Culture

From tiny terrariums to tiger-print statements, houseplants can enhance any interior. Dominic Lutyens asks "plantfluencers" for their top tips and tricks.In homes across the world, particularly in Millennial and Gen-Z households, a trend for houseplants is flourishing. Gone are the days when a solitary yukka plant or kentia palm occupied a corner of a living room. Now a profusion of plants and a much bigger variety of species fill homes to luxuriant and exotic effect – from the classic monstera deliciosa, commonly known as the Swiss cheese plant, to the sinister-sounding but decorative Neoregelia "Hannibal Lecter" with its dramatic, aubergine-on-green tiger-print pattern and prickly leaves. Houseplants are assuming as much importance as pieces of furniture in a room, and today's plant propagators are not only increasingly horticulturally savvy but also know how best to pot plants and maintain them to ensure they thrive. More like this: -          Why living with plants is good for you -          Eight nature books to change your life -          Inside the homes of the new naturalists The craze harks back to 1970s homes – the revival of the retro macramé hanging plantholder is a bit of a giveaway. The 70s loved Victoriana, and the houseplant boom is a throwback to that era as well. And the widespread environmentalist adoption of biophilic design and architecture – which highlights greenery, water, fresh air and natural materials and forms in interiors – is fuelling this phenomenon. "Social media is boosting the boom, with people who love plants sharing pictures of them everywhere," says Hilton Carter, US-based "plantfluencer" (a horticultural influencer) and author of new book Living Wild. "The fascination with houseplants stems from people wanting to reconnect with nature," says Emma Sibley, founder of the shop London Terrariums, which holds workshops teaching how to make terrariums – another facet of the trend. "Throughout lockdowns, people were glued to their screens while working from home, unable to be in nature." Houseplants satisfy people's nurturing qualities, she tells BBC Culture: "They've introduced a ritual into the day that disconnects people from screentime and allows them to look after something that needs them." We spoke to several plantfluencers to discover eight of the latest trends in styling houseplants.Variegated plants bring contrast and colour to a room (Credit: Dorling Kindersley/ Jason Ingram)1 Colourful plants According to Tony Le-Britton, author of new book Not Another Jungle – also the name of his plant shop in Northampton, UK, and his Instagram account – variegated plants (plants with leaves of two or more colours) are one of the biggest trends now. Available in an ever-expanding selection of colours and patterns, these can be teamed with practically any room's colour scheme. "Just as tulips were bred in the Netherlands in the 1600s, so the Dutch government has seized the opportunity to breed new variegations in plants," he tells BBC Culture. "Demand for houseplants skyrocketed during lockdowns. Once the houseplant bug bites, you want to find out what else is available. People searched online for more unusual plants, which originally only serious plant collectors took an interest in. The diversity of plants is constantly increasing. While white-and-green variegation is still common, there are also many variations of reds, pinks and oranges. People are now deliberately buying plants they can work into a room's colour scheme, matching them with paint colours and patterns found in upholstery."Interiors painted in dark, rich colours provide a dramatic backdrop for plants (Credit: Dorling Kindersley/ Jason Ingram)2 Dark walls make plants stand out One of Le-Britton's favourite styling tips is to display a wide variety of plants against walls in dark, matt colours, such as midnight blue or forest green, which makes the plants’ different forms and textures stand out more, and their colours appear more vibrant. These might include the characterful monstera deliciosa, sometimes called split-leaf philodendron, a plant with lusciously glossy "fenestrated" leaves (the botanical term for perforated leaves). "This was very popular in the 1970s, and has made a massive comeback," he says. "Today their leaves crop up time and again as motifs on wallpapers and furnishing fabrics." Le-Britton also favours begonia maculata, whose leaves have polka dot-like spots and a vibrant red underside. For more colour, he includes the versatile purple-leaved Tradescantia – it also includes climbing and trailing species.  