Nature is an ultimate boss! || Belfast Botanic Gardens - photo feed

There were always plenty of plants in my family home. Even though our house was not very spacious - we had no choice - we had to share it with an immeasurable number of pots, planters and flowerbeds. The windowsill of every window - inside and out - was adorned with rows of plastic, ceramic and glass pots filled with ever more fanciful plants. In the living room (originally called the 'big room'), one could trip over a beautiful, bottle-green, fleshy 'zamia'(Zamioculcas) or get entangled in the ubiquitous tentacles of a fast-growing Syngonium.

From the ceilings dangled ferns and 'threeleaves' (my Mum calls them that, I still don't know the name of this ‘enchanting’ stalk). Plants also took over the bathroom - on the window there was a succulent that bloomed orange from time to time, and sitting on the toilet - you were tickled by asparagus(not etible kind of course ;) - Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri’)

In almost every room stood a sizable yucca grafted into an old trunk, and every windowsill had at least one cyclamen(sometimes called mountain or Alpine violet). My room had the dubious pleasure of hosting a so-called 'lemon drop'(Pelargonium graveolens) - a not very pretty, bright green plant that smelled unbearably strong like lemon peel. I have nothing against lemons, but 'lemon drop' smells more like a 'nature-like aroma' than a sour, popular fruit.

When Mum and I visited friends or family - she was almost always able to spot a plant she didn't already have in her collection - and when she did - the question at the end of the visit was always:

-Can I have a sapling or limb of that beautiful bush in the corner?

The real obsession came with the greater availability of orchids. My mum started collecting them as kids Pokémon's in the late 90s. The passion grew with each new plant. There are so many varieties that collecting them can take a lifetime. This exceptionally beautiful and flower-strewn epiphyte - is indeed one of the most beautiful potted flowers (if you can call a plant that is kept in a pot filled with pieces of bark:)

So - from Mother to daughter - the joy of admiring greenery and the great desire to own it.

Today we are admiring! I hope these crazy plants will brighten your day and perhaps sprout in you the desire to own and nurture plants:)