In early 1940s wartime Britain, all the country's resources went into
the war effort. Buying new houseplants was almost impossible. Fortunately some
house plants from before the war were well tended and continued to brighten
up homes throughout the war, and also fortunately some of their owners did
take cuttings for friends and neighbours. However, in general it was make do and
be creative with what was available.
This page is about one creatively produced type of houseplant that I well
remember from my own childhood home and other homes that I visited.
Creative houseplants
A common houseplant in 1940s wartime Britain.
Have a look at the houseplant in the photo on the right. Can you guess
what it is?
I grew it specially for this page.
The photo below is taken from a different angle, looking downwards. That
should give you a clue.
Detail of a carrot-top houseplant showing the carrot
top bases in a dish of water.
Yes, the foliage is from carrots. It is actually from three of them to
produce a bushier looking result. So perhaps 'houseplants' would be a better
term than 'houseplant'.
In World War Two vegetables that grew in Britain, ie that did not have to
be imported, were off-ration. This did not mean that they were always
available, but carrots, like potatoes and cabbages were more readily
available than other vegetables. Farms grew them
for city dwellers and householders grew what they could in their back gardens.
Carrot tops had other uses: They were fed to the
rabbits that many people kept in their back gardens for free and off-ration
meat.
Also carrot top foliage could be chopped up and
put into salads.
Peter Johnson
On the home front of wartime Britain and
in the austerity afterwards, no-one could afford to
waste food. However, using carrot tops for houseplants was not wasteful. It merely involved
making use of the left-over waste, once the carrots had been peeled
and cooked for eating - but see the box on the right.
How to grow your own houseplant from carrot tops
A carrot top prepared for growing on as a type of houseplant.
To prepare a carrot top for growing as a houseplant, just cut off the leaves and most of the carrot as shown in the
photograph.
Then place the carrot top in a saucer or fairly flat dish of water, and
wait, topping up the
water as necessary. Before long, green shoots appear and within
a few weeks they grow into feathery foliage. For a bushier plant, place
several carrot tops together in the same dish.
If you have an old photo which would illustrate
this page, I would very much appreciate a copy.
Pat Cryer, webmastter
No soil is necessary. Neither is it necessary to use a whole carrot. In
fact just using the top, provides a flat base so that the plant can stand upright.
It also makes it
easier to hide the carrot base behind the walls of a dish, as shown in the
top photograph.
This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as
Join me in the 1900's and is ©
Pat Cryer.
The 1940s and 1950s are also written as the 1940's and 1950's.
