Indoor Plant Care - How to Houseplant Care

How to Prune Your Umbrella - Plant  Schefflera Arboricola, Umbrella Plant Schefflera Arboricola I recently received an email from a visitor to my website asking how to prune her Umbrella Plant. She sent along the picture to the right. Here is her email and my answer: Hello, I'm just wondering how to prune an umbrella plant. My plant is getting out of control, growing upwards and I can't seem to get it to grow like a bush. I'm afraid to cut it to shape cause I might kill it. I've had this plant for over 10 years and from the picture I sent you can see it's still growing good. I just want to trim it down but I want to do it properly. Thanks! Hi Julia When pruning an Arboricola (umbrella plant), cut just above a leaf stem or node. I usually cut the tallest stem back into the center of the plant, leaving some leaf nodes for new growth to start. Doing this every once in awhile keeps the plant fuller and shorter. You can cut the really ta...

My New Variegated English Ivy  Thinking About Getting a New House Plant? If you are thinking about getting a new house plant, you should consider carefully before you purchase a new one, especially if you are a little new to house plant care . Pictured here is one of my new plants, a Hedera helix or English Ivy.  Looks nice and healthy, right?  For the most part, it is. However, before I bought it I made sure to check for spider mites. I found what I expected to find...Spider mites! I have been caring for indoor plants for over 20 years and I can't remember any time that I had a new English Ivy that did NOT have spider mites. English Ivy usually come from the growers looking pretty clean and spider mites are hard to detect at first unless you know what to look for (and where to look). But they reproduce rapidly , especially in hot, dry places and can do quite a lot of damage to your house plants. Before you know it your English Ivy will b...

Dracaena Warneckii One of the easiest to care for indoor house plants is the Dracaena Warneckii . Besides being an easy care house plant it also quite attractive and will survive in lower light situations and tolerate some watering mistakes and a little neglect. Of course, you should not neglect your house plants and you should provide the best lighting and watering that you can. To illustrate my point I have a little indoor plant story or two to tell. I just love to tell silly plant stories! The first interior landscape company that I worked for as an interior plant technician was Tiffany's Decorative Plants in Fremont, California. This company no longer exists as it was eventually bought out by the larger interior landscape company called Ambius . Back to my Warneckii story... One of the accounts that I serviced for Tiffany's was a french restaurant called Papillon on Mission Blvd. in Fremont, California. Intended to be a romantic place to eat, the inter...