January 18, 2006
Woodbury Bulletin
Betsy Halden

Select the right house plant for your conditions

Indoor house plants help to satisfy the urge to garden especially during our cold winters. Almost any indoor setting can be enhanced with a healthy, living plant. With some planning and an understanding of your home’s limitations, you should be able to grow plants in almost any room.

Houseplants are easy to grow and care for. Light and temperature needs don’t require extreme accuracy within a given range. Once a plant has adjusted to your room’s light, temperature and humidity, it can be watered and fed as needed on a regular basis.

Greenhouses have a high relative humidity which slows water loss from a plant. The move from the greenhouse or florist to your home will subject your plant to a drier atmosphere, which may cause some leaf drop soon after the plant arrives home.

To prevent serious damage to the new plant, check it frequently to make certain it has enough water during the first several weeks. But be careful not to over water it. Too much water will smother the root system and the roots will not be able to breathe. A cool place, with temperatures around 60 F, will be adequate for this adjustment period.

Since light is the most limiting factor for indoor plants in our northern climate, you might group the plants according to their light requirements. You can still include plants that have other needs, but you can move or rotate these to add variety to your plant arrangements. Even plants with a high light requirement can be kept in a darker location for a few weeks, then moved to a sunny spot to recover.

Keep in mind this rule when you’re deciding where to place your plants: The darker the leaf color, the darker the location it will tolerate. Variegated plants generally display their best leaf color in areas away from direct sunlight.

Full sun-loving plants are best used near direct sunlight or strong reflected light. You may want to consider using a light stand where, if needed, the plants can receive 14 to 16 hours of light.

Full sun or bright light plants include Croton, Crown of Thorns, Gardenia, Jade Plant, Schefflera, True Aloe and Velvet Plant. Bright indirect light plants are Aralia, Epsica, Large Lady Palm and Wax Plant. These plants will not tolerate extreme cold or heat.

Diffused light exists in places just out of reach of full sunlight, or with a sheer curtain between the plants and the sun.

The list of diffused light plants may be the largest and includes such plants as African Violet, aluminum Plant, Asparagus Fern, Boston Fern, Devil’s Ivy, False Aralia, Dracaena, Grape Ivy, India Rubber Plant, Norfolk Island Pine, Pilea, Prayer Plant, Spider Plant and Swedish Ivy.

Shade loving plants grow best with indirect light, in dull corners. Some choices include Dieffenbachia, Dumb Cane, English Ivy, Peace Lily, Philodendron, Snake Plant, Waffle Plant, Silver Lace Fern, and Satin Pellionia.

If plants growing in shaded or low-light levels develop poor quality leaves or appear to lack vigor, consider increasing their light exposure for short periods of time to bring color back to the foliage. Just don’t overdo it or increase the light intensity too quickly.

Many plants will respond to higher levels of humidity in rooms such as the kitchen or bathroom. Plants that need higher humidity may be kept in these rooms or moved there for short periods of time. Frequently flowering plants such as Gardenia can be brought into bloom by keeping them in a bright kitchen. Their flower buds often drop shortly after arrival at home because of lower humidity and lower light levels.

For other rooms, you can raise the humidity around your plants to some extent by setting them on wet gravel or sand placed in the bottom of shallow trays. Another possibility is to group your plants together to reduce the amount of air moving through the foliage.

“Caring for Houseplants in Northern Climates” is the title of an article by Deborah Brown, Former Horticulturist with the University of Minnesota Extension Service. You can read it online at www.extension.umn.edu. Click on Garden, and then enter “Houseplants” in the search box.

Betsy Halden is a resident of Woodbury. You can reach Betsy Halden at eahalden@comcast.net.