Happy Monday, friends! Did you have a nice weekend? We finally saw the sun, and we also took a quick trip to Galway for Mike’s last away basketball game of the season and I’m so relieved!
It’s grey and rainy in Dublin this morning and I’m working on a few projects I’m hoping to share with you later in the week. They’re both very sweet, one literally and one figuratively! I thought I’d take a quick break from my projects to talk about plants for a minute.
When we took down our Christmas tree in January this year, I realized how much I liked having something green in our living room. With that in mind, I have added and subsequently tortured, basil and cilantro plants. Michael brought me a spiky red plant a month ago which seems to be surviving, and although my paperwhite flowers have gone by, their leaves are still three feet tall and seem to be fairly happy.
But while the living room is a little greener, these plants are forcing me to act like a helicopter parent. Whenever I’m in the living room, I’m wondering and worrying if they have enough water or too much water?
I’ve decided what I really need is an air plant. Did you even know these exist? I spotted them a few weeks ago over on The Marion House Book and couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of them before! It could have something to do with them not being at all indigenous to Ireland, but still.
{Images of Emma’s air plants in her beautiful house. If you haven’t yet seen her blog, it’s well worth a visit! She has the kind of serene-but-lived-in home I just love.}
Aren’t they equally cool and creepy? According to Wikipedia, they gather nutrients and moisture from the air, from decaying plants, dust and insect matter, all stuff I’d be happy to have out of my air! And bonus points that they can apparently live on driftwood. You know how I feel about driftwood.
I’m not sure if I can get air plants in Ireland or if I’ll have to smuggle them back from America. Do you have air plants? In Ireland or elsewhere? I’d love to hear your experiences with them. Are they as easy as they seem?
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Actually i was at the flower show in the phoenix park a couple of years ago and there was a company who was doing air plant installations, i remember there being a vertical one that you hang on the wall like a huge picture, it was very cool. If i remember correctly it was http://indoorplantstore.ie so it might be worth dropping them an email…
I’ve also seen little terrariums using air plants with stones & gravel on etsy, but they didn’t ship to ireland 🙁
Oh that’s a great tip, thanks Julie! I’ll look them up! Would be great if I didn’t have to smuggle any in 😉
Just found your blog and love it! I’ve got to say, i’m totally obsessed with airplants as well! It’s the perfect plant- i’m pretty sure even I couldn’t kill it!
Thank you! Just clicked over to your blog and it’s fab as well! Love the photos! 🙂
Hey! I know this is wicked late to the game, but I just stumbled upon your blog – I’m also a New England transplant to Ireland (from just over the border in NH), and I was also looking for air plants for the same reasons as you. Did you ever find any air plants here? I’d love to know where, if you ended up finding any!
Hi Meaghan! Yay fellow New Englander! Where do you live in Ireland? I never ended up finding any air plants – think I got distracted – but just emailed a few places to see if I can find out where to get some. I was even thinking about bringing some back with me from America but I’m not sure that would fly with the TSA people!
I live in Galway – I’m doing my PhD at the university there. Yeah, I can see that being a problem for the TSA people! I already feel weird about the massive amount of weird foods that I always end up bring back here after trips home…ah, well – I need my Velveeta shells & cheese and my oyster crackers!
It’s probably a bit late but they sell quite a few species of Air plants in Johnstown garden center, and they have a shipping service
Just a thought- I called an airline about flying with a plant, and they don’t care as long as it fits in your carry-on or suitcase, and isn’t wet. Good chance you’ll slow down the line though. I think you’d have to worry more about Customs leaving the States and then going in to Ireland. Some plants may carry pests that countries don’t want transferred.
🙂
I had been searching for air plants in Ireland after seeing them in the US and eventually found somewhere that sells them here, they have a lovely selection and the ones I got were very healthy. https://www.etsy.com/shop/farawayflowers