From symbols of status and power to affordable commodities, houseplants have always persisted, whether you like it or not. Beautiful gardens with moonlit pools and fragrant flowers have long dwelled in the imagination as gateways to exotic, faraway lands. It wasn’t by mistake that many kings and emperors had lavish gardens built as a means to flagrantly flaunt their wealth and power. Like many novel inventions, however, sooner or later, houseplants fell into the provenance of the middle and lower classes. 

These days, though, you won’t see houseplants reach the marvellous heights as they did in the hanging gardens of Babylon. More often than not, they’re used to create insulating spaces, offering a refuge from the creeping anxieties of everyday life. As you go from plant to plant, you might be surprised that the origin of houseplants has quite a colorful history, spanning thousands of years. 

Ancient Roots: Historical Origins of Gardening

In the old days, if you were under the service of a king, he might have made you climb literal mountains in order to retrieve blocks of ice for the elite’s extravagant banquets. Cruelty and pleasure may not always go hand in hand, but in the ancient world, they often did. 

Subterranean ruins under the remains of a condemned apartment in Rome allude to Caligula’s Garden of Delights, an extravagant, imperial garden where wild animals were said to roam free among the greenery. A notoriously cruel and perverse Roman emperor, Caligula’s insatiable appetite was nevertheless reflected in the paradisiacal visions he had for his garden. 

After the fall of Rome, the trail picks up in the Golden Age of Piracy, at a time when pirates raided the open seas, though they weren’t the only ones to brave its dangerous waters. Plant hunters, intrepid adventurers who travelled far and wide to collect interesting specimens, whether for scientific purposes or discovery, were the unsung heroes of today’s houseplants. Interestingly, a few plant hunters might have also been pirates, as was the case of William Dampier, a 17th-century pirate and one of the first Englishmen to chart the wilderness of the Australian coast. 

As the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome – at least with greenhouses. The earliest known greenhouse was built in 30 A.D for the Roman emperor Tiberius, whose doctor prescribed one cucumber a day to heal his sickness. Instead of glass, it was painstakingly constructed from blades of mica. In the 17th century, the English updated the greenhouse and ‘orangeries’ emerged – structures, often extensions of the home, where oranges and other prized fruit trees were cultivated. Flash forward to the present, and you’ll find that today’s greenhouses are much more adapted to growing crops. 

From Victorian Gardens to Modern Day

How did orchids, once a flower of high society, become so widespread that every home seems to have one? The answer lies in the 19th century inventions that played a key role in making houseplants more accessible. In a city enveloped by smog, Londoners sought refuge indoors, where the Edwardian cases of the Victorian era helped propel the popularity of houseplants into the light. The greenery, however scant, afforded by these proto-terrariums provided a soothing respite from the pollution that engulfed the city. 

Exotic flowers don’t last long in the harsh London winters, which was why fervent plant enthusiasts built ornate greenhouses dedicated to sprawling ferns and other subtropical curiosities purveyed from faraway lands. In lush manor houses far away from the smog, the wealthy tended to their gardens – carefully stretches of greenery filled with exuberant plantings and mosaics of color. 

Houseplants gained further traction in the 1940s, when women entered the workforce and brought potted plants to decorate their offices. The 60s saw the rise of pothos, snake plants, and the highly coveted split-leaf philodendrons. Following the end of the war, houseplants have always been used to instill a measure of hope; it’s hardly surprising that they were used to echo anti-war sentiments in the 1970s. Macramé wrapped itself around many ferns and spider plants, then was ditched in favor of sleek pots and raised beds. 

The New Age of Houseplants

Orchids are no longer viewed as a biophilic curiosity, and the cultivation of greenery is no longer a Promethean endeavor that requires careful understanding of aesthetics: anyone can own a houseplant. 

While modern houseplants have shed the intricate hierarchy of their Victorian-era peers, preferring to blend in the landscape like a slouched sofa rather than stand out in flamboyance, houseplants continue to evoke feelings of escapism. They continue to be reflections of their owners, whether excessively overgrown or carefully maintained with the best technology that money can buy. 

Then there’s the fact that houseplants are remarkably resilient. Unlike outdoors plants, they are notoriously hard to kill. Despite their various benefits, not everyone appreciates their ubiquitousness. Some people fawn over houseplants excessively while others view them as ‘just there.’ But houseplants are never just ‘there’ – they’re the plants you couldn’t kill (even if you might wish otherwise). Having evolved alongside mankind, they’ve endured the rise and fall of empires and survived countless wars. Through it all, they continue to spread their roots, just as their progenitors did thousands of years ago.  

Some plants are lucky enough to escape the stuffy confines of the domestic sphere, finding homes in conservatories and botanical gardens around the world. Erected to showcase the region’s diversity of flora, these structures allow visitors a meditative glance into bygone worlds, and may be the closest thing to those Victorian gardens of so long ago. If you ever find yourself wistful for what could have been, search up your local conservatory and head down for a tour. Don’t forget to say hello to the flowers and trees.