Take Your Houseplants for a Spin


Houseplants tend to lean towards the light. Ill.: weibo.com & laidbackgardener.blog

To maintain good symmetry, a plant needs to receive light from all sides … and that is almost never the case indoors where all the light in a room comes from one direction, because most rooms have windows on only one side. As a result, the average houseplant tends to lean towards its one source of light, ruining its natural symmetry. In fact, some plants lean so far they need staking to keep from flopping over!

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Give your houseplants a regular quarter turn to keep them symmetrical. Ill.: gifer.com

Fortunately, this is easy to prevent. Simply give the pot a quarter turn clockwise every time you water. That will ensure the plant receives light from all directions and will stay symmetrical.

Why clockwise? Actually, counterclockwise would work just as well. The important thing is to be consistent and turn it in the same direction each time you water.

Simple, n’est-ce pas?


A Spa Treatment for Houseplants

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As houseplants start to come out of their winter lethargy, it’s time to treaet them to a good spa day! Source: www.pflanzenfreude.de

Indoor plants render great services to their owners. They decorate our homes, they purify the air we breathe, they reduce the frequency and duration of colds and flus, and their presence even helps eliminate depression and puts us in better mood (although nobody knows exactly why!). But what do we do in return for them? Very little, except to water them a bit from time to time.

At this time of the year, when the days are beginning to lengthen and our indoor plants are starting to emerge from their winter lethargy, there are a few things we could be doing to make them happier: call it a reward for services rendered!

1. A Cleansing Shower

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Houseplants appreciate an occasional shower as much as you do. Source: Claire Tourigny, Les 1500 trucs du jardinier paresseux

Houseplants absorb much of the dust in the air that surrounds them. It’s is one of the reasons they’re so good for our health. Dust is, in fact, one of their main sources of minerals. However, when dust and dirt start to accumulate on foliage, as tends to happen indoors, it clogs their breathing pores (stomata) and the poor plants start to function less efficiently. Besides, there may be undesirable insects hiding on their leaves that you haven’t yet noticed. That’s why houseplants like nothing better than an occasional warm shower, especially after a long winter.

Yes, a shower, in the shower stall or in the bath using a telephone shower handset. Just cover the surface of the soil with a rag beforehand to prevent the soil from washing away. If you can, rinse both sides of the leaves. If the foliage is really dirty, even take a soapy cloth and gently rub both sides of each leaf. The plants will love it!

2. A Little Leaching

After months of being watered in a closed system (irrigation water drains through the pot into the saucer, then is reabsorbed by the plant rather than draining into the surrounding soil as it would in nature), mineral salts start to accumulate in the soil of our houseplants, over time reaching harmful or even toxic levels. This toxicity is even more severe when we fertilize our plants frequently. To eliminate these excess salts, nothing beats leaching! Set your plant in a shower stall, bathtub, or sink and gently run warm water over the soil, letting excess water flow down the drain. Often the drainage water is tinted yellow, a sign that the soil was quite contaminated. Just soak the sol for a minute, stop for 5 minutes (this will give mineral salts a chance to dissolve), then rinse again until the water that comes out of the pot is clear, indicating that most of the impurities are gone. Finally, let the pot drain thoroughly before putting the plant back in its saucer.

3. A Bit of Grooming

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A bit of grooming – removing dead and yellowing leaves and damaged or dying branches – will benefit most indoor plants. Source:  http://www.mein-mediterraner-garten.de

Over time, most houseplants will accumulate yellowing or brown leaves, dead stems and other defects. Therefore part of the spa treatment should involve a bit of grooming. First, exfoliate… that is, remove dead or yellow leaves. If any leaf tips are brown (often caused by excess minerals in the pot, a problem you just solved through leaching!), you should be aware they will never turn green again, so just clip them off. Depending on the plant, it may be necessary to shorten or remove broken, weak, or overly long branches.  If the plant is heading straight for the ceiling, off with its head! Don’t worry, it will soon grow a new one (that is, as long as it is not a palm: never cut the top off a palm, as they don’t branch in response to pruning!). You can always use the plant’s top as a cutting and start another plant.

