Water is the basic requirement of all plants. If you don’t give your plants an adequate supply of water, they will wither and die.
Improper watering methods can kill your plants and make their existence difficult. Just as too little water can kill plants, so can excessive amount.
While watering an outdoor plant is not [...]
How is your green thumb? I admit I have killed my share of houseplants over the years. For some reason, as I’ve grown a little older I somehow manage not to kill as many as I used to though. Maybe you need to be a grown-up to have a green thumb? I don’t know…but if you are “green thumb challenged” here are a few suggestions for some greenery that is fairly forgiv
Photo: Jessie ReederI love houseplants. My mum's house is overflowing with them... huge ones... and ever since leaving home many moons ago, I’ve followed in her footsteps by growing a selection of them in all of the 18 homes I’ve lived in. Originally I grew them simply because I thought they were beautiful and helped make a house feel more homely but since discovering that they also help us by
While the African violet is, indeed, from Africa, it’s actually not a violet at all, but an herb called Gesneriaceae. The reason it came to be called a violet is because its deep purple blooms, though pink, blue and white blossoms are also common. The plant got its botanical name, Saintpaulia, from Baron Walter von Saint Paul, who was the first to bring the plant from Africa to Europe in 1893.
When you put your plants outside, a variety of spiders, pill bugs and other critters move into the pots for the summer and set up housekeeping. Then when you bring the plants back inside in the fall, those creepy crawlers come along for the ride. Then once inside, they leave the pots to see if there is some place better to live, in your house.But inspite of the potential for six-legged and eight-l
The photo of this garden wasn't taken in Florida it was taken on the west side of Chicago and you're eyes are not deceiving you those are Bromeliads and Crotons planted in the ground. From time to time I have the opportunity to pass by this home and I aways have to chuckle at the plant selection I find planted in the raised bed.As a Midwestern gardener I have to admit to having a severe case of zone denial and my day dreams of having a tropical garden aren't isolated to the cold and snowy winter months. I don't think the gardener in this case is suffering from zone denial, I think he or she may just be frugal or not above dumpster diving behind the nearby big box garden center.I'm basing my guess on the fact that whenever I find myself near this house the garden tableau changes not with the season but with the plant material at the greenhouse nearby. Last year there was a mass of miniature florist roses that bloomed wonderfully and the year before that it was African Violets and
If you are anything like me ,you love houseplants ,but do not love the price for them. So if you know someone or a family member who has a lot of houseplants why not ask them if you can get a start off of some of them?? I have even been in doctor's offices and asked for starts off of plants. I got a start off of a rubber tree a few years ago and we still have it and it is now huge. It is real easy to do and they are free. After they start to root in the glass of water you will need some potting soil ,but you can get a bag of that at a dollar store for very little money. You will be well on your way to a house full of plants. Download Our Free ToolbarEnter your search termsSubmit search form src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
One of the biggest disservices that I do my houseplants is watering them from below. Even though I know better sometimes I can't resist the urge to fill the sink or a large container with water and setting the plants in the water to get a drink. Watering houseplants from below is a time saver if you have a lot of plants to deal with but you should avoid it when possible.If like me, you're in the habit of setting your pots in water you may find that a white crust develops on your pots, in bad cases the white stuff will collect on your plant. In the photo above the first image shows the development of a hard white substance on a Monadenium in my collection. In the second photograph the white crust has developed on the terracotta pot of a cacti but if you look closer there is also a brown gunk growing on the cacti. Sometimes when you water too much or when water doesn't drain properly a green slime will also develop on the surface of the soil.The crusty white substance on my succulen
In my previous entry, Watering Houseplants Part 1: Pick Them Up, I mentioned moisture meters that you can buy to help you determine when your houseplants need water. Some very forward thinking NYU college students have devised a system with a sensor that can tell when your houseplants need water or light and call your phone to let you know. For years indoor gardeners have been talking to their houseplants but now they can actually talk back.How It Works"Each plant on the Botanicalls system is equipped with sensors connected to an Arduino microcontroller which contains code particular to that plant type. When a plant's microcontroller determines that the plant needs to make a phone call based on current sensor information, it sends data through an Xbee wireless radio to an Xport gateway. This gateway connects to the internet, where it contacts a PHP script with the plant's ID number and type of need. PHP then packages this information and passes it on to Asterisk, an open-source telep
Probably the most frequently asked question I get asked when people find out about my interest in plants relates to the watering of houseplants. Specifically, people want to know what I call "the houseplant numbers"-meaning they want to know how many cups of water they should give their houseplants per week. Unfortunately houseplants don't operate on our schedules and they don't understand liquid measurements.There are various factors that come in when watering houseplants like the lighting condition, quality of the soil and what kind of pot you choose for your houseplant. Some people will insert their fingers into the soil in an effort to gauge the moisture in the pot. Seems like it should work but what if your houseplant is in a large pot or in a very small pot? Sticking my finger into the first two inches of soil doesn't tell me much about the moisture of the soil eight inches below the tip of my finger. Some of the houseplants I grow are in pots two inches small, where do I put
I got a recent e-mail from a reader asking me what to look for when shopping for healthy houseplants. I've decided to post the response here in the hopes that what I do can be of use to someone else.Houseplants can be bought in a variety of places now and I'm not above picking one up in a retail setting outside of a greenhouse. I've purchased houseplants from drug stores (oddly enough Cacti & Succulents), garden centers, greenhouses and even from a street peddler. Houseplants are the same the difference is in the care that they are receiving and the conditions they are being housed in.When I walk into a greenhouse I look around and take in that first impression. The first thing I usually note is the smell, does it smell fresh or is the air stagnant? Does it have a "clean" smell or does it smell like someone has gone overboard with chemicals? The second thing I usually notice is the how the plants all look together. At first glance the plants as a group should look lush and the lea
If you're finding that the tips of the leaves on your houseplants are turning brown it could be that you're not watering well or the air is too dry. Here's how to check to make sure it's not a watering problem: pick up your plant (where possible) and place your hand on the top of the pot, now turn the plant over so that the soil (and top of the pot) are now resting on your palm. With your free hand lift the pot off and examine the soil. Is it bone dry? Or is it still moist? What do the roots look like?If the soil is moist and you know you're watering well then the reason for the unhealthy looking plant leaves is that the air around your plant is too dry. Keep your plant away from heating vents and increase humidity around your plants by making humidity trays out of things around your house. Add a humidifier to your house or find some frugal methods of increasing humidity in your home during the winter.If the root ball was dry then consider giving your plant more water along with
