Indoor Plant Care - How to Houseplant Care

Watering for Healthy Plants Watering Rules, House Plant Care Working in the interior landscape business for more than 20 years has gotten me lots of questions about how to care for indoor potted plants. Customers ask about their own plants at home...why does my plant have yellow leaves... what causes brown leaf tips...how come the new growth on my plant is dying...I water my plant every day but it still isn't doing well...how much should I water my house plant? It can be hard to diagnose every indoor plant problem when you do not have access to the plant itself. So I generally find myself asking them questions about how they care for their plants. Most often, the problems are solved by changing watering habits.  In almost every instance, changing the way they look at watering their indoor plants gives them positive results with their house plants. I care for indoor plants as my job and I know that there are not many plants that I care for that always us...

Indoor House Plants Pictures Names Neanthe Bella Palm Plant Do you have indoor house plants that you would like to identify? There are many indoor plants that we use to grow indoors. Many of those are only available at a greenhouse or from a tropical house plant grower but some of them are sold at your local home improvement store or local grocery store. There are a few house plants that most people have had if they ever tried to keep and grow an indoor potted house plant. Pothos is a very common indoor plant and I see them everywhere as I am out taking care of plants in commercial interior landscape accounts. Peace Lily is another plant that many people have in their home or office. If you have an indoor house plant that you would like to learn the name of and how to care for it, I have created a page on my website that shows pictures of common indoor house plants for identification, their names and links to care pages for each plant. Check out my page of indoor house plan...

Warneckii A recent letter from a PlantAndFlowerInfo.com visitor: "Hello. When I purchased this plant it was distressed and about 1 foot tall. It is now 7'2" tall. Is it a type of Dracaena? It's in an 18" pot. It does not have a woody looking stem. The leaves are 20" long, and are dark green down the center, with a small white stripe on each side of the dark green, and then a lighter colored green on the outside of the leaf. I would like to know the name of the plant. Can I cut it shorter? Can I plant the piece I cut off? Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Attached are 2 pictures - one is a full view and the other is a close-up of a leaf. Thank you very much. Hortie" Close up of Dracanea Warneckii leaf At first, I had not received the attached pictures and replied that it sounded like a Dracaena Warneckii. Eventually the pictures confirmed that it is a Dracaena Warneckii .  Yes, you can cut or prune the stalks back ...

Poinsettia Plant Every Christmas season  for twenty or more years, I have had hundreds of these lovely "flowers" in my care.They are delicate and fragile and you must use care when handling them. Place them out of high traffic areas and away from places where they might get a cold draft. If you are moving them during cold weather be sure to enclosed them in a loose fitting sleeve or plastic bag. Just be careful not to break them. They are quite fragile and easy to damage. When shopping for  your Poinsettia, be sure the bracts are well colored up. For maximum use of your flowering Christmas Poinsettia, the flower, small and yellow in the center of the bracts, should be.... read more about Poinsettias

Lady Palm - Rhapis excelsa If I had to choose which indoor palm plant is my favorite houseplant , it would be Rhapis excelsa palm . This lovely plant is a favorite with interior landscapers as it is hardy and will survive in lower light levels. It is also more cold tolerant than many other tropical indoor palms. Most types of fan palms are not well suited to life in the average home because of their tendency to spread out, requiring lots of space. While used in large interior landscapes, most fan palms tend to quickly outgrow any available space in smaller areas. Rhapis excelsa , or Lady Palm, has more of an upright growth making it a good choice for use in your home. It has glossy, dark green fronds and while it can be maintained in somewhat low light levels, it will look its very best in bright light with some morning sun. Read more about the care of this beautiful indoor palm...

Beautiful Aechmea Blue Tango If you need some help with a #houseplant #id, please visit the PlantAndFlowerInfo.com contact page . Please attach a picture you have resized for the web. If you cannot resize, just send a message and I will respond via email. Then you can send your photo. I do not post my email because the amount of spammers out there is ridiculous. And they still get through (into the spam box). I was, once again, visiting the a "garden web" site and was going to post some information on a houseplant identification for Jessie T. To get a simple id, there is a requirement that you join and accept the lengthy Terms of Service, so I could not help Jessie ID her #plants. She had also made a comment about what a pain it had been to do the post. If you happen upon this, Jessie, your house plants are a Tradescantia and a Eurcharis grandiflora. If there is not a page specific to your plants care(yet), just send an email . Thanks

Mealy Bug Insects (Missouri Botanical Garden) House Plant and Pesky Insects! The very best way to be sure you don't have insect problems on your indoor plants is to check for bugs before you buy. Always try to buy your houseplants when they have just arrived at the local retail store from the growers. The folks that produce your plants at the nursery follow a regimen of treatment to make sure they do not have insects damage their plants. However, once they arrive at the local store, the probability that they are going to end up with some kind of insect problem tends to increase. I usually walk through the indoor plant section of the local home improvement stores (I won't name any names) whenever I am there to purchase something else. I can't tell you the number of times that I find insect problems starting up on the house plants. My recommendations for keeping pests from being a problem indoors is to always check plants before you buy or bring home. Once you...

Beautiful Orchid A basic common sense  approach to plant care and trusting yourself to make the right decisions will give you the best results with all of your plants. Working in the interior landscape business for over twenty years, I learned that the most important part of plant care is not so much the type of plant you have but the  light   your plants receive and the  watering  of your plants in relation to the lighting. A litte trial and error is really all you need to find out what your houseplant needs from you to grow and thrive. Read more about learning to care for your indoor plants...

Aspidistra Care Cast Iron Plant #Aspidistra Elatior, or #Cast #Iron #plant, is commonly used in interior #landscaping and also makes a great #houseplant. There are a few variegated types also if you have a sun room or solarium, one of these might be right for you. I have not seen many Aspidistra available at the corner store and if you cannot find one of these plants locally, you might try contacting an interior landscaping company in your area as they will often order plants for individuals unable to find plants at retailers. Aspidistra is a great indoor plant as it is hardy and will survive in a variety of environments, even outdoors. A durable and tough indoor plant, Aspidistra can be maintained in low light to bright  light  situations. Read more about houseplant care and Aspidistra plants...

Euphorbia pulcherrima - Poinsettia Pretty Poinsettia Plant Care Your pretty #holiday flowering #Poinsettia #plant will need some TLC or maybe I should say TLPC. Yes, that is tender loving #plant #care! It is the holiday season once again and Poinsettias usually start to appear just after Thanksgiving week. When the  Poinsettias , or Euphorbia Pulcherrima, are put out, the Christmas trees and decorations start going up. Poinsettia is most commonly used as an indoor potted plant at Christmas time, at least in the United States. In some of our milder climates, it can also be found in exterior landscapes. A member of the Euphorbia family, Poinsettia is a succulent plant. That tells you something about your beautiful Poinsettia flower. These native plants from south of the border do best if placed in bright  lighting  and average room temperatures. Poinsettias are not difficult to care for it you just use common sense  watering  practices. Do not expose t...

A Living Holiday Tree If you are a Plant Person and you celebrate the holiday season, you might want to consider using a Norfolk Island Pine for your holiday tree this year. They are great little evergreen trees with strong branches that can hold some cherished ornaments, a silver strand of glittery garland or strings of popcorn! These great little trees can also double as an unusual houseplant throughout the remainder of the year and can also be used as an exterior patio plant in milder climates. Talk about reuse and recycle...no more old tree to throw away, pine needles in the carpet or sap on the floor. Norfolk Island Pine , or Araucaria heterophylla, is an evergreen tree native to Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean.  These plants can be found almost everywhere during the holidays, ranging in size from about 1 foot tall to 4 feet tall. If you purchase one make sure it is healthy looking and green. You can visit my website PlantAndFlowerInfo.com  for more information...