Houseplants for People who can't grow houseplants!

I just gave my house plants their new years water.   Well some of them.  Others probably won't want water for another month or so.  That's where I went wrong for so many years.  I watered to schedule and didn't know they need far less water when they aren't growing.  Now I check on them once or twice a month in the winter instead of watering every week.

A lot of the plants go dorment and some loose their leaves like the coffee and the indoor (not hardy) citrus.  These seem to be daylight sensitive and given we can go a week without enough sun to turn off the night sensors, I usually have to get out the grow lamps.  Thankfully not this year.

I usually keep my plants 6inches to a foot away from the windows all year.  It's either too hot or too cold.  The honeycomb blinds offer alot of insulation at night.  

I like to keep my plants in clusters depending on their grow style.  5 or 6 pot next to eachtother make a kind of microclimate.  I didn't think they would, but the humidity censor

Some of the monstera cuttings are putting out new leaves.  They don't seem to mind the dark or light. The only thing that changes is the number of holes.

My ZZ plant thrives in winter,  he likes less water and having his pot too close to the fire (hot feet).  This is the time of year he does the most growing.  ZZ might be a good plant for those windows with radiators.

r ransom wrote:I just gave my house plants their new years water.   Well some of them.  Others probably won't want water for another month or so.  That's where I went wrong for so many years.  I watered to schedule and didn't know they need far less water when they aren't growing.  Now I check on them once or twice a month in the winter instead of watering every week.
....

Your indoor climate must be very different from mine. But I see a woodstove and a kettle on it. So I think that kettle with water on it gives your houseplants the right kind of humidity.
My central heating makes the air in the room very dry. I need to water my plants at least every week.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:

r ransom wrote:I just gave my house plants their new years water.   Well some of them.  Others probably won't want water for another month or so.  That's where I went wrong for so many years.  I watered to schedule and didn't know they need far less water when they aren't growing.  Now I check on them once or twice a month in the winter instead of watering every week.
....

Your indoor climate must be very different from mine. But I see a woodstove and a kettle on it. So I think that kettle with water on it gives your houseplants the right kind of humidity.
My central heating makes the air in the room very dry. I need to water my plants at least every week.

Sorry.

Plants that need humidity die a quick but painful death in my home.

90% of plants can't make it here.  Drought loving plants like ZZ, aloe, and aspedestra do well.  Plants with shiny leaves that don't need humidity can usually struggle by, although I think my ivy is on the way out.


Coffee is the only humidity lover that survives, but they are usually clustered together.  The humidity inside the plant cluster is usually 20% higher than house humidity which, even with the kettle, is skin-splittingly low.  Plants have an amazing control over their local environment.

For years, I had a little barrel cactus on the counter by the kitchen sink.  I never watered it.

It went away when we sold the homestead.

While I am great with outdoor plants, I am abysmal with indoor plants. I even somehow managed to kill a Cast Iron Plant!

The one exception to my indoor black thumb is Swedish Ivy.  I know it wants water when the leaves get dull, but if I don't notice (or forget for another week or two) it perks right up as soon as I get to it. It's really easy to propagate through cuttings as they root equally well in water or soil.  We even have some of them on the plant wall at my school, where they don't get any water during summer break.

r ransom wrote:...
Coffee is the only humidity lover that survives, but they are usually clustered together.  The humidity inside the plant cluster is usually 20% higher than house humidity which, even with the kettle, is skin-splittingly low.  Plants have an amazing control over their local environment.

My coffee plants are all together in a 'window-sil greenhouse'; they seem to like it there.
Now I think I need to make a photo, to show that little 'greenhouse' ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1lr8vy2v69o

The bbc using strong language to help "Serial houseplant killers" keep their plants alive.

Have you lost count of the times you've had high hopes for a pot plant but despite careful positioning and diligent watering it always seems to die?

Well you're not cursed and you don't need particularly green fingers for your to foliage to thrive, you just need to know where you might be going wrong, experts say.

Suggestions include changing locations, avoid too much water, water less in winter or low light.

It's not as easy as they make it seem.