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

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All plants need light and none want endless darkness. Give it the required light levels by reading up on your plant's needs. Observe and notice your houseplants (if you're admiring their beauty anyway, this won't be hard), then when something starts to look wrong you'll be able to tell and treat the problem early on. Further Reading

Don't be afraid to repot Over time, your plant may outgrow its pot and require repotting. This is a great opportunity to refresh the soil, prune the roots, and give your plant a new lease on life. Make sure to use fresh potting soil and choose a pot that is slightly larger than the previous one. You might be gushing about how adorable your chunky little cactus looks in its new home next to your couch. But the cutest spot for your plant may not be the best choice. Water between April and September and less in the winter months. Always allow the compost to dry out between waterings. Problems with cacti and succulents mostly occur around watering. Overwatering will cause the plants to rot and go limp. If possible, use rainwater rather than tap water, as tap water contains many minerals and salts, which may affect vitality and growth. Avocados have become incredibly popular, whether spread on toast, made into guacamole, or chopped into fresh salads. But did you… The spider plant, also known as Chlorophytum comosum, has a reputation for being impossible to kill. However, overwatering may well lead to the plant dying and also to root rot, so make sure it’s in a pot with drainage holes and let the soil dry out between waterings.Another issue grow kits face is moldy sprouts – but there’s an easy fix. Mold tends to grow on plants that aren’t getting enough sunlight or air circulation, so make sure your grow kit is in a sunny area — south or west facing windows are the best for this — and place a fan near the plants to improve air flow. I once bought home a species of cane begonia and in no time the bushy potful of leaves became an unsightly specimen. It was embarrassing because cane begonias are pretty resilient. Before it completely died, I took leaf cuttings and propagated the plant. I was unsure about the experiment because the plant had perished so rapidly but when the new plants grew, I found that they were robust, sturdy, and prolific. There’s only one reason for this – the new plants knew only one environment and one type of care, mine, and thus they adapted to the new conditions. If you're the second type of person and the failure was a fluke. Learn from it and move on. We all make mistakes and it's not worth beating yourself up about it. Further Reading Bathrooms are most often very humid, warm, and often dark.- for some plants these are the ideal circumstances, but for some others, this spells certain death. Here are some houseplants that thrive in high-humidity environments: I wrote this book because, frankly, there isn’t a handy, updated book on care for ornamentals for the Indian gardener-reader. My mother is a brilliant gardener and she, at one point, collected tons of gardening books, all of which I’d read. The books were beautiful coffee table formats with lush photography and although I loved them and they inspired me, they always left me wanting because they were meant for a specific international audience. Gardening books only have meaning when they are set in your context because of unique cultural parameters like climate, soil profiles, growing seasons (for example: most of India doesn’t have a brutal winter and total rest season for plants).

Typically, losing leaves or leaves turning yellow is a sign of poor drainage, too little light or not enough water. Similarly, leaves turning a pale colour probably means that your houseplant needs to be moved to a brighter spot. Yellow leaves can also mean you have a problem with a house plant pest. Why do so many people find it difficult to rear houseplants? What are some of the common mistakes they can avoid when they are getting started? Discover the perfect plant for your unique space and needs. Bathrooms, cold rooms, at a desk, on a windowsill, in a gloomy corner or hot suntrap: there are plants for every location to create your own indoor oasis.It's really hard to cause death by underfeeding. Even if you never use fertiliser as long as you repot once every couple of years your plant will survive, so the potential to cause damage by overfeeding is massively more probable.

Of course, as a good attentive host, the last thing you want is for your houseplants to become thirsty! But the problem is you keep on watering until you drown the roots. The soil is sodden and if you tilt the pot over a glass you can pour yourself a smelly brown colored drink. Not good for you, and lethal to the plant. The Easy Fix Certain plants require very particular kinds of soil. Orchids, for example, grow best when fir bark is added to their pots. Normal pot soil is much too moist for orchid roots. Cacti and succulents need very sandy soil. If you water your plants every day, they will grow and thrive and everything will be great, right? Not quite. It is actually possible to water your plants too much or the wrong way. That’s why it’s important to read, either on the label or online, about how much water your particular plant likes and what kind of soil conditions are best. Being planted in soil that is too moist is a death sentence for many houseplants. Well, firstly the good news is that in general plants do want to live and do that quite well without a huge amount of effort from you.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: Note: When you buy pot soil, be aware of whether or not the product you are buying contains peat. Peat is composed of the decaying remains of plants, and is used by many gardening enthusiasts. But the business of peat-mining is incredibly destructive: raised bogs are utterly demolished, releasing large amounts of trapped greenhouse gases and taking away the natural habitat of many plants and animals that cannot survive anywhere else. Tip #8: Where To Buy Plants? Unlike plants that are outside in nature, your houseplants are not exposed to the wind and are therefore not automatically cleaned. That job now falls to you. A good piece of advice I once heard is that your houseplant should be able to see the sky from where you've put it to grow.

Mother in law’s tongue: Scary name, strong plant. Mother in law’s tongue doesn’t need a ton of light or water to thrive — just plop ‘er in a shady corner and give her a drink every couple of weeks. Growing mint is easy and rewarding, and because mint plant care is so minimal and effortless, it can be done…

Spider plants thrive in lots of indirect light, between 13 and 26ºC (55 and 80ºF), and enjoy high humidity – making bathrooms and sunny windows good spots for them. If you know your thumb is not the greenest, you might want to begin Project Oasis by taking small transplanted seedlings from your friends. This way, you will only have to invest in a bit of soil and a clay pot while you try to beat the learning curve. Your friends will also most likely be very happy to give you some of their own advice along with their young plants. 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