House Plant Tips

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

02 Nov 2007 06:40 AM

It doesn't have to be difficult to have beautiful houseplants if you follow a few tips. I should know. In this household, we have the ability to kill a cactus. No matter how hard we tried, we always wound up with either dead plants or plants that made a real mess in our house. But we have learned a few tips along the way that help. Here they are:

1) To prevent the soil from leaking out of the bottom of potted plants when you water them, simply place a coffee filter in the bottom of the pot or planter. The filter acts as a liner and will keep the soil from escaping. You can then water your plants without making a mess.

2) For the bathrooms, choose plants that like high humidity and can tolerate low light. Some good plants for this area include spider plants, bamboo varieties, boston ferns and heart-leafed philodendrons.

3) Plants are usually classified as needing high light, medium light or low light. As a general guide, high light comes from a south facing window, medium light comes from a window facing east or west, and low light comes from a window facing north.

4) Turn pots on a windowsill a quarter turn each time you water to prevent them from becoming misshapen from growing toward the incoming light.

5) To raise humidity, mist your plants several times a day.

6) If you don't have time for frequent misting but still want to raise the humidity, group several plants together on a tray of wet gravel. You don't want the plants to actually sit in the water, so make sure there is enough gravel in the tray to keep the pots raised.

7) Heat and low humidity can cause the edges of your leaves to turn brown. Snip them off with a scissors as needed.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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