4. Time to Repot

After a year or two in the same pot, most houseplants are ripe for repotting. Take the plant out of its pot and remove part of the old soil mix: only a bit if you have been repotting annually, more if the plant has spent more than two years in the same pot. If you want the plant to grow in size, repot into a larger pot. If you want to slow its growth, repot into in a pot of the same size. Before reusing the same pot, clean it thoroughly. You’ll need fresh potting mix, readily available in any garden center. For orchids, buy a potting medium designed specifically for them.

5. A Plant Sauna 

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Many plants do so well once you’ve sealed them inside their plastic “greenhouse” you’ll be reluctant to take them out again! Source: laidbackgardener.blog

If you feel a foliage or flowering plant is in poor shape, a move to a very humid environment will do it a world of good. And creating one is easy. Just find a clear plastic bag and seal the plant inside. Don’t worry that it will suffocate: remember that plants recycle the very air they breathe, absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen during the day and absorbing oxygen and producing carbon dioxide at night. The humidity in the bag will reach a very high level, usually close to 100%… and most houseplants adore high humidity! Leave it in its own personal sauna for two weeks, a month, maybe two months… until you see it showing renewed vigor. During this treatment, place the plant in a bright location, but away from direct sunlight, otherwise the temperature in the bag will become unbearably hot. Note too that plants sealed inside clear plastic bags will probably not need watering, even after several months.

As mentioned, most plants will love this experience… but not cacti and succulents. Unlike other plants, they can’t handle extreme humidity. Never seal them in a closed container for any length of time.

6. Feed Lightly

Most houseplants need no fertilizer in the winter and so you probably stopped feeding them in October or November. Well, March is a good time to start again. Every gardener has his or own preferred fertilizers and fertilization frequency and plants are quite accepting in this regard: notably, any fertilizer is fine with them. You can feed your dracaena or African violet lawn fertilizer for all they care: minerals are minerals and much of the labeling pretending one fertilizer is better for plant X than the other is just hype.

7. A Place in the Sun

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Place your plants in bright light and just watch them explode with new, healthy growth! Source: http://www.obi.de

As you get to the end of your plant’s spa treatment, remember that to remain in good health, your plant will need good light, usually a spot that receives a few hours of sun a day, but without ever becoming stiflingly hot. A location near a east-facing window is ideal because there is reasonable light in all seasons and it never gets hot, so you can leave the plant there all year. South and west exposures are great too, but during the summer, it will likely get too hot near the window and you’ll have to move the plant back a bit. As for a northern exposure… well, it is acceptable (although just barely) in summer, but few plants appreciate it in the winter.

8. Give the Occasional Spin

Finally, to maintain good symmetry, a plant needs to receive light from all sides… which is almost never the case indoors where all the light in a room comes from one direction, because most rooms have windows on only one side. The plant will then tend to lean towards its only source of light. To compensate for this, remember to give it a quarter turn clockwise with every watering. That will give it light from all directions and therefore better symmetry.


And there you go! Plant care equal to that of the best spas! Spa treatment will make your houseplants very happy and yet will cost you practically nothing besides a bag of potting soil and, every now and then, one or two new flower pots. It’s the least you can do for such faithful friends!

Plants with Weird Leaves: Leaves That Move

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Some leaves really like to shake it up! http://www.oogazone.com & freedesignfile.com


Leaves Move All the Time


Movement for Protection




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These drooping winter rhododendron leaves will straighten up, uncurl and come back to life when warmer weather arrives. Source: http://www.indefenseofplants.com


Turning Towards the Sun

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Unless turned regularly, most houseplants will bend in the direction of the light source, Source: Donnie, http://www.houzz.com


Night Moves

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Scientists still debate why plants do this.

Plants That Dance

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Response to Touch


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Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica). Source: worldoffloweringplants.com


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Mimosa pudica leaf closing. Source: Mimosa_Pudica Hrushikesh, Wikimedia Commons





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Touchy Feely Carnivores





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Leaves that move: one of Mother Nature’s little surprises!20180211A www.oogazone.com & freedesignfile.com.jpg

Take Your Houseplants for a Spin


This jade plant (Crassula ovata) is leaning towards its only source of light.

