Houseplant Growing Guide
As we walk through our favorite garden center or even the local grocery store, we are faced with a very large array of houseplants to choose from.
Many of the houseplants are tropical in nature and cannot tolerate even a light frost. If you are buying a houseplant in the winter make sure that the plant is very well covered when you take it from the store.
The high heat in a summer car can also be very damaging to plants.
Do not make the mistake of leaving the houseplant in the car while you go shopping somewhere else; take it home as soon as you can.
Every home is different and you have to expect that some houseplants will not do very well. It has to do with the conditions in your home as well as your watering style. If the orientation of your home is such that it has many south facing windows you are very likely to have greater success with your houseplants. Some houseplants like the full sun and can be placed right on the windowsill to take advantage of the bright sunlight.
Other houseplants prefer a lower level of sunlight. Their native growing conditions may have been in a tropical forest under the shade of towering trees. These houseplants will do better getting filtered light farther back in the room or perhaps moved to an east or west facing window.
Benefits of Houseplants
Placing flowering and foliage plants around your home or office will also brighten and beautify even the dullest place. Plants will add humidity to dry winter air and are known to help purify the air.
During the winter months when nothing is growing outside adding some houseplants will help lift our spirits.
What Do Houseplants Need?
All houseplants need adequate light, water and food. Each kind of plant will need slightly different amounts of each. The tag on the plant should guide you on how to care for it.
Do not overwater your plants. Water that drains out into the saucer should be poured off. Pots that stand in water can lead to root damage. Plants will also do better with room temperature water.
The best way to tell if the plant needs water is to push your finger into the soil and inch or so to see it the soil is damp. Water when the soil feels dry. Some plants are sensitive to fluoride and other chemicals found in public water supplies. Switching to bottled water or rain water would be a good choice.
Cactus and other succulents can be damaged by giving them too much water. Many will do just fine with a small amount of water once or twice a month.
How Much Light is Enough?
Most houseplants do not need direct sunlight. A bright location with filtered bright light will provide enough light for most plants. For some plants too much light will burn the leaves and cause them to lose their bright colors. The plant tag will usually tell you how much light is needed.
Some will be happiest with bright light, which might be found in a south facing window. Others will do better getting filtered light farther back in the room or perhaps moved to an east or west facing window. Some plants will grow well in low light conditions near a north window.
Many plants in the winter with the shorter days will need more light and can be moved closer to a window. Variegated plants with streaks or splotches of white or yellow in their leaves usually need more light than those with solid green leaves.
If a plant does not seem to be doing well try moving it to another location that gets more or less light and see how it does there.
Low Light Houseplants
Turn plants often and do not overwater.
African Violet
Aloe Vera
Begonia
Boston Fern
Cast Iron plant
Chinese Evergreen
Dieffenbachia
Orchids
Peace Lily
Spider Plant
A sunny bathroom is a good low light, humid place for houseplants such as asparagus fern and gardenias. Mirrors in a bathroom are a good way to help enhance the lighting.Feed during the growing cycle from spring, summer and backing off in the fall and not at all during the winter months.
Indoor Gardening
You might not think of yourself as a gardener, but you are if you have a houseplant in your home.
If you don’t, it may just be a matter of time before someone gives you one. They are popular gifts that are given to brighten a home.
Some plants are short lived and others may live for many decades.
Flowering House Plants
African violets have interesting soft furry leaves and colorful flowers ranging from violet, blue to shades of pink.
Amaryllis is noted for its large colorful blooms and is a popular Christmas gift.
Anthurium are a beautiful easy to care for plant. Contrasting against its glossy green leaves is its flower spike surrounded by colorful red, pink or orange bracts.
Christmas cactus is a popular easy to care for houseplant. It flowers during the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season with blooms ranging from red, fuchsia, pink and white.
Bromeliad is a popular flowering plant that produces a single colorful flower. After the flower fades the mother plant makes pups that can be planted.
Clivia has long strap like leaves and will thrive in low light conditions requiring very little care. The beautiful cluster of flowers radiate from a tall central stalk.
