One cat, 400 plants and a great complexion

SALISBURY — Tovah Martin thinks she has about 400 plants in her home.She’s not sure, because she got tired of counting at 200.“I go crazy with houseplants,” she said. “If the UPS man can walk in without being tripped up by a vine, then I’m not doing my job.”But what the author of “The Unexpected Houseplant” considers a houseplant might be a little unorthodox.“I love living in a jungle,” she told a small but intrepid audience at the Scoville Memorial Library on a snowy afternoon, Saturday, Jan. 25.The jungle includes conifers such as juniper, grown indoors in a metal tubular object she found.“The trick to growing conifers inside is to give it a tubular footprint — they need a lot of soil underneath.”Martin said she uses all sorts of containers for her houseplants.“I love being creative with presentations,” she said, expressing disdain for the “leprechaun green” pots that plants typically come in.She also incorporates other plants within the pot. “I’m not crazy about brown soil.”An amiable-looking cat figured in several of Martin’s photographic presentations. His name is Einstein, and Martin said he is in charge of the “stress testing.”“He’s a shredder, not an ingester,” Martin said. And a good thing, as some of her houseplants are poisonous to cats.Training Einstein took some experimentation. Martin tried a pepper spray, but “it was murder on the orchids.”“What did do a very effective job was histrionics. I would have a total fit and scream a lot. It worked very well.”Martin said there is no reason to get gardener’s blues when fall rolls around. “People feel a sense of loss with their summer garden. Not me. I say ‘Yay, it’s the beginning of houseplant season!’”She went through a list of plants that can be successfully grown inside, even in a home without good southern exposure.There is the Senecio cephalophorus, or “blazing glory”: “Senecio usually smells like gym socks. Not this one.”Or ornamental kale. Martin found her example on the compost pile at a nursery, an end-of-season discard. She took it inside and bought it for $4.“It erupts into flowers. They don’t last all winter but for $4 …”Another favorite is Osmanthus fragrans, or “sweet olive.” “I call it the ventriloquist — it throws its scent to the other side of the room.”In winter, Martin likes the footed fern Polypodium formosanum: “It’s so easy to handle and takes so much neglect.”Another fern, the squirrel foot (Humata tyermanii), is also low-maintenance, although it may bring with it arachnophobic associations.“My mom thinks it looks like tarantulas.”Martin fielded questions as she spoke. One lady asked if she took measures to keep her house moist.“When you’ve got 400 plants it gets moist,” she said, and no extra assistance is required. “It’s great for humidity. My sinuses clear up, it’s great for the complexion.”Some other winter winners include paperwhite narcissus. “You might not like the fragrance — it’s the same chemical composition as cat musk or mothballs.”“Terrible!” said someone in the audience, entering into the spirit of the thing.“It’s worse at night,” said Martin, continuing the narcissus indictment. “Put that thing outside!”On the other hand, there’s another narcissus variety, the “Grand Soleil d’Or.” This one smells like lemons.Martin admitted her passion for indoor plants might seem a little odd to others. She likes to force bulbs by refrigerating them.“So I don’t eat for six weeks,” she joked.When her nephew visited, and opened the refrigerator, he said, “Aunt Tovah, where’s the food?”Martin also grows herbs inside: “Goodwin Creek” lavender, oregano, winter savory, fennel, parsley. Sometimes she incorporates herbs in her underplantings with other plants.And for dispelling the winter blahs, she said, “There’s nothing like a red geranium.”With 400 plants, Martin’s got a lot of tending to do. She advocates watering, not to a calendar or schedule, but by using what she calls the “sensitivity method.”“Don’t say ‘It’s Tuesday, it’s time to water.’ Listen to your plants.”She took issue with conventional watering wisdom. “I’ve heard people say wait until they’re wilted.“That’s like waiting until a teenager faints before feeding him.”Others advocate watering until the water runs out the holes in the bottom of the pot. Martin said if that happens, the soil is too dry to begin with.Using the sensitivity method, wait until the soil is dry to the touch, and then water.“I fill the pot to the rim and let it sink in.”Martin finished with a quick demonstration of how she arranges several plants in a single container.And her final slide was of the cat Einstein, sitting on his bed, surrounded by plants.