Looking After Your Indoor Plants

Bringing plants indoors is right on trend, and with good reason.  It helps make your house a home and the plants themselves are not only good design, but they are also good for you.  So how can we look after them as well as they look after us?

Indoor plants range enormously in their requirements, depending on what type of plant they are.  Some rough guidelines are that flowering indoor plants need more direct light in order to bloom well, and large leafed plants tend to accept lower light levels.  Ferns like moisture whereas succulent plants and those with tubers, such as begonias, can tolerate drying out slightly in between drinks. 

All indoor plants benefit from a clean.  Some people like to wipe the leaves down, but a quick wash under the shower or with a hand held hose will also do the job of cleaning them and removing the dust that may have settled on their foliage, making them so much happier – just make sure the water is tepid, as cold water can damage tropical plants.  They are much less likely to suffer from mealy bugs and other plant pests if they’re growing well and are kept clean.  Using a liquid fertiliser as a foliar spray, like fish emulsion, can also have the dual ability of feeding and leaving a slightly oily sheen on the leaf’s surface, which can shine your leaves and make them less appealing to bugs.  Repot your indoor plants in winter when they are dormant, and ease off the water then too so that they don’t rot.

Gardens can be anywhere…so transform your home into a greenhouse!

By: Meredith Kirton