Cyclamen are another holiday flowering plant that shows up in the garden centers between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The flowers in shades of red, pink and lavender with attractive pattered leaves make it a welcome gift.
Dipladenia is a bushier version of the vining mandevilla plant. The blooms appear in the early summer and continue through the fall.
Dracaena has attractive foliage that could be solid or striped. It is a hardy long lived plant that likes low to medium light and can reach or exceed 6-feet tall.
Easter lily is another holiday plant often given as a gift. Growers create the conditions needed for it to bloom just before Easter. They are perennials that can be planted in your garden after the last frost.
Gardenias are small tropical shrubs that are grown as houseplants. It blooms from about mid-spring to mid-summer.
The annual Geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum) we see in the garden centers with their thick creased leaves sporting red, pink, orange, purple or white flowers make great plants for the home as well as in the garden.
Kalanchoe are easy to grow succulent plants with clusters of small flowers that come in a variety of colors including red, pink, white and yellow.
Orchids are a wide family of flowering plants. As their popularity has increased, they are now found year-round in the garden centers.
Paperwhites are a favorite bulb for forcing indoors. When started before Thanksgiving their white fragrant flowers may appear around Christmas.
Peace Lily is an easy to grow houseplant with glossy green leaves and a flower spike that is surrounded by a white hood like sheath that unfurls as it grows.
Poinsettias are a festive holiday plant that shows up in the garden centers just before Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas and often past New Year’s Day.
Popular Foliage Houseplants
Algerian Ivy is a common variety found in the garden center houseplant area. Varieties can be found with solid or variated leaves which look great as the spiller in a hanging basket.
Boston Fern fronds arch and spill over the sides of containers which makes it very suited to hanging baskets. It will do best in high humid places such as a bathroom.
Calathea is grown for their colorful foliage. It likes medium light conditions and a bit more humidity than most other plants.
Cast iron plants are very hardy houseplants with large long dark green leaves. It will reach 2 to 3-feet tall and is known to tolerate irregular watering and low light conditions.
Chinese Evergreen is a very easy to grow houseplant with many varieties which include solid green, speckled and variegated leaves. It is slow growing and is perfect for a place that has a low level of light.
Crocodile Plant is a succulent in the aloe family. It gets its name from the soft teeth along the margins of the fleshy leaves and is a wonderful addition to your aloe collection.
Croton is an easy to grow plant with attractive green, gold, red, rust and yellow variegated foliage.
Dieffenbachia also called Dumb Cane is an easy to care for plant. It is noted for its colorful variegated or solid green foliage.
Norfolk Island pine is a slow growing long lived plant. It likes bright light and for the soil to dry out between watering. It often gets decorated like a Christmas tree, but it is a tropical plant that is not cold hardy.
Philodendron is a popular plant that does very well in offices. It likes low light and to dry out between watering. The vine-like trailing growth is very attractive when placed on shelves or furniture.
Polka Dot Plants are grown for their very attractive polka dot foliage. The color combinations come in several striking patterns such as pink and white, pink and green, green and white and red and green.
Pothos are attractive trailing houseplants. Solid green varieties as well as varieties with striped and marbled variated leaves are easily found in garden centers. It likes low to medium light conditions and likes to have its soil dry out between watering.
Snake Plants are considered to be very hardy long-lived plants as long as you do not over water them. Keep the soil on the dry side and place it in a medium to low light location.
Sweet Potato Vines are grown for their colorful chartreuse, purple, bronze, copper, or black foliage. They will do well in containers, garden beds and boarders.
ZZ plant is a hardy slow growing long lived plant. It likes bright light and for the soil to dry out between watering.
Popular Cactus and
Succulent Houseplants
All cactus and succulent plants need some water. They should be allowed to dry out a bit between waterings. Check the soil just beneath the surface and water when it feels dry. In very hot dry weather check the soil more often.
When watering drench the soil very thoroughly, and after a half hour repeat. It is very important to pour off any excess water that collects in the saucer. Plants sitting in water will kill most plants, especially succulents.
Aloe is another very popular succulent houseplant. It is a drought resistant and easy to grow and has some medicinal uses.
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