Houseplants add color and atmosphere to your place. They’re also easy to maintain so long as you don’t put them into the closet, freezer, or furnace. Plus, women notice details. So owning healthy houseplants will demonstrate that you’re a responsible guy (unless you ruin that perception by failing to wash your sheets or clean your bathroom for entire calendar years).
Some of the easiest plants to grow and care for are Peace Lilies, peperomias, snake plants, Norfolk Island pines, and Chinese evergreens. In other words, those are the types of plants you want. Although taking care of them isn’t as simple as “set it and forget it,” following these simple tips from Janice Cutler, owner of award-winning North Raleigh Florist in North Carolina, and Ward Upham, master gardener specialist and horticulture expert at Kansas State University, will help your thumb and your garden stay green.
Tips For Keeping Houseplants Alive
WATERING
Water too much, too often and you’ll drown the plant. Don’t water enough and you’ll be guilty of murder by desiccation. So how do you find the middle ground? “Pour water into the soil until it runs out the drainage holes; this means that enough has gotten to the roots,” Cutler advises. “Plants typically won’t last very long in pots without drainage holes.”
Adds Upham, “The most water is needed in summer and spring, when growth is most abundant. More houseplants die due to overwatering than any other reason, so water when the soil is dry an inch deep, using your finger to test.”
