It8217;s a green house

With plants, creepers, and flowers Gita Singh, infuses a new life into the interiors of her home. An aesthete by temperament, Gita's hous...

With plants, creepers, and flowers Gita Singh, infuses a new life into the interiors of her home. An aesthete by temperament, Gita8217;s house is full of tasteful objects of art which are natural to her personal surroundings, Subdued lamp lighting adds to the elegant ambience of her home. But it is the touch of greens and flowers which makes her interiors unique.

Brought up in the old fort residence at Mullanpur-on the Chandigarh Ropar Highway, Gita grew up with an abundance of nature8217;s glory all around.

Gita has captured a lot of that magic in her own garden in Sector 10. For the last couple of years, she has been honing her creativity and fine tuning her abilities, while landscaping private residences and corporate office spaces.

In summer, when availability of flowers is depleted and their longevity due to the dry heat reduced greatly, interiors are not bereft of nature. She then explores the potential of greens, variegated leaves, palms, flowers like magnolia, gulcheen and sweet smelling jasmine.

Her favorite is to have a fresh water bowl of motia flowers, or some rose petals floating in water. They not only beautify the room but add a sweet fragrance to the interiors. She also burns camphor in her interiors not just for its antiseptic qualities, but for its healing properties. 8220;The aura of camphor when burned on a bulb alongside a water bowl of rose petals, energizes the atmosphere around. Corners, niches, table tops, are used judiciously to house little arrangements in the most unheard of containers.

One can make lovely Japanese arrangement with Erica palm leaves, you can cut them and fashion them into different shapes.

For summer, Gita has a box full of ideas. Since fresh flowers look ready to drop by the evening, Gita has tapped the greens family to add life to the interiors. Be it the Chameli bush growing in the garden, or the duranta hedge, magnolia or the asparagus in the flower pot, Gita skillfully combines the greens with flowering shrubs to make the most innovative arrangement which can fit almost everywhere against any backdrop.

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She does have a few set of favorite combinations. Like rose pink white and green, or green purple and yellow.

8220;Yellows, mauves, and greens create good vibrations. Yellow Gladiolas and mauve Statice which can be used dried as well with some greens make an attractive arrangement. Pink and Yellow should not be combined as they don8217;t good together8221;, says Gita.

These days Coleus can be used with a variety of flowers, since it gives out roots and looks lovely in a transparent vase. Helichrysums popularly known as paper flowers because of their natural texture, have an everlasting keeping quality when cut.

8220;Spider plant makes a good anti-pollutant and purifies the air. Syngoniums, Erica palms and Song of India, Oppiopogum, Crotons and Shiflora do well indoors,8221; advises Gita.