How Not to Kill Your Houseplant: Survival Tips for the Horticulturally Challenged

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Still, plants can do a lot to improve the ambience in e.g. a bedroom. The following houseplants will thrive in your room and make it look more inviting: I bought this book because of the title. I love plants, but I haven't been able to keep mine alive for long. Turns out I was clueless about what plants need to survive, and the little care cards that come with your plant at Home Depot just aren't good enough. Your intentions might be good and pure so we have to give you credit for that, but remember that saying " too much of a good thing", that's what's happened here. It's fair to say your placement choices need work because you've just given a lethal bout of sunburn to your plant and no amount of aftersun lotion is fixing this boo boo. The Easy Fix

Tough, and drought tolerant houseplants should be your go to. Air Plants, Cacti, Sansevieria and the ZZ Plants are just a few that will be happy with infrequent watering. For example, you've noticed your plant's not doing too well and not sure what's going on, you try to fix the problem, perhaps by giving it extra water which in turn causes an overwatering ending. The Easy Fix When your plants begin wilting and browning at the ends and leaves become crunchy, you have likely underwatered your plant and it is due for a good soaking. Last on the list of steps to becoming the houseplant parent of the year, is protecting your indoor plants from plant pests. Most common is an infestation of spider mites that, if left untreated, can kill your house plant.

Customer reviews

That pot - that small but poignant totem of a life before Covid- now hangs in a corner of a quiet room, its edges draped in greenery. Situated close to a large south-facing window but out of direct sunlight, the warm, bright, draught-free spot it occupies is the perfect place for my Senecio rowleanus plant. A heat-loving, light-loving, drought-tolerant succulent, its long, cascading stems are studded with a multitude of tiny, fleshy, pea-green beads so pretty and so irresistibly tactile that it’s almost impossible to resist gently stroking them as you go past. Whenever I do so, it feels oddly illicit, yet another reminder of what a strange new world we live in. Growing mint is easy and rewarding, and because mint plant care is so minimal and effortless, it can be done… Although this is not a hard and fast rule for all plants. You can successfully grow plants without drainage for semi-hydroponics and even in other mediums, but this requires knowledge and experience in growing plants this way. It is not recommended for beginner plant parents. 6. Consider a humidifier So why on earth why did you think leaving your houseplant outside or in that unheated conservatory when Winter crept up was a good idea? Perhaps it was simple forgetfulness or some bizarre science experiment to see "what would happen" who knows. Either way, you've gone and killed it now. The Easy Fix If you follow a few basic steps, you will feel like a houseplant expert in no time at all! From basic plant survival tips to the more in-depth causes of plant deaths, we have the information you need to make the transformation from horticulturally challenged to plant parent of the year in no time! Evaluate Your Lighting

Plants have a direct connection to mental wellbeing. At the very basic level, plants offer us instant visual relief. Think of how you feel when you enter an apartment that has a few plants versus a stark office setting. The fluid, natural forms of plants break the hard, inanimate settings we inhabit. It’s like watching fish, an activity prescribed those who are stressed, anxious, and even heart patients. Root rot is more prevalent in plants that do not have a source of drainage. This is why it is extremely important that you grow your plants in a pot with drainage holes so excess water can escape and your plant is not sitting in a wet pot with water that it does not need! Choosing The Right Soil Medium That’s where a bathtub is handy — using this method, you won’t need help from anyone else, as long as your bathroom gets a decent amount of sunlight or you can set up some grow lights while you’re away. If you're cold then so is your houseplant. Always keep them in places that are at least the minimum temperature that they'll accept. Further Reading Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.I’ve been browsing through this book for over a year now and it’s finally safe to say I have read it from cover to cover multiple times and can definitely recommend it to beginner houseplant caretakers. Like the very best kinds of houseplants, all three have thrived on a regime of benign neglect, a minimal intervention approach that asks only that they be watered occasionally (less in winter, more in summer) and be given an occasional nourishing liquid feed during the growing season. In return for so little, they give me a sharp jolt of joy and pleasure each and every time I look at them, transforming my living space in a way that’s quite impossible to quantify. With over 50 different types of popular houseplants, this book summarises what type of care your plants do (or don't) need. Find out which types of plant will thrive in your living space. You'll also discover how to keep a cactus alive, where to hang air plants, and how to repot succulents. Understand how much light, water, heat, and humidity your plant needs, whatever your horticulture woes, this book will explain and fix it. However, for a book that dubs itself "Survival tips for the horticulturally challenged," it didn't get into quite enough detail at parts. For example, sometimes it says something like "water moderately during the spring and summer and water more sparingly in the winter." Helloooo - I bought this book because I kill all my plants! I don't know the relative meanings of "moderately" and "sparingly" when it comes to watering plants! Gotta give me a better frame of reference...