A few tips for new houseplant owners:
• Buy your plant the height and size you want it, because in the house it may not grow much. "They'll usually stay status quo," says Edwina Crockett, a former plant-store owner and interior designer with Tom Chandler and Associates in Little Rock.
• Keep your plant as close to the window as possible, Crockett says. If you have draperies, keep them open during the day and make sure there is enough light in the room.
• If you've decided to cultivate live houseplants this winter, don't keep your home the temperature of, well, a hothouse. "Some people, like older people, are cold-natured. And if they have a hot house, that really affects plants adversely ... they're just not going to survive, usually," Crockett says. When you turn on winter heat it will make plants dry out more, points out Robin Connell, president of Plantation Services.
• Connell suggests not direct-planting a houseplant into a decorative container. Instead, leave it in its grower pot, but set that pot down into a larger decorative container, complete with plastic liner. "That way you can see what's going on. ... You know when there's no more water sitting in the bottom," she says. But just make sure you get the right size decorator pot -- nothing too shallow.
• Make sure you have a certain day for watering. The plants like consistency with when and how much you water them. If you set a schedule, "they'll adapt to you," Connell says. "They're kind of like a pet."
• Bury your dead. "It ruins the look of your room" to have dead leaves on your plant or in the pot, Crockett says. Trim or remove them.
• Do not -- we repeat, do not -- over-water your plants. They'll rot on you, Connell says.
• Water for the pot size. If you've got a plant in a 4-inch-diameter pot, "you don't want to give it a gallon of water," says Sharon Reed of Cantrell Gardens Nursery and Landscape. If it's a 12-inch pot, you know you probably need to give it a little more water. To check if you need to water, stick your finger down into the soil or, for a pot 10 inches in diameter or more, use a water meter or a probe that pulls a soil sample. Yellowing of leaves usually indicates over-watering; browning of tips, under-watering.
• For more information on caring for houseplants, visit the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service (uaex.edu); or head to your local library or bookstore for books on houseplant care.
-- Helaine R. Williams
HomeStyle on 08/30/2014