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10 Tips for caring for your houseplants

With these 10 tips for taking care of your houseplants, you can now enjoy healthy and green plants that immediately brighten up your home. In the 10 tips for taking care of your house plants below, you can read everything about purchasing, planting and caring for plants.

10 Tips for caring for your houseplants

Houseplants are fun and add that little bit extra to your room. In addition, some plants are also extra good because they promote good sleep. Are you having trouble keeping plants alive right now? Could you use some tips for caring for the plants? Then read on and discover how you can adapt plants to your lifestyle and what you should pay attention to when caring for plants.

1. Take your lifestyle into account

When choosing a houseplant, you should first take your lifestyle into account. Are you often on the road (perhaps even for days) or are you someone who forgets things quickly? Then adjust the choice of house plants accordingly. Are you forgetful or often away? Then choose a plant that needs little care, such as a cactus. Going on holiday every now and then is no problem, especially if you follow the tips and tricks for caring for house and garden plants  during the holiday.

2. Do not water too much

Most plants would rather be a little too dry than too wet. Too much water can cause the roots to rot and once this is the case, it is especially difficult for an inexperienced person to save the plant. Check the plant before watering:if the leaves are limp or if the soil around the pot is very dry, you can water the plant (with caution). Leave the plant in the pot for about 15-30 minutes after watering and throw away the excess water that has not been absorbed by the plant.

3. Increase the humidity

Some plants need higher humidity, as is the case with ivy's and tropical plants (including orchids, for example). By giving it an occasional mist bath with a plant sprayer, you immerse the plants in a beneficial and much-needed bath of humidity.

4. Ideal living environment

Just like us humans, houseplants need a calm and ideal living environment. The perfect temperature for this is around 22-25˚C, where you move the plants as little as possible once they are happy in a certain place. Be careful when placing plants near doors because of drafts and, for example, above heating systems because of too dry and warm air.

5. Forget plant fertilizer

Aren't you blessed with green fingers? Then stay away from plant fertilizers. An excess of (well-intentioned and administered) plant fertilizers can burn and kill plants. The plant soil is usually provided with sufficient minerals and fertilizers, so that additional fertilization is not necessary.

Incidentally, there are many easy house plants that, with the right care, do not need any extra fertilizer at all. If you do want to add some fertilizer, do so in moderation and only in the growing season (spring and summer).

Reading tip:10 easy to keep house plants

6. Buy your plant from a reliable source

Nowadays you can even buy houseplants at the supermarket. Nevertheless, in many cases it is better to visit a specialist before purchasing good and healthy plants. A garden center or a grower knows about plants and can also provide you with advice, so that you can be sure that you are getting a good plant that meets all your expectations and that you can take care of optimally.

Of course, that does not mean that you should never buy a plant at the supermarket. On the contrary:precisely because the plants are many times cheaper there, you can now and then buy a plant to experiment with it and see if you like it. And not all plants from the supermarket are of inferior quality.

Update:I buy a lot of plants at the supermarket these days, because they are just as good as from a garden center. Aldi and Lidl in particular are supermarkets where you can find good plants, which are also very affordable.

7. When choosing, take the incidence of light into account

Before you get into the car like crazy, to race to the florist or garden center, it is good to check your lighting situation. Take a look at the direction in which your windows are (north, east, south or west) and also take into account whether there is anything in front of the window that can influence the light (eg a large tree). Below you can see which plants are suitable for which direction:

South-facing window :here you have light almost all day, suitable for almost all plants if they like full sun. However, this does not mean that you should leave the plants in full sun all day (with a few exceptions as is the case with cacti, for example).

East and west window :you have an average light throughout the day, ideal for plants that like partial shade or are content with less light.

Window on the north :windows on the north have the least light, so it is important to choose plants that mainly need little light (a lot of shade).

8. Extra love and attention

Your plant is a newcomer and will need to get used to its new environment. A little more attention and extra love is therefore not an unnecessary luxury. Instead of setting aside a fixed day to care for your houseplant, you can certainly check more often in the beginning whether the amount of water applied is sufficient and whether your plant feels at home in the place designated for it.

9. Repotting

As mentioned before, it is not necessary to provide your plants with fertilizers. Do you want to grow your plants optimally? Then choose to repot once in a while in a larger size pot, renewing the soil as much as possible.

The new soil contains all the minerals and fertilizers required for the plant and after the recovery of the repotting (yes, this costs a plant energy and can result in the plant going limp for a while) you will be completely in its element again and will delight you with new leaves (and possibly flowers).

10. Ensure good drainage

The last tip of the 10 tips for caring for your houseplants is closely related to tip 2 that you should not overwater a plant. If your plant is in a pot that does not have holes in the bottom, then you have to get started yourself to create optimal drainage. To do this, remove the plant from the pot and fill the bottom with a layer of stones and sand. This will prevent your plants from drowning.

Reading tip:this is how you take care of cacti

Do you have any tips for caring for houseplants?