Indoor Plant Care – Lots of Green in Winter!
For some reason, I seem to be accumulating a lot of house plants these days. I keep bringing more inside each year and then have to take care of them. I am learning by trial and error more and more about indoor plant care. Most of the time, I like to plant in glass containers, basically a terrarium, and for those plants that I have that are succulents, I keep those in terrariums without a lid or cover. They really grow well.
This year, I have decided to plant my baby sunrose in a regular pot ( not the over-wintering aquarium which I used last year). My daughter has a large bathroom and wanted a pot for her ledge around the tub. She decorates in accents of blue in there, so she picked out a ceramic pot in bright blue. I think this will look good with the tones of green on the baby sunrose.
I planted this Baby Sunrose ( Aptenia corifolia) to save it from being frozen to death outside. Our Ohio winters won’t allow it to survive. It freezes after a continuous drop in temperatures and we are getting into the 20s now. ( That’s Fahrenheit.) I have quite a few pieces in some hypertufa bowls and those will freeze too, but they gave me a lot of blooms during the summer, so I am satisfied.
After all, this one we’ve taken in will provide so many starts next spring we’ll probably have too much of it like we did this past summer. Or is there such a thing as too many plants? LOL
Indoor Plant Care – My Lessons I’ve Learned
I have learned lessons about bringing in my plants each year, so it may help you to consider these thoughts.
- Do you have enough room for all those you are bringing inside?
- Do you have enough light, either natural or artificial?
- Will you remember to water them as needed?
- Do you have a plan for possible insect invasion? Sometimes they come inside with the plant!
- You’ll need to pinch off tips if they get leggy from not getting enough light.
- You’ll need to keep them trimmed and clean since leaves will die and shrivel.
After all these considerations, if you want plants inside so that you can feed your gardening soul all winter long, then indoor plant care will be well worth your time. I have all my lights set up in the basement, and I have set aside a few sunny windows for other pots, so I plan to enjoy my plants all winter long.
Do you have any advice to add? Let me know in the comments since we all can help new gardeners with our advice, OK? And caring for your indoor plants is worthwhile according to some sources. These plants may help purify the air by removing pollutants (though opinions on this vary.) See this source for more info.
Meanwhile, whether it helps with pollution or not, it sure helps my mood to have my plants inside in winter. Enjoy yours too. Did you know the Golden Pothos is supposed to be one of the best since it is so easy to grow! Who knew!
