Houseplants create a welcoming and cozy atmosphere inside a home while also helping to clean the air around them. You might even sleep better in a room with houseplants! While indoor plants offer lots of advantages, you might struggle to keep them healthy. Note a few quick tips on growing lush, healthy greenery inside your house.
While houseplants need lots of light, too much heat can cause them to wither and wilt! Note the proximity of desk lamps and other light sources to your plants, as well as how close they are to heating registers, space heaters, and the like. Ensure your plants don’t get overly warm when indoors so they can be healthy and thrive.
While houseplants need lots of light, they also need time out of the light! Don’t assume that keeping a lamp trained on your plants all day and night is a good idea, but mimic outdoor conditions when it comes to light exposure. Once the sun goes down outside, it’s time to turn down the lamps trained on your plants inside.
Some plants also do well in filtered light, just bright enough for reading, while others need strong, direct sunlight. Note the light needed for your houseplant variety and ensure you locate the plant inside your home where it will have the light it needs to thrive.
Houseplants need regular watering but ensure the soil dries properly between watering. Be cautious about misting your plant too often between watering as plants absorb water through their leaves! All that watering and misting might add up to overwatered, wilted plants.
Never assume that an overly large pot will equal a large, healthy plant. When there is too much soil for the roots of a houseplant, there will also be too much moisture around those roots and they might then rot away. When repotting a houseplant, opt for a pot just a few inches larger than the tips of the root; if the plant outgrows that pot, repot it again but don’t assume an overly large pot is the right choice.
Plants need carbon dioxide but they also need fresh air as much as sun and water. Avoid smoking around your houseplants and keep them away from registers where dust and dirt tend to collect. If you live in an especially dusty area, don’t assume your plants can remove all that pollution but invest in an air purifier for the house. Airborne grease in the kitchen might also cause plants to wither, so put houseplants you keep in the kitchen in another room of the home when frying on the stovetop.