Houseplant Maintenance – What To Look For & How To Take Care Of Them

Nothing can do for a house quite like what a houseplant can. House Plants are like roommates or better yet, pets. Think about it, they need care and compassion in the form of water, food and decent growing and living space. In return, you get oh so much more! Beauty and cleaner air just being a couple.  Now, I love plants! I really do. I’ve actually talked quite a bit about it on here and the channel. About “growing your own groceries” and “the benefits of an herb garden”. However, there are some you really need to know what you are doing, and other’s not so much! They are actually quite easy to deal with.

You obviously can’t become educated on any subject without making a few mistakes and believe me. I have made a few myself. I have sadly killed many plants trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Underwatering and overwatering were usually my biggest problems. Others include not knowing when and how to transplant to bigger pots and giving too much or to little light. In theory, houseplants are like Goldilocks and the three bears. Too much, too little, and JUST RIGHT.  Once you have figured that out though, (pardon the pun) your golden!

Houseplants – When You First Bring Them Home

You’re at the nursery or store, and you see a beautiful plant, you just have to have. Of course, you are going to buy it! It’s inevitably going to make an absolutely beautiful addition to your home decor. You probably automatically pick one up that looks beautiful lush and perhaps full of flowers and bring it home. That is what everyone THINKS. That it’s a WAM BAM thank you mam approach. It’s not. That can actually be disappointing for you, and potentially life-threatening to any other plants you may have. When you first see that beautiful plant, you get drawn in. You, me, everyone wants the most beautiful healthy looking plant. We get drawn to the one with the most flowers (if that applies), and we generally forget a few things.

• When you see a plant you want, look for the pot that has the fewest flowers on it. This means that you won’t all of a sudden have dead flowers and foliage. You will have a steady stream of buds and flowers allowing you the most visually appealing plant possible.
• Make sure the plant isn’t root bound. This means when you look through the holes in the bottom of the container, you don’t see roots. You especially don’t want the plant if the roots are so grown out that they are coming out of the bottom of the container.
• Lastly, and most important. You don’t want to put it near any other plants for at least a minimum of two weeks. This is in case the new plant has a virus, eggs in the stalk or soil etc. You never know where this wayward plant has been! This will at least give you the opportunity should this horrible scenario arise, to take out the problem before it spreads to the other plants.

Taking Care Of Your New Houseplant

The first thing you want to do with a new houseplant you just brought home is to inspect it a bit further if you weren’t given the option to at the store (or nursery). Slowly ease it out of the container, and check it’s root system. If you need to re-pot it, this would be the perfect time to do so! So gently loosen up the soil surrounding the roots, make sure they look healthy (lots of solid decently thick roots with baby fine root hairs coming off of them). Once everything is a go, you can either put it in different potting soil or back in the same soil. This will allow the soil to not be as compacted making sure the roots can drink up as much water as possible.

Then all you have to do is maintain your new friend. My best suggestion is to set a reminder on your phone to check your plant every 3-5 days. You want to stick your finger in the soil till the first knuckle. If any of that is moist, your plant is absolutely fine. Otherwise, you will need to water it. You want to water till it soaks the soil, but you don’t want to drown it, and that is a fine line depending on how big the plant is and what type of houseplant it is!