| Expert Advice for Houseplants! A care guide for refreshing, healthful indoor plants.
It’s nearing the end of gardening season, which means it’s a time when many of us start to think about closing up the garden and shutting ourselves in for the winter. But with this transition comes stale air and a depressing lack of living greenery.
Bringing live plants indoors for you can enjoy throughout the coming fall and winter is a refreshing way to add oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide in your home. Houseplants act as natural filters, purifying your indoor air of toxins and endowing your home with a breaths of fresh air—literally! Overwintering your garden as houseplants is a great way to enjoy nature indoors, but a few key steps are recommended to make the transition a success.
Relocation Tips • Select suitable plants Choose plants to bring indoors that will thrive in their new environment. You’ll want to choose houseplants that match your particular indoor climate, including light levels, humidity, and temperatures, as well as those that can survive in pots or containers. Garden plants that overwinter well include begonias, lemongrass, Christmas cactus, fuchsia, geraniums, abutilon, caladium, boxwood and myrtle, coleus, hot peppers, herbs, and tropical hibiscus. Additionally, choose houseplants that are free of disease and bugs to avoid any unwanted problems in future.
• Prepare for potting Next you’ll want to select containers for your houseplants. Choose those that are large enough to accommodate the root systems of your chosen plants. It’s also important to choose a pot with good drainage as overwatering can be a problem. Have good-quality, sterile soil at the ready as well.
• Harvesting your plants Now it’s time to transplant your chosen plants to their new containers. Carefully dig around the plant in such a way as to get as much of the root mass as possible. Place the specimen in its new container, spreading out the roots and completely covering it with soil. At this time, you may wish to prune your plant by removing older, yellowed leaves to encourage new growth.
• Conditioning Depending on your plant’s location in the garden, it likely received a lot more sunlight than it will now receive indoors. As such, you should help it adjust to the changing light levels by starting it out in as much sun as possible, then slowly moving it to its permanent home over time. Be sure to bring plants indoors overnight if frost is in the forecast.
Houseplant Care & Maintenance Your outdoor plants are now tucked away cosily in their new pots and ready to thrive throughout the winter. Good maintenance procedures will keep both your overwintered and indoor houseplants growing and happy, and here’s how:
• Proper watering One of the most important factors for healthy plants, watering is by far the easiest thing to get wrong. Too wet and you invite disease and stress; too dry and your plants will wilt and become susceptible to pests. Whatever you do, don’t water all plants in your home in the same way, unless they’re all of one species and in similar light/humidity conditions. Typically, most plants like to have moist soil, not wet soil, but do a search online to determine the best watering schedule for your particular plants. • Regular fertilization Plants generally have lower nutritional needs during the winter and so over-feeding can be a problem, but starving them of food all winter isn’t a good plan, either. Our Oxygen Plus liquid Plant Food Concentrate provides the essential nutrients your plants need, while protecting them from over-watering. During the winter, you should use it approximately every two weeks or less. 
• Steady climate Many plants will wither and fade when the indoor climate is erratic, so avoid placing plants near drafts or in rooms that experience wild fluctuations in temperature. Temperatures between 60 and 75 degrees are ideal for most plants. Some also prefer damp climates; giving them a periodic sponge bath or spritz is a great way to increase their moisture levels. Our Houseplant Leaf Feed and Shine is a great choice for moistening while cleaning! • Repotting houseplants If you haven’t already, you should determine whether your houseplants are showing signs that they are becoming root bound. A sure clue is when water drains quickly out of the bottom of the pot. Generally, plants need to be repotted once every two years, but check yours every year to ensure they’re not constrained by their containers.
Good care techniques will keep your plants looking and feeling their best, but should they contract pests, you can treat them with a safe, non-toxic product like our Houseplant Insect Soap which targets problems like aphids, mealy bugs, whiteflies, soft scales, and mites. Good growing!
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