weeklyGARDEN
This variegated monstera makes a real design statement with its pristine white and dark green leaves.
So many of the icons from the 1970s that we treated with casual disregard have come back to haunt us. Think macramé plant hangers, spider plants, bird’s-nest ferns, rubber trees and... monstera.
Tropical treasures!
Lee Ann Bramwell GARDEN EDITOR
Jungle MAKE THE MOST OF THE MONSTERA REVIVAL
In its natural habitat, monstera is a forest-floor plant where it enjoys dappled shade.
62
New Zealand Woman’s Weekly
never knew until a few days ago that the ubiquitous monstera – also known as he fruit salad plant and the th Swiss cheese plant – belonged to o a family called aroids. Frankly, I’d rather be called a Swiss cheese plant than something reminiscent of stteroids and adenoids. An aroid, Auntie Google to old me after I had convinced her I wasn’t searching ‘android’, iss any one of various perennial herbs in the Araceae family, having tiny flowers crowded in n a spadix that is subtended by b a spathe. Spadix and spathe.
Even worse. But no matter what I think of the names associated with these plants, there’s no denying they are flavour of the month, enjoying a revival of the 1970s jungle aesthetic. Back then, everyone had a fruit salad plant in their flat. Now, everyone has one on their phone case. There are statement wallpapers, blockmounted artworks, duvets and cushion covers. Who would have thought? There’s also a growing aroid society – several, in fact – and at the recent Annual International Aroid Society show and sale in
