"Indoor plants are the perfect remedy for a dull and lifeless space."
"A beautiful plant is like having a friend around the house."
Courtesy of Beth Ditto
"Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul."
Courtesy of Terri Guillemets
At Two Wests we have always said that anyone can be a gardener . . . whether you have an outdoor space or not. This is shown clearly when you look at those people who decide to enhance their homes with indoor plants.
Having potted plants in your home, whether just in one room or scattered throughout all your living spaces, gives you the chance to take care of a living thing and whilst your care will benefit the plant, it will also bring many health benefits to you.
Indoor Plants and Watering
Watering is key to the health of any plant – and getting just the right amount of water so your plants are neither under nor over watered can be tricky, especially if you are new to caring for indoor plants. Or even if it’s a new plant that you have purchased or had bought for you, and you are just getting to know its likes and dislikes.
The obvious way to know if you need to water an indoor plant is to check the soil in its pot. This can be done free with a simple ‘finger test’, just pushing a finger an inch or two down into the soil – if the soil is cool and damp then you don’t need to water, if it’s dry and warm then it’s watering time.
If you prefer to not get your fingers dirty, or want a more scientific approach, then a soil test metre is a simple, effective tool to use.
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Light and Moisture Meter This Light and Moisture Meter will instantly show you if your plant needs watering – with the added bonus that it will also indicate the light conditions so you can decide if it’s time to relocate your houseplant. This meter also comes with a guide showing both the light and watering needs of over 150 plants helping you to provide the correct conditions for healthy plant growth. |
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You can try to make your life easier and help your plants to thrive by using some of the ‘self-watering’ options now available and that are designed to let your plant take up the water it needs, rather than you guessing how much water will keep it healthy.
From a simple self-watering tray, where your plants are sat on a raised platform rather than them sat directly in a plastic tray of water, through to automatic drip watering based on the moisture in the soil, there is sure to be an option to suit your requirements.
TOP TIP
If you want to give your indoor plants the best chance to thrive, then treat them to rainwater rather than tap water. Plants prefer rainwater as it often has a lower pH than tap water and doesn’t contain the same minerals, that can affect the nutrients available to your plants.
The other benefit to you is that rainwater is free, so as long as you have a way to catch and store it, rainwater is definitely the best option.
Indoor Plants and Feeding
The very nature of an indoor plant is that it will be growing in a pot, where it has limited access to soil and as a result, limited access to nutrients. So, to keep your indoor plants healthy they will rely on your to top up their nutrient requirements by providing them with plant ‘food’.
Although you should always check the requirements for different plants and the nutrients they require, as a rule your plants will benefit from being feed at least once a month, potentially once a fortnight. This should keep your plant healthy - although not feeding your plants sufficiently might take a long time to have any effect as they will first deplete all the soil of its nutrients, plants which are lacking the correct nutrients will become more prone to disease and will grow more slowly.
The key is little and often, rather than just providing lots of feed all at once and then stopping again. There are also lots of choices for plant foods, from general fertilisers to ones which are specific to certain plants, as well as lots of ways in which food can be provided to your plants – it could be a liquid feed added to their water, a slow-release fertiliser added to their soil or pellets which you could push into their soil from the top. Try to choose a method which will be easy for you but also which will benefit you plants the best – we often find using a liquid feed is most convenient and it’s simple for you to keep track of how much you are providing.
Indoor Plants and Lighting
Basically plants need sunlight to generate energy to grow, so you need to consider this when choosing an indoor plant and deciding where it will be placed in a room.
Don’t be tempted to think that by buying a plant and putting it on a windowsill that it will grow happily with the amount of light it will receive – many plants won’t thrive with this amount of direct sunlight and potential heat, not to mention the potential for draughts, light being concentrated on one side of the plant, heat from radiators below the window etc etc.
