Plants are not just for the pandemic, the Chinese have admired them for millennia House plants have proven popular during the pandemic. Photo: Shutterstock One of the consequences of social isolation over the past year, apart from corpulence and pallid complexions, has been the proliferation of house plants. With more time at home and the convenience of having seedlings, saplings and gardening kits delivered to their doors, a few enthusiasts I know seemed determined to turn their flats into luxuriant jungles or bountiful farms. The ability to coax life out of plants, also known as having a green thumb, has always eluded me. I do enjoy them - I am curiously partial to chrysanthemums - but place a plant in my hands and its death inevitably follows. Not even the hardiest specimens are spared my unintentional planticide.