Terrariums are a growing sub-trend with houseplant fans (Credit: London Terrariums)3 Terrariums and mossariums One sub-trend of the houseplant phenomenon is terrariums, which appeal for being low-maintenance, eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing. According to Sibley, "Sometimes an overpopulation of houseplants causes people to panic about how to look after them all. That's where a terrarium – the perfect fusion of houseplant and ornament – comes in. Terrariums require little care and can be left for months at a time without the need to intervene. This appeals to those who travel a lot and need friends and family to water their plants." There's now even a trend for mossariums – terrariums containing moss, she says. Moss, incidentally, is much in demand. "People seem to be gravitating towards an all-green moss trend, which gives a really fresh feel to a space."Illuminating plants with special lights helps them grow and creates an atmospheric mood (Credit: Getty Images)4 Illumination of plants One recent houseplant trend has seen the broadening of options for lighting indoor plants, which is not only practical but can result in pleasingly atmospheric effects. Plants need natural light to flourish but in some spaces, such as darker corners, this is in short supply. One big trend now is for grow lightbulbs, which compensate for natural daylight and trigger photosynthesis. These are available from lighting shops and online retailers, and can be used in normal light fittings, allowing plants to be placed anywhere. Terrariums can be fitted with grow lights, too. "Terrariums appeal for conjuring up miniature worlds that people can mentally escape into, and illuminating them enhances their magical quality," says Le-Britton. "Another recent trend is for a lamp-terrarium hybrid. This is a lamp with a bulbous glass base that doubles as a terrarium and is lit by the lamp's lightbulb. A recent post about this idea went viral on Instagram, and the idea has caught on globally."Matching a plant with its container is an aesthetic but also practical matter (Credit: Hilton Carter/ CICO Books)5 Imaginative planters As the repertoire of houseplants expands in many homes, so we're witnessing a far greater choice of plant holders to contain them. But this operates on two levels – aesthetic and practical. With plantfluencers and houseplant enthusiasts increasingly aware and appreciative of the sheer variety of plants they can grow, they are also becoming more discerning about choosing a good-looking, stylish planter. Hilton Carter discusses this trend in detail in his book, but isn't prescriptive when it comes to aesthetics. He favours planters that are unusual or characterful in a variety of styles, from simple white ceramic planters with a fluted surface at the more minimal end of the scale to suitably organic clay containers made using the Japanese pottery technique of nerikomi, whereby thin layers of clay, often in subtly different earthy tones, are stacked and then manipulated to create a marble effect. However, plants only thrive in plant holders made of certain materials: cacti, for example, require porous containers made of concrete, clay or terracotta so the soil can dry out quickly after watering. Other plants, such as the tropical Peperomia, are happier in glazed ceramic or metal planters that retain moisture.Indoor plants mounted on a wall create a piece of 'living art', according to Hilton Carter (Hilton Carter/ CICO Books)6 Living walls and plants roaming free With styling of houseplants becoming ever more adventurous, it's not surprising to learn that one trend is for houseplants to appear to escape the confines of a pot or planter and roam free. If plants have traditionally climbed external walls of buildings, there's no reason why they can't climb internal walls or trail along mantelpieces. The idea of plants and trees growing on the walls of buildings, made famous, for example, by Milan's Vertical Forest (two residential towers housing 800 trees and countless plants) has caught on indoors, providing a more original alternative to wallpapers and art – one dubbed "living art" by Carter. He cites two examples – firstly, plants, such as staghorn ferns, mounted on cedar boards or pieces of reclaimed wood, their roots wrapped in cork or moss, and secondly, indoor living walls, which carpet an entire wall and require irrigation systems. Both animate coldly featureless walls, he tells BBC Culture: "You're taking what is typically a flat, hard surface and making it come alive… A living wall is an art piece that is forever morphing and becoming new." Given today's widespread adoption of biophilic design, this trend looks set to endure. Since the plants in this instance are attached to walls, it's also a good space-saving solution in compact interiors.An indoor plant as a centrepiece is a good alternative to cut flowers (Credit: Hilton Carter/ CICO Books)7 Living centrepieces With restaurants and dining tables for private parties often incorporating pots of herbs diners can pluck from, it's not surprising to hear that formal flower arrangements in vases serving as centrepieces are being supplanted by longer-lasting alternatives, such as lemon trees growing in pots. "Let's say the occasion is a summer party," suggests Carter in his book. "You could position a Meyer lemon tree in the centre of your table, and pick lemons from the tree to serve in cocktails you're serving guests. If you're having an intimate dinner with friends, styling plants that sit low on the table, like a group of succulents, will add a touch