Some plants need more light than others so it is always best to check their labels or research them online. However, there is a basic rule which you can follow which should help in deciding where to place your potted plants within a room:
- Foliage Plants – need the least light, in fact some will thrive better away from direct sunlight. However, just be aware, that plants with variegated leaves will need more light than those with plain leaves – the variegation will fade if they don’t receive sufficient light.
- Flowering Plants – these will need some access to direct sunlight and without it may fail to produce flower buds.
- Cacti and Succulents – need the most light and this makes sense when you consider their natural habitats.
Your potted plants will show you when they are not getting sufficient light and if you can identify the symptoms then you will have the chance to solve the problem for your plants and help them thrive again – this could be something as simple as moving the plant to a different location within a room or into a different room all together. Or it might involve introducing some artificial lighting into a room to provide sufficient levels of light for your plants to remain healthy.
Plants suffering from lack of light could display the following symptoms:
- Dropped leaves – plants will start to drop their older leaves first as they have too little light
- Colour changes – when plants are lacking light, they aren’t able to product chlorophyll (which is the pigment which makes the plant green), as a result their colour will change, becoming paler and could potentially turn yellow or white
- Leggy growth – plants may appear to be ‘searching for light’ when their stems start to grow long and thin, having longer spaces between leaves and changes the appearance of the plant.
Indoor Plants and Cleanliness
“One, who maintains cleanliness keeps away diseases.”
Courtesy of Sam Verda
I always remember that part of my Mum’s house cleaning tasks was to clean the indoor potted plants – they would be placed on the kitchen drainer and their leaves carefully wiped clean. This might sound like a person obsessed with cleanliness, but in fact it did benefit the plants.
Just like the ornaments in a room, layers of dust can settle on your plants. As dust rests on the leaves this can form a barrier between the leaves and the light and air they need to thrive. Using a paintbrush or damp cloth to clear the dust from the leaves allows them to ‘breath’ and create the energy they need to grow.
Cleaning the leaves on your plants is not only good for them, it will also benefit you as it will allow you some time to concentrate on a simple, repetitive task, which will enable you to be distracted from any of your daily stresses – this is just one of the ways your mental health with benefit from adding potted plants to your house.
Indoor Plants and Fresh Air
Fresh air is good for us, but it’s also good for your plants. To thrive and remain healthy fresh air is vital for your plants. Although you might not think of plants as ‘breathing’ they use the carbon dioxide from the fresh air to convert food into energy – known as photosynthesis. As they do this they also release oxygen.
There has been a lot of research carried out into the subject of whether having plants indoors will improve the quality of the air in a room . . . in fact you will find old research done by NASA which showed that houseplants can remove up to 87% of air toxins in a 24 hour period. However, like with any research, you need to investigate it further . . . if you did you would see that this research involved small, sealed chambers of air, which is not the equivalent of a house room. And that more research has shown that you would need between 10 to 1,000 plants per square metre to remove the same amount of nutrients as would occur by simply letting fresh air flow through a room.
So, if your reason for having houseplants is to improve the air in a room, then we would suggest this isn’t the answer – however, by opening a window to allow fresh air in for your houseplants to breath would help to improve the air quality. So in a way, your care of your houseplants has improved the air in your room.
Indoor Plants and Your Pets
If your household includes four legged friends – cats or dogs – then please take these into consideration before adding indoor plants to a room.
Some plants are toxic to cats and dogs – and although you might think your pet is the best behaved one and would never touch your plants – don’t give them the opportunity and end up with an expensive trip to the vets.
So before adding a house plant, simply check online to see whether it is classed as cat or dog friendly – the charity Cats Protection has a list of indoor plants which are safe for cats, the Dogs Trust a similar list for dog safe plants. Although there are a few plants which you will want to avoid, you will still be spoilt for choice with all the plants which aren’t harmful to your four legged friends.
Our blog posts are created from our personal knowledge, information gathered by speaking to other gardeners or manufacturers in the gardening industry, by reading gardening magazines and devouring information from books and the internet. We aim to be as accurate as we can, so if you find a mistake, please remember, we’re only human. if you have any queries you can contact us today!