Houseplants are trending. Here's how to work a vintage look 

Plant up some nostalgic styles throughout your home interiors with jardinières, pots and something called a Wardian

Audenza uses a broken sculpture idea deliver antiquity and quirkiness. An irresistible take on the standard planter. Lovely on another (unlit) mantle over the warmer months set with a bullet-proof spider plant or used for herbs Concrete with a brown/gold glaze, €40, audenza.com

Houseplants are in full flourish for 2021, trending for just about every space. As with any accessorising, you can inject some period flair with plants inside and close to the house — distinct from your standard garden shrubs and border favourites. 

For a Victorian atmosphere — fill your empty spring/summer or defunct fireplace with life, shoulder to shoulder in pots in an evocative, cloudy display with drifting ferns and bold, sculptural leaves. 

This is a great way to take the stark edges off that yawning black hole when it’s not in service and there’s no (fuel-efficient) interrupting stove. You can stand some into the grate and others down on the hearthstone as gaggle, weaving their leaves into each other.

A regular winner in gardens at Chelsea and the Hampton Court Flower Show, Redwood Stone concentrates on traditional stone planters and stands for its Italianate garden collection, and set a good standard to follow when you're at any salvage yard or good garden centre buying new, redwoodstone.com

Obviously, check that the amount of light reaching this tropical fireplace shrubbery is adequate to your chosen specimens — again, ferns are useful here both for indicating the era and as they really prefer indirect, forest floor style light from the windows. 

Try adding some planting to the mantle too, with heart-shaped philodendrons for example: just watch you don’t get a marble mantle or any cast iron elements wet — disaster. Use dishes and watering trays to keep the area dry.

If you like terrariums, you’ll love what are termed the sealed Wardian Case. Invented in 1828 by pure accident by physician Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (or AA Maconochie from Scotland if you ask a Scot). 

There were intended to transport fragile plants from the colonies and to nurture seedlings and developed into a sealed, whimsical little bit of 19th-century furniture that allowed the Victorians to celebrate their love of nature under glass in the drawing-room. 

In a magical cycle of humidity and photosynthesis, the case protected plants from the indoor and leaching outdoor pollution of the Industrial Revolution, and the draughty 19th-century Baltic domestic conditions.

Our gardening team can answer any question you have about terrarium propagation but for a Victorian feel — go for a glass-house style on a stand and add some landscaping with mossy rocks for a mysterious Northanger Abbey atmosphere (don’t be afraid to stick in a figure or two; broken ornaments can hide their amputations in the greenery). Check out Etsy for nostalgic Wardian styles, and Pinterest for oodles of closed planter ideas.

Inspired by the early 19th-century sealed Wardian Case planters, we love this all ash and glass indoor greenhouse by Worapong Manupipatpong and Ada Chirakranont from Atelier 2+. Eye-watering at €895, it's food for thought if you have some wood-working skills, finnishdesignshop.com

Heavier outdoor planters in cast iron, lead, stone and conglomerate stone (concrete) are widely available new and vintage and you can use them indoors or out for a classic period take on container planting. 

The degree of detailing to the piece will depend on quality, and quality always costs more. To care of stone and cast concrete pieces you already own that are suffering the outdoor elements year-round, take a look at my guide here: https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandoutdoors/arid-30913343.html.

Neo-classical Italian tazza (cups), campana (bell) and other archival features (columns, pillars, cornices and Roman and Greek applied decoration) were adored by the visually shouty Victorians, as they deftly indicated the Great Tour to the European sites of classical civilisation. Dunne & Dineen, dunneanddineen.ie, do a nice range of Anterra clay pieces, and most salvage yards can be counted on for good reproduction urns and statuary to use indoor or out. 

Mid-century styling with its feet in studio pottery from the 50s. Look for elevated pots and planters on metal stands. Ivyline planters, €32, littlewoodsireland.ie

To set a standard for stone pieces, explore the urns and stands of Redwood Stone (Somerset) used in their celebrated Italianate gardens and follies, redstone.com. Look out for steel churns and cast iron famine (cooking) pots among the gardenalia from the mid-1800s in good condition that can be painted in a good oxide product to last another century and a half — very cottage core.

Lead containers, produced today largely in steel with 3mm lead sheeting, is easily faked with Earth-friendly Clayfibre or fibreglass which are both far less expensive, lighter to handle and frost and UV resistant. 

I’m a bit in love with the sheer royalty of the fibreglass King George III water tank bearing his name by Simon Architectural, which can be personalised with bespoke initials and dates. At €545, what do you even do with it? Their handsome Ship Planter, taken from a memorial planter of 1757 when the Royal Navy flattened the French at the battle of Plessy is really different — ideal inside or for a roof garden or balcony, from €188. Take a look at their fascinating period led ranges recalling weathered bronze, terracotta, lead, antiqued lead, aluminium, copper, stone and rust simonarchitectural.ie

Glazed stoneware is still widely used for both iconic Rococo inspired 19th-century styling and contemporary pots. The art nouveau period introduced magnificent lush Majolica like glazes with high relief decoration by companies including Doulton of Lambeth in England. They are almost too lovely to plunge with a plant. 

Portly jardinières are well worth looking for at auction even with a little damage, as you can put a pot inside the planter to protect it and fidget the leaves down over chips and cracks. Matching trunk like ceramic stands are wildly reproduced in the Far East. Look for marks to the bases and ensure they are very, very stable.

Cheat? I have to thank my mother for this one — pick up some nice Edwardian chamber pots as planters, or use slightly damaged late 19th-century washbasins and jug sets to do a double planting — wonderfully tall as a display. Be wary of planting directly into paler coloured pieces if possible (we did use basins widely) as crazing in the glaze can let in water from the soil and discolour the surface. 

Tall free-standing beaten iron pot stands (second-hand finds from about €30) can act as a pot ‘tree’ drizzled with climbers — adding wry personality to your conservatory and other sheltered indoor/outdoor spaces.

Antique copper and brass planters and troughs with embossed decoration, egg-and-dart rims and even tiny paw feet are a regular salesroom lot. Perfect for an old-fashioned aspidistra, they really work in a corner or as part of a table gallery, throwing out light in a dull room and creating a gorgeous foil to greenery. Expect to pay from around €150 for a generous period example. 

Brassbound wood planters need special care to survive and cannot go outside or even on the front step. Still, nurturing that mid-century vibe? Look out for elevated cradle planters in both metals and redwoods, or vouch for postmodern planted heads and other pop-art whimsy propagated in Italy or Scandinavia. O

liver Bonas’ brand-new yucca potted pots and planters in combed glazes and cool kick out feet — irresistible. From €23.12, oliverbonas.com

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