adenium Obesum
• Bromeliads
• Palms
• Ornamental Pepper
• Calamondin Orange and Kumquat
• Clivia
• German Violet
• African Blood Lily
• Jasmine
• Madagascar Jasmine
• Tillandsias
• Calla Lily
• Serissa
• Alocasias
• Pineapple
• Queensland Bottle Tree
• Croton
• Jade
• Ti Plant
• Monstera
• Pitcher Plant
• Water Chestnut
• Philodendron
• Aralia
• Boat Lily
• Ferns
• Orchid Cactus

Some suggestions for reading and inspiration

Forcing, Etc.: the indoor gardener's guide to bringing bulbs, branches & houseplants into bloom.

The Complete Guide to Houseplants: The Easy Way to Choose and Grow Healthy, Happy Houseplants

The Barefoot Home: Dressed-Down Design for Casual Living

Home Rules: Transform the Place You Live into a Place You'll Love

Blooming Rooms, Decorating with Flowers and Floral Motifs