Indoor plants get their lightly mostly from a sideways direction, whereas outdoor plants catch most of their rays from above. No wonder many houseplants tend to lean sideways — they’re leaning toward the light. A plant that continually leans in one direction eventually winds up flat on its side with its potting mix spread across your carpet. Not a good thing!


A skylight will let in light from above… but at what price?

One solution to the leaning-plant problem is to install a skylight in your ceiling. Plants that receive light from above are naturally more symmetrical than plants that receive their light from conventional windows. But a skylight will cost you an arm and a leg! And isn’t even possible if you live in a apartment or a condo.20170110B.jpgA cheaper solution is to simply give your plants a quarter turn, always in the same direction, every time you water them. This technique is simple, cheap and effective – and the plant grows evenly in all directions just as effectively as if you had punched a $2,000 hole in the roof!

For attractive indoor plants, therefore, make giving a quarter turn a habit!

Unobtrusive Staking for Houseplants


The discrete staking on this dieffenbachia is hardly visible at all.

In a perfect indoor gardening world, you wouldn’t need to stake a non-climbing plant. Its branches would be thick and solid, perfectly capable of holding the plant up, even when it’s loaded down with leaves, flowers, and fruit. In reality, though, houseplants are prone to weak growth. Their stems often stretch for the light source, and the abnormally long distance between each leaf node means that they’re less rigid than plants growing outdoors under brighter conditions.

Also, believe it nor not, moving in the wind actually strengthens the stems of plants that grow in the garden. Indoor plants rarely feel any wind at all and consequently, don’t develop stems as strong as they normally would.

Prune Before You Stake


This staked dieffenbachia would look better if it was pruned back severely.

Pruning and pinching are alternatives to staking. If you prune a plant carefully, removing weak and excessively long stems, the plant likely won’t require staking. When a stem starts to bend over, decide whether the plant wouldn’t be more attractive without that weak branch and, if so, prune it off rather than stake it.

Avoid Fertilizing When Light is Low

It’s best to avoid fertilizing houseplants when the days are short (late October through late February or early March) in the Northern Hemisphere. This tends to stimulate etiolation: long, wispy stems that may well need staking.

The Famous Quarter Turn


This plant is growing towards the light: it would be more attractive if given a regular quarter turn.

Everyone has heard that you should give a windowsill plant a weekly quarter turn (always in the same direction) so that it will receive light from all directions… but not so many people actually do it. If you carry this out, though, you’ll find your plant much more symmetrical and less in need of staking.

Making Staking Less Visible

OK, so you’ve tried your best and your houseplant does need staking. If so, try to make the stake as unobtrusive as possible because there’s nothing pretty about a plant wearing a splint. Try the following suggestions:

  • Insert stakes near the center of the plant, hidden among the leaves and branches.
  • Always use a stake that will be at least slightly shorter than the plant itself.
  • Consider using the plant itself as a support. You can do this by attaching a weak branch to a stronger neighbor.
  • If you need to stake several branches, use individual stakes for each branch. A web of string and ties wrapped around a single  stake and tied to several branches adds up to one messy eyesore.
  • Avoid brightly colored stakes. Dead branches brought in from the garden, green-tinted bamboo, olive-green plant stakes, and so on, work like camouflage. Or, wrap a colored stake in green florist tape.
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    Green staking tape is fairly discrete.

    Avoid highly visible fasteners. Green twist ties, green or natural-colored raffia, garden twine, and soft plastic plant ties in off-green shades make good choices.

  • Try to re-create the plant’s natural growth pattern when you attach the branches to stakes. Avoid bunching stems together or cramming flower heads up against each other.
  • Surround weak-stemmed plants with solid neighbors. If they can lean just a bit, they’ll likely stay standing.

20161106H.jpegThe information in this blog was largely derived from one of my books, Houseplants for Dummies. This is only one of several books on houseplants I have written over the years. I encourage you to read one.20161106c