Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Moving indoors and thinking houseplants
Winter approaches as daylight savings time just ended Sunday. So we get dark an hour earlier. To me that just means I have one less hour of getting things done since it feels like it’s time to go to bed an hour earlier also! It also means that many of us are putting more focus on our indoor plants.
Greenery during winter is proven to lift spirits. And that’s not all, studies have shown that indoor plant care can lower blood pressure, decrease anxiety levels and improve overall well-being.
Unless of course you have a tendency to kill them! Don’t be discouraged, some plants are easier than others and there’s your indoor environment too, like dry air, less sun and cool drafts if they’re placed near a door or a leaky window! Case in point is the difference from the rex begonia I brought indoors in the gray container above to what is looks like in the photo below one month later:
One plant I absolutely ADORE is my Monstera deliciosa.
I bought it about a year or so ago, left it in the greenhouse pot it came in and just dropped it into a pretty container. It gets indirect light and is thriving. Another plant I love is my Pothos ‘Silver Splash’.
It’s good with bright indirect light and letting it dry out before watering. But don’t let it go too long without a drink. And then give it a good one, letting the water run out the bottom.
Almost NO plant likes to sit in water, it will rot their roots.
Another easy peasy plant is sansevieria also known as snake plant. There are several different cultivars but they’re all lovely. They can also dry out and handle less light.
My ficus rubra gave me a little trouble at first. She dropped a BUNCH of leaves when I moved her to my office upstairs. I thought she was toast but I wasn’t willing to give up yet. Now, several months later, she’s grown several new leaves and is a forgiving beauty.
