Interiors by Design: Potted plants

Interiors by Design: Potted plants

Growing plants indoors is an ancient tradition, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that it became popular among the middle classes. While some were grown for their flowers, foliage plants became common, and in the later part of the century Aspidistra elatior became so widespread in Britain that it was a symbol of dull middle-class respectability and the bourgeoisie. John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829–1908), Thoughts of the Past (1859), o…