There’s no excuse for a plastic plant
Monstera deliciosa, otherwise known as the Swiss cheese plant, is perhaps the most popular houseplant of them all, probably because it’s so easy to care for. In normal circumstances, you almost have to try to mess it up. A heatwave, however, akin to those we’ve become used to this summer, can put a monstera under stress. Subject one to anything more than 30°C for too long and you’ll find its poor leaves scorched, its roots damaged and its stems desperately dehydrated. For this reason, there might be the temptation to turn to a shockingly popular alternative: the plastic plant. It should be resisted at all costs. A potted history takes us back to the 1950s, when a postwar manufacturing boom saw the mass production of cheap polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene.
