We Love Our Houseplants
If you don’t have any, come over to Hillside Nursery and we will get you started. If you have some, bring us a cutting! Let’s discuss three basic needs: Lighting, Watering and Love.
LIGHTING
Make sure you know the lighting needs of your plant. If you have a shade plant, ensure not to place it in a southern-facing window. If you have a sun-loving plant, do put it in that window! Part-shade, part-sun plants like western or eastern-facing windows. If you don’t have the perfect sill, try hanging your plant to change its light exposure.
WATERING
Most houseplants get over-watered. Our tip is to wait to water until the plant “asks for water.” This can look like droopy or curled leaves on a typical plant, or squishy leaves on a succulent. These symptoms however can also mimic an over-watered plant. To know which is which, simply put your finger up to the first joint into the soil – if it’s dry (and the leaves are starting to droop), it needs water. If it’s still wet, then no water until it has dried out.
LOVE
Arguably one of the most important. If you love your plants, you are likely attending to them, noticing if they need something. I love my houseplants. My husband does not. Thus, whenever I go away, I return to droopy sickly plants. But he loves trees. So, in my absence, our trees thrive. The exception here is the Jade plant. We have noticed that Jade plants do very well ignored. They can go months without being watered or cared for in any way.
