A House Plant Tour & Care Tips
I’m finally getting around to doing a post that’s been on my list for a while now, and that’s a tour of my beloved house plants! Now I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert when it comes to plants, or even a self-proclaimed green thumb. But I’ve alway been surrounded by lots of greenery growing up (my dad is an avid gardener and both my parents love house plants) so it’s just become a necessary part of my home and life, and for that I’m grateful. So today I thought I’d give you a tour of my plant babies and share some tips I’ve picked up along the way to surround yourself with plants and keep them alive and thriving too!
Gaining Green Thumb Confidence
The best thing I ever learned about gardening is that anyone can do it and be good at it! Gardening is a meditative practice and it requires a certain amount of attention and care but it’s not some unattainable, secret right of passage or natural ability you have to posses. I think the most I’ve learned about gardening has come from just watching my parents tend to plants over the years, without the fear or doubt that they will kill plants or that they’re “bad” gardeners. What is a bad gardener anyways, other than someone who lacks experience with plants? And that experience really just comes from trial and error, trying without the fear of failure and figuring out what your personal connection is to gardening, ie. why you do it and where/how it fits into your life. My parents use gardening in different ways; my mom loves to have low maintenance greenery to enjoy around her home and for my dad it’s more of an art form, a passion and a career. Your own connection to plants will determine how you choose to learn about, practice and integrate gardening into your life.
Learning The Ropes
When you think of your personal circle, who is someone the comes to mind with a wealth of knowledge about gardening? Is it a friend, neighbor, family member? And even if you don’t know anyone who likes gardening or successfully cares for house plants, there are tons of resources online, from informative and aesthetic IG plant accounts to YouTube channels, books, and tv shows. Find who or what inspires you, pick someone’s brain and start putting your that information into practice. It’s really that easy to get started.
A Not-So-Curated Approach
When it comes to greenery in the home, I am really not too picky about matching pots and all that. I may have picked this up from my dad, who will literally plant something in any old or odd object he finds lying around. I like this approach, and it’s right in line with living more sustainably by recycling and upcycling objects to create a potted garden. I think that the need for the perfect pots can get in the way of actually just growing plants, and it can quickly become costly.
That said, I have a couple of larger ceramic pots that I’ve picked up from small businesses, one from The Victorian in Atlanta and one from Green Fresh Florals here in San Diego, both of which you can now support online. And I have no doubt, there is probably a small local business in your area just waiting to be discovered, whether that’s a trendy boutique style plant shop or a mom and pop nursery. If you’re not able to shop locally in person right now, check out Etsy, the treasure trove of small businesses selling beautiful plants and planters.
Adding Plants to Your Collection
You may be familiar with the temptation of visiting a garden center and wanting to drop tons of money on new plants. But there are ways to grow your plant collection, spending little to no money. Before I had any indoor plants, I started my outdoor potted garden (in the small area in front of my apartment) using almost exclusively clippings from my neighbor. She very generously offered me as many clippings as I’d like of her vast succulent garden. The thing is, this doesn’t hurt succulents at all and is often necessary to cut them back from time to time.
In my opinion, succulents are some of the easiest plants to start from clippings (some start growing roots before even touching dirt or water) but there are lots of other plants you can start from clippings using propagation. I bought a small Monstera from Home Depot a few years back and ended up neglecting it for a while before nearly throwing it out. Instead, I was able to save some of the strongest stems and let them grow roots in water (propagation) before repotting them in soil again. Now I have two healthy Monsteras and the potential to create many more smaller plants from them.
Finding the Light
One of my biggest struggles with indoor plants is finding enough natural light in my rather dark apartment. There are certain rooms that get lots of sunlight and others that stay shady throughout the day. I used to fight this a lot because I saw my plants as decorative objects rather than living things, so I would stick a plant into the darkest corner of my living room and wonder why it was doing poorly. Now I realized that the lighting really determines where my plants can live so many of them are clustered in my bedroom and dining room, hence the bar cart-turned plant cart. And the plants that I’ve found tolerate low lighting better (through trial and error) like the snake plant and aloe vera, add some greenery to the darker parts of my home.
Start Plant Sharing
The five orchids on my plant cart actually came from my dad, who rescued them from the trash. Because he’s limited to an outdoor garden, I offered to keep the orchids throughout the winter until they grew a bit larger. I love the idea of being able to share and swap plants with friends and family in the same way we might share clothes or meals. This also allows you to test out a plant in your home to see if it’s something you’d like to eventually add to your own collection, see if it works in your environment, with your furry roommates, and with the level of maintenance you’re comfortable with. Similarly you can share and gift plants by propagation too, which I mentioned earlier, because plants truly are the gift that keeps on giving.
Top Tips For Getting Started, Courtesy of My Dad
While I can share my personal experience with indoor gardening, I thought it might do you more justice to hear some tips from a more experienced gardener, my dad. You can follow his new gardening IG account too if you’d like! So here are his top tips for starting and maintaining your indoor garden.
Simple Starter Plants: Succulents are a great starter plant for hotter environments. Spider plants, Angel Wing Begonias and African Violets make sturdy indoor plants. Those that that don’t require a lot of water (cactus, succulent, aloe vera) all make great first plants because they will survive a while if you forget to water them.
Perennials vs. Annuals: Look for perennials, or plants that come back year after year, as opposed to annuals, which only grow once a year.
Add Color: House plants don’t often flower but you can add color with variegated leaves, or those with streaks of white and other colors in the leaves.
Low Lighting: Since we’re not all blessed with great natural lighting, plants that grow in low light are great for indoor gardens. Some good options are snake plant, aloe vera, rubber trees, and a variety of Philodendron (split leaf, fiddle leaf, etc.) in varying sizes.
Overwatering: Often new gardeners are so worried about forgetting to water their plants that they actually end up overwatering. This can cause root rot, which looks like drooping or yellowing leaves. If you’re unsure about when to water, try using a moisture meter.
Clay Pots: If you’re using clay pots, make sure you have a dish underneath to catch excess water and allow the plant to self-water. Clay can suck water out of the soil and make the plant dry out more quickly.
And a Book Recommendation: The Sunset Western Garden Book has been a favorite of his for years.
