I'm a house plant killer

[WellVersedInEtiquette]

Gutted. I've a lovely garden in the summer with baskets and borders full of colour. I wanted to bring some greenery into the house and I've killed everything. I was given a spider plant by someone and separated it as it was root bound. Gave a couple away, gave one to my 13 year old to have in her room and kept the biggest part for the house. It died. My daughters is looking wonderful. So I bought another different type of plant. It died. And another and another. My husband is laughing at me about it. I've reasoned that it's cheaper than buying flowers every couple of weeks but I really want something to thrive. I'm feeling like my garden is more luck than design if I can't keep a house plant alive for more than a week 🙈
Help!
I think I've overwatered some and underwatered others.

And me ! My mum bought her mum ( nan) plant from her flat when she died. She looked after it for about 15-20 years before she passed away. I took the plant home and it was dead within a few months.

My spider plants have been going years, ditto orchids and money maker - my secret is forgetting to water them! I reckon I only water maybe once a month?! W

This was me, until I had DS. Honestly, the whole pregnancy I was worrying as I had 100% track record for killing every plant I'd owned. Yet not only is DSalove and well, I've turned a corner with houseplants. Not sure what I did, but it works. I tend to get rid of them when I get bored (sending them to my mothers garden)

Buy a book about houseplants. Read it. Find out which plants would suit the place you want to put it in, (amount of light, warmth etc) and learn how to tell when it needs watering, how often to feed it and so on.

Then go and buy one

I’m improving with my own plants, but am on day 6 of house sitting for a friend. Her orchid has already dropped two flowers

Whatever you do, don’t get a maiden hair fern

All plants need attention. You need to spot the early signs of over or underwatering, whitefly, greenfly or red spider mite. If your focus is on the garden, it's natural that your house plants will escape notice for a while. I can grow houseplants if my mind is on it, but it isn't usually. If I want to be sure of anything, I keep it on the toilet windowsill because I then notice it every day, and I don't have to go to any effort to water it.

So your garden isn't "luck" it's a direct reflection of your skill and attention.

you could just pick flowers and foliage from your garden every couple of weeks instead.

It sounds silly, but love your houseplants! If you invest love into them then you will research their needs and treat them right.

or if all else fails buy an aspidistra

Succulents are the way to go! I haven't managed to kill one yet

Funny, spider plants are unkillable IME !! (there was an enormous happy one in an unnaturally lit office which was occasionally watered when we remembered). You just have to take their 'babies' which have tiny roots and plant them!

I find that they all need more feeding ( i use coffee and tea dregs mixed with 50% water) than we think they do, BUT only water when the compost is dry. If you find out where they would live in nature then the amount of sunlight is easy to copy!

My DC and partner killed a Peace Lily. I thought they'd cope with that because it goes into a very obvious dead octopus act when it's short of water. But, no, they manged to shrivel it to a crisp.

i use coffee and tea dregs mixed with 50% water Be careful with tea leaves - it can attract fungus gnats, whose larvae feed on roots, and which are difficult to get rid of once you have them. Tea dregs without the leaves are fine. I never used to dilute, but then I suppose it depends how strong you like your tea.

I say tea, but I use T bags, sometimes the herbs from the garden, in a pot but mostly green, mint, ginger, camomile and or weird stuff like chicory coffee, never any milk or sugar , it suits the plants very well.

We use filtered water too. Maybe my advice wouldn't suit most palates or plants come to that

I've picked up two more to go over Christmas. I'm actually growing a herb in the kitchen window which seems to be doing ok. I'm thinking the others aren't in enough sunlight. Front room gets the sun for the first part of the day but isn't the brightest of rooms this time of year.

Ti's true that there's not enough (natural light) sun this time of year. our basil on the east facing windowsill isn't happy , dh has these fantasies that it should last year in, year out. He bought some special cat herbs and though they did sprout , they have died prematurely (before the cats showed any interest)

Basil is a wet tropics plant, originates in India. It likes warmth and moisture, not the sun and well-drained soil combo that works for most of our herbs which are of Mediterranean origin.

I have been given 5 mature houseplants for Christmas and I read up on them but they all seem to like sunlight but not direct sunlight, water but not too much water etc. I am working off the basis of noton windowsill and water when soil is dry to touch. I give them 3 months......

Get used to picking them up and feeling the weight of them. That makes it far easier to judge whether or not they need watering.

Most houseplants can tolerate an indoor environment - what they don't like is dry air, being too near a radiator or other heat source, sudden temperature changes and draughts.

I also have been given an Xmas plant, an orchid (the one indoor plant I find great difficulty in keeping alive for any length of time ) It's in it's large plastic cover to keep the draughts out at the moment, Any one with good ideas on keeping it alive?