Use house plants to decorate, divide, and accent rooms in your house. They add a touch of green during those dull gray bad weather or wintery days. Fireplaces, old aquariums and terrariums make a good space to arrange a few house plants. Use your imagination to create miniature landscapes in those spaces and include mosses, lighting and other props.
The easiest house plants to maintain are spider plants, philodendrons, diffenbachias, English or Swedish ivy, asparagus ferns and wax begonias.
House plants need full sunlight to flourish, but if there is little or no sun, use flourescent lights. Place the light about 8 to 10 inches above the plants and leave on for about 12 to 14 hours a day. If space or budget is limited, rotate plants every day so each gets a good basking regularily.
Indoor heat and humidity can affect plants greatly. They prefer a daytime temperature of about 65 degress F and 50 at night. Move them away from windows in the winter to avoid cold drafts, or place insulating materials like cardboard or styrofoam between them and the window. Humidity decreases in the winter due to indoor heating and is drying to plants. It can be replenished by placing trays with 2 to 3 inches of water and gravel under the plants container. If plants are small, they can be grouped together on the same tray. On warmer days open a window or door to get a little fresh air in the house for a few hours.
Water house plants when the top of the soil feels dry. Water until you see some of it draining out into the drip tray or saucer under the plants container. Some succulent type plants need to dry out between watering, but generally keep the soil moist at all times, but not soaking as this will rot the roots. Clay potted plants need more water than plastic or metal containers as the clay soaks up the water on the inside, and it evaporates on the outside. Use water at room temperature
To water plants while you are away make a 3 inch wide flannel wick for each plant. Attach a metal weight, like a bolt to each end, and place one end on top of the soil close to the plant, and the other in a bucket of water situated above the plants. This will deliver enough moisture to sufficiently water the plant for as long as the water lasts. Temporarily group your plants together to share buckets of water.
Keep leaves dust free and refreshed by running water or a milk soaked sponge over glossy leaves, and for fuzzy leaves, use a wetted camel's-hair brush. This treatment also helps remove any insect pests that may have been hiding. A little castor or mineral oil on glossy leaves gives them a nice shiny look and promotes growth.
Egg shells add lime to the soil and greatly benefits the plant. Soak scrap egg shells in water for several hours and use this tonic to water your plants.
House plants need re-potting from time to time to accomodate it's growth, but even if not necessary, it benefits from having it's container cleaned and it's roots loosened. When soil is dry, cup your hand over the base of the plant and turn the pot upside down. Gently shimmy the plant out of the pot and check the root ball. If it is covered with a thick web of hair like roots, then it needs a bigger container. Or like what is done with bonsai, the roots are cut back and is refitted back into the same container. Flowering plants need their roots crowded in order to bloom abundantly, so if necessary re-pot in a slighly larger container.
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