The Colonial History of Houseplants

Words by Rosa Kumar

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The Colonial History of Houseplants by Rosa Kumar

Take a look around your room, there might be a succulent on your windowsill, a jade plant growing steadily on your coffee table, maybe a leafy monstera climbing the walls of your living room. Surprisingly, just like many of us, the presence of these plants in our Toronto condos, Brooklyn townhomes, London flats and Parisian penthouses are actually the result of a colonial trend and a Victorian obsession. Yes, I know you picked it up from a sale at Home Depot, but how that plant ended up at Home Depot for $14.99 in the first place is the result of a long and arduous history. 

I have a house teeming with plants. My parents planted the seed in our family home decades before, similar to Queen Amytis of Babylon (discussed later on), I think it reminded them of their houses in India which were built to exist within nature, rather than razing nature down to then strategically plant a few government-issued trees on their lawns after. Within our extended family, we have traditions of sharing cuttings; aunts would bring a leaf cutting from their latest plant along with containers of rajma and saag. The oldest cutting in our family is of a common coleus, a plant native to Southeast Asia, and has been circulating for over almost three decades.