of greenery and allow conversations to flow easily without blocking anyone's view." Such ideas naturally accord with today's growing commitment to biophilic and sustainable design; cut flowers are wasteful by comparison. Another increasingly popular centrepiece option is cuttings taken from plants and placed in water. Once these sprout roots, they can be potted in soil to create new plants. "These centrepieces keep the look you are going for much longer than those featuring cut flowers," Carter points out.A large, eye-catching plant can help provide a room with a strong focal point (Credit: Hilton Carter/ CICO Books)8 The statement plant What if a houseplant fan likes a degree of greenery around them, deeming it calming, but draws the line at the current trend for rooms that recall Victorian hothouses or even jungles? The answer could be to go with another trend highlighted by Carter: a large, eye-catching plant judiciously placed in an otherwise sparsely furnished space. A plant approximating the size of a young tree and with a simple trunk crowned by leaves can be placed at the end of a hallway, giving the space a focal point, and creating a more dramatic vanishing point. To achieve this pared-down effect, Carter recommends towering plants, such as Australian tree ferns and the large-leaved Ficus lyrata (fiddle-leaf fig). "I like styling minimalist spaces with one large pop of greenery." Living Wild by Hilton Carter is published by CICO Books on 28 March; Not Another Jungle by Tony Le-Britton is published by DK/Penguin Random House on 11 April. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.      

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On the 40th anniversary of the Nintendo video game Mario Bros, and ahead of the release of a new film starring Chris Pratt, Arwa Haider explores how the plucky character Mario has gone from arcade games to Hollywood.Back in the mid-1980s, I was thrilled to unwrap a hi-tech gift for my ninth birthday: a handheld Game + Watch version of the arcade hit Donkey Kong. I played the game obsessively, captivated by its split screen liquid-crystal display, and the simple expressiveness of its hero character: a plucky monochrome figure called Mario, who would scale a construction site to rescue a captive princess. Mario had three lives in this platform game, but an apparently infinite appeal beyond it. More like this: - The 1991 video game that packs a punch - The music most embedded in our psyches? - How gaming became a form of meditation Over the decades, Mario has appeared in more than 200 games, among them Nintendo's original Mario Bros (which marks its 40th anniversary in March 2023), alongside his sibling Luigi, and the Mario Kart series (1992 onwards). His adventures have inspired multi-generational merch (toys, trading cards, designer kimonos), spin-offs including new animated feature The Super Mario Bros Movie, and theme park attractions. More than any other video-gaming character, Mario has steadily powered up from an arcade sprite to a household name and pop culture icon. Mario's now massive "everyman" presence stems from low-key beginnings. Prior to his 1981 debut in Donkey Kong, Mario had been called Ossan (Japanese for "middle-aged guy"), Mr Video and Jumpman in development; he was eventually named after the landlord of Nintendo's US HQ. His creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, referenced global pop culture influences, envisioning a protagonist that could make recurring cameos across different games, rather like Alfred Hitchcock cropping up in the movies he directed. Mario's original 8-bit design was instantly recognisable: stout, bright, bearing a distinctive cap and moustache; by the arcade release of Mario Bros (1983), his character was adapted, switching roles from carpenter to Italian-American plumber (reflecting that game's landscape of pipes, as well as Miyamoto's love of Western comics), while the controls remained intuitive.Mario was switched from carpenter to plumber in the early games; creator Shigeru Miyamoto has called him 'a blue-collar hero' (Credit: Alamy)"I think that Mario became so popular because the actions in the Mario game are something that are innate to humans everywhere," Miyamoto told NPR in a 2015 interview. "Everyone is afraid of falling from a great height. If there is a gap that you have to cross, everyone is going to try to run to jump across… because of the simplicity of these experiences as well as the interactive nature of controlling the character and seeing the response on the game screen – that's what really resonated with people." Mario is an unequivocal "good guy", yet his form has been intriguingly fluid. His transformative qualities (and home console fame) became apparent in the pivotal Super Mario Bros (1985), where various Mushroom Kingdom items boosted his size and abilities. In his book The Ultimate History of Video Games Vol 1 (2010), Steven L Kent describes Mario as "the elder statesman of the gaming industry", explaining that: "Super Mario Bros [1985] took Mario out of his single-screen setting and placed him in a huge vivid world… players now controlled him as he ran through a seemingly endless, brightly coloured countryside filled with caverns, castles, and giant mushrooms. The landscape was much too expansive to fit on a screen."The Super Mario Bros Movie, due to be released in April, stars Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as twin brothers Mario and Luigi (Credit: Nintendo/Universal Pictures)Since then, Mario has remained an unmistakeable character across all kinds of incarnations, including a flying tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog, in Super Mario Bros 3, 1988) to a bee (in Super Mario Galaxy, 2007) and a cat (Super Mario 3D World, 2013). His roles have ranged from Dr Mario (for a 1990 puzzle game) to artist/composer (Mario Paint, 1992) and athlete (in racing, football, and tennis games, besides Nintendo/Sega crossover series Mario & Sonic at The Olympic Games). In Super Mario Odyssey (2017), even Mario's cap took on a life of its own. Meanwhile, Mario's surrounding cast has grown increasingly vast, yet even when these characters front their own games, they're ultimately defined by their bond to him: as sibling (Luigi); sidekick (Princess Peach; Yoshi); or adversary (Donkey Kong; Bowser; Wario). The sound of Mario has also proved a literal game-changer. Composer Koji Kondo's now legendary music and movement effects have accompanied Mario's quests since Super Mario Bros [1985], and US voice actor Charles Martinet has developed his cartoonish catchphrases ("Let's-a-go!"), but even the first Mario Bros game featured snappy motifs that immediately bring the character to mind. "That 'coin drop' sound – I think it's just two very high keynotes – is so recognisable and simple," says musician and founder of the London Video Game Orchestra, Galen Woltkamp-Moon. "Mario always looked iconic, even in very low-res pixel art, but I also remember being able to sing his soundtracks when I was maybe six or seven years old, which I couldn't do with any other game at the time. The music is very accessible for all ages; it's changed up every other bar or so, and it keeps the audience engaged." On the big screen Translating a beloved videogame character to the movie screen has often proved risky, though there's clearly a new wave of adaptations (including the rather limp Sonic the Hedgehog films). The live-action Super Mario Bros feature (1993) proved a clunky flop, despite a talented cast and high-end FX; Bob Hoskins played Mario, later describing the film as "the worst thing I ever did" (in a 2007 interview with The Guardian). In advance of its release, the new Super Mario Bros Movie has apparently provoked a fan backlash to Chris Pratt's voice acting as CGI Mario, though co-director Aaron Horvarth insists it's in the right spirit. "When you play the game, if you don't give up, Mario will succeed," Horvarth told Total Film. "So we transferred that player experience from the game to a characteristic that [movie] Mario would have… [Chris Pratt] is really good at playing a blue-collar hero with a tonne of heart." Mario has endured in all kinds of realms, inspiring blockbuster appearances (as per Miyamoto's original concept, he's a playable character in numerous games including Super Smash Bros and Fortnite, and a background detail in many others) to internet memes (besides the surreal "Italian Elon Musk" parody account) and conceptual art. The US visual artist Cory Arcangel's video installation Super Mario Clouds (2002) modifies Super Mario World; in 2015, an artist working under the pseudonym Samir Al-Mutfi created a "Syrian Super Mario" platform game, depicting the challenges faced by refugees seeking safety. Increasingly, Mario features in the collections of major galleries and institutions.According to Kristian Volsing, a curator for Young V&A in London, Mario deserves to be in a museum. "Video games, as much as any other media, should be recognised for their cultural impact," he tells BBC Culture. "Mario has been there right from the beginning of the video games revolution in the 1980s, and he's more popular than ever as we get to the 40th anniversary. "Mario is recognised all over the world – though he's also quite a blank slate. And the amazing games design is meant to be a communal experience. You'll also get titles like Super Mario Maker [a game with design tools, originally released in 2015]; it's saying that everybody who plays these games already knows how they work, because they're so involved with them." Mario brings generations together at play. Now my son is around the same age I was when I first encountered the character, and his own birthday wish-lists have included Super Mario Lego, or an updated Super Mario Bros Game + Watch. When we race each other at Mario Kart, we might not select Classic Mario (there are so many character options, including Metal Mario and Baby Mario), but the character remains a grounding force: a familiar friend in a crazy accelerated world. Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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