That pot - that small but poignant totem of a life before Covid- now hangs in a corner of a quiet room, its edges draped in greenery. Situated close to a large south-facing window but out of direct sunlight, the warm, bright, draught-free spot it occupies is the perfect place for my Senecio rowleanus plant. A heat-loving, light-loving, drought-tolerant succulent, its long, cascading stems are studded with a multitude of tiny, fleshy, pea-green beads so pretty and so irresistibly tactile that it’s almost impossible to resist gently stroking them as you go past. Whenever I do so, it feels oddly illicit, yet another reminder of what a strange new world we live in. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is available as both an ebook and a physical book, but I'd highly recommend the physical book. It's beautifully laid out, with a collage-like style that mixes photographs and abstract cutouts. If you notice any of these warning signs, work through the following houseplant care steps and your plants should be thriving again in no time. Plant placement The beginning of the book has basic plant care 101 information, such as: common pests & diseases, how to re-pot a plant, etc. Bathrooms are most often very humid, warm, and often dark.- for some plants these are the ideal circumstances, but for some others, this spells certain death. Here are some houseplants that thrive in high-humidity environments:

How Not to Kill Your Houseplant by Veronica Peerless

Discover the perfect plant for your unique space and needs. Bathrooms, cold rooms, at a desk, on a windowsill, in a gloomy corner or hot suntrap: there are plants for every location to create your own indoor oasis. Certain plants require very particular kinds of soil. Orchids, for example, grow best when fir bark is added to their pots. Normal pot soil is much too moist for orchid roots. Cacti and succulents need very sandy soil. Air plants superglued to picture frames, for example. Cacti imprisoned inside humid terrariums. Or fleshy echeverias spray-painted in dayglo colours or glitter (why?) so that their fleshy leaves struggle to perform the two basic processes essential to all plants, which are photosynthesis and respiration. In this case, who could blame them for giving up the ghost . . . However, for a book that dubs itself "Survival tips for the horticulturally challenged," it didn't get into quite enough detail at parts. For example, sometimes it says something like "water moderately during the spring and summer and water more sparingly in the winter." Helloooo - I bought this book because I kill all my plants! I don't know the relative meanings of "moderately" and "sparingly" when it comes to watering plants! Gotta give me a better frame of reference...If you notice poor growth, variegated leaves turning green or no flowers on a flowering plant, move your houseplant to a lighter spot to encourage healthier growth.

Kill Houseplant Survival Tips - AbeBooks Kill Houseplant Survival Tips - AbeBooks

If you're the second type of person and the failure was a fluke. Learn from it and move on. We all make mistakes and it's not worth beating yourself up about it. Further ReadingWith over 50 different types of popular houseplants, this book summarises what type of care your plants do (or don't) need. Find out which types of plant will thrive in your living space. You'll also discover how to keep a cactus alive, where to hang air plants, and how to repot succulents. Understand how much light, water, heat, and humidity your plant needs, whatever your horticulture woes, this book will explain and fix it. You need to learn the art of patience and give time between watering. Not only that, but you might not need to give as much when you do come to water. A good piece of advice I once heard is that your houseplant should be able to see the sky from where you've put it to grow. Using the best houseplant compost for your type of plant will ensure that it gets the nutrients and proper drainage it requires to thrive. If you're horticulturally challenged and can't keep a house plant alive to save your life, then this book is for you! This practical guide to raising indoor plants equips you with the know-how you need to care for your plants.

Not Kill Your Houseplants - Grove Collaborative How to Not Kill Your Houseplants - Grove Collaborative

Observe your houseplants very closely. This way, you can recognize a pest infestation in time to treat and cure your plant. Tip #10: Leaf-Care I’ve been browsing through this book for over a year now and it’s finally safe to say I have read it from cover to cover multiple times and can definitely recommend it to beginner houseplant caretakers. This book starts out with basic, easy-to-follow plant tips on choosing, potting, watering, feeding, and placing your plant. It also talks about pests, diseases, and other plant problems. Then it gets into a more detailed discussion of how to care for and troubleshoot specific plant species. The book is well organized and clear and has lovely images that make reading and flipping through it absolutely delightful.Everything you need to know about lighting for house plants, from natural to artificial lighting sources. Leaves are the biggest telltale sign of how healthy your houseplant is, and there are several things you should be doing regularly to keep them in top condition. If it’s a warm, bright, sheltered spot out of direct sunlight, for example, then any of the plants that I’ve mentioned above will thrive. Other houseplants suitable for these kinds of growing conditions include the ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata);the baby rubberplant (Peperomia obtusifolia); the Kentia palm (Howea forsteriana) and the Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens). But if it’s an ultra-bright, sunny windowsill in direct sunlight, then go for cacti, agaves, crassulas, echeverias and other succulents such as the Panda plant (Kalanchoe tomentosa) and Aloe vera. Plants in your bedroom can help you get better sleep by increasing the air quality, right? That may not actually be true: According to a study from 2019, the impact plants do have on air quality is actually very small.