Houseplants - organising their care

[miimblemomble]

Not sure if this should be in Gardening, or Home Decoration... anyway.

I have acquired a number of houseplants and, by trial and error, I am learning about the best ways to care for them. I'm wondering if anyone has a good way of tracking / organising houseplant care when they have different needs? some need watered often, others infrequently, so need misted often, other not at all. Do you just keep all that info in your head and remember when you last watered / misted / fed them?

Any tips?

My top tip is to mostly have plants which thrive on benign neglect.

IME the main thing to get right is watering including knowing which ones really don't want tap water.

I just water all mine at the same time, feed them all in the growing season, and move them around till they seem to be happy where they are. Anything that needs more coddling than that is too advanced for me It doesn't help that I don't know what most of them are!

move them around till they seem to be happy where they are

Yes to that. For instance, I've got a few peace lilies which are generally as tough as old boots but repeated attempts to have one on my bathroom windowsill fail with them looking poorly until I move them elsewhere. I think that generally plants which like a particular location are likely to have similar requirements re watering etc.

I tend to water mine a bit more often than once a week. I only give a very little to the succulents etc they need less. I don’t mist at all. If they need a damp environment then I’d put it in the bathroom.

Lol it does seem like survival of the fittest - the ones that fit my regime are the ones that survive long enough to thrive ;-)

interesting what you say about tap water. My mum lives rural and has a local spring supply , and just uses tap water, but I'm city centre and the water is both hard and chlorinated. I wondered if that was an issue. I've started filling the watering can and just leaving it lying around for a couple of days till I use it.

What about misting / humidity? We have big old cast iron radiators, and live in central / south France where it gets very very dry at times (not like dear old Blighty).

If you have an iPhone, there is a brilliant free app called Planta, which sends you reminders for when your plants need to be watered. You can upgrade to a paid version, which will also tell you when each plant needs to be fertilised, misted etc.

I used the paid version for a while, but got a little fed up with the numbers of reminders I got that my plants needed me that I’ve gone back to the free version!

I have the same problem - lots of plants and it's hard to keep track of them all! I have a set day of the week when I go round and water everything (Watering Wednesday!) and I've never used anything but tsp water. I also mist my jungle plants at the same time. Once a month I go round with a soft cloth and give all the leaves a wipe.

In the next few weeks I'm going to give them all some plant feed and check to see if any need repotting.

Placement is trial and error, I put plants where I want them and move them if they seem a bit peaky...

Having some plants will add to the humidity.

What are they, that say they need the misting?

Does any know what it means when the leaf edges start to brown? Been happening to one of my plants so I moved it to another spot. Seems to be doing better but do I cut off the brown edges?

interesting what you say about tap water. My mum lives rural and has a local spring supply , and just uses tap water, but I'm city centre and the water is both hard and chlorinated. I wondered if that was an issue. I've started filling the watering can and just leaving it lying around for a couple of days till I use it.

Leaving the water will allow chlorine to dissipate but won't help with the hardness which is what some plants eg citrus don't like. I collect rainwater or use the water collected from the dehumidifier I run when drying clothes (problems not a helpful idea for you, op!)

@williowrosenburg

Does any know what it means when the leaf edges start to brown? Been happening to one of my plants so I moved it to another spot. Seems to be doing better but do I cut off the brown edges?

Not enough water I think.

@williowrosenburg

Does any know what it means when the leaf edges start to brown? Been happening to one of my plants so I moved it to another spot. Seems to be doing better but do I cut off the brown edges?

What kind of plant is it?

Brown leaves can be both a sign of under watering and over watering (helpful!)

Oh no! That is annoying.

I mist my ferns, palms and orchids!

Anything which comes from the jungle normally appreciates a light misting!

Brown edges can occur for many reasons I think - under or overwatering, low humidity (for some plants), disease/pests.

First question is brown and crispy or brown and squishy.

Gardeners Question Time had an archive houseplants special last week - Not sure it specifically addressed the issues on this thread but it's usually a pleasant and informative listen

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000t77b

@ErrolTheDragon

Perfect - going to listen to that while pottering outside.

@LaLaLouella

I have created a spreadsheet to try and keep track of what needs what and how often :-) tbh in terms of light / watering they probably overlap a lot, but humidity not so much.

Oh and ferns always fail here! I think it’s just too dry. I’ve killed loads, tried all different locations and regimes!

My plant with the brown edges leaves is a "prayer plant" apparently....

Whereabouts in your house is your prayer plant? They like shade and can go brown if they have too much direct sunlight.

I've crossed to the other side and have bought a few artificial plants from IKEA, they look surprisingly good.

It was in my hallway behind the front door which yes gets lots of light in the morning. So moved it to the front room so it's not so much in direct light.

Can I cut the brown edges off? I think it likes it new spot but the brown edges won't just go will they?

Brown leaves won't recover - I generally find its best to just remove them, unless it's just a little bit on a tip which I might trim off a tough type of leaf.

Yeah it's literally just some edges not the whole leaf.