Plant expert to offer advice on Feb. 6

KENT — No one has a black thumb. Everyone can raise indoor plants. Even in winter. Even you (yes, you).

That’s the philosophy of plant expert (indoor and outdoor) and author and photographer Tovah Martin, who will speak at Town Hall on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 3 p.m. (the snow date is Saturday, Feb. 13). 

The talk is hosted by the Kent Memorial Library and the Kent Garden Club. The talk is about, encouragingly, her new book, “The Indestructible Houseplant.” But, Martin said in an interview this week, that people should feel comfortable asking questions as she speaks about their own challenges and triumphs at keeping plants alive. Indoors. In winter.

“I like to think of it as a group therapy session,” she said.

No whimpering and no excuses are accepted, although Martin is unfailingly polite, encouraging and upbeat. 

“There’s plenty of light in winter,” she riposted when it was suggested that plants die from low light and SAD at certain people’s homes at certain times of year. “In fact, the light can be amazingly good. The deciduous trees have lost their leaves and aren’t blocking the sun. If there’s snow, it reflects the light into the house. 

“I find that west windows can be intense. The thing about your house is that you can’t change your exposures, or move your windows. In my book, I talk about plants that do well in low light and others that do well in bright light. 

“Also, the light changes throughout the year so windows that might be bright in winter might not be in summer, and vice versa.”

In the book, Martin takes a frank and unflinching look at one of the challenges of raising houseplants: Often, those that are the most sturdy are also the ones that are the least attractive. A lot of the book explains ways to take a horticultural ugly duckling and make it shine with the help of a new pot or planter. 

“It’s really all about display,” she confided. “When you take a plant out of the leprechaun green plastic pot they give you at the nursery and you put it in one of the hancrafted pots made by some of the very gifted potters in our area, such as Guy Wolff in Bantam, you’re really creating a work of art.”

She said that she had her indoor plant epiphany thanks to a spider plant. 

“I always said, ‘Spider plants? Not in my home,’” she recalled. “But then I found this gorgeous container and a curly spider plant, which is a new variety, and it changed my whole outlook.”

Besides, she said, “Plants love to be repotted, especially when you first bring them home. People shouldn’t be so scared about disturbing their plants. There’s too much fear and trembling.”

Don’t think that Martin is all about gilding the lily, however.  She is a respected plant expert and will share all the dirt, so to speak, on plant care, including her favorite places for buying plants in the Tri-state area (Martin has been a resident of Roxbury since 1996).

She’ll also talk about watering, which is an art similar to the art of making pastry. Pastry chefs will often say that the amount of flour you use has to be adjusted depending on how much moisture is in the air as you prepare to bake. 

“You just have to look at your plants and decide if they look thirsty,” she said. “I think that people either overnurture or undernurture. I’ve never been an overnurturer and I’m not the kind of person who says, ‘It’s Tuesday, I need to water my plants.’ It depends on whether it’s rainy or sunny or dark and cold, on whether the furnace is running. It has to do with conditions.

“Everybody loves a formula and a lot of writers and lecturers want it the easy way, but nature is not always easy.”

Of course, there are some parts of nature that are easier than others. Moss and terrariums? Relatively easy (Martin also has a book about terrariums; copies will be for sale at the lecture along with all Martin’s other titles). 

On the other end of the ease spectrum: gardenias.

“I’d like to have a gardenia therapy group,” she said. “They are not on my list of indestructible houseplants.”

With a little knowledge, though, Martin believes everyone can grow indoor houseplants. Come to the talk armed with questions; maybe don’t bring any plants though.

“It’s a little too cold for them to be out of the house,” she said. 

To register or for more information call the library at 860-927-3761, email kmlinfo@biblio.org, stop by the library or go to www.kentmemoriallibrary.org. This lecture is free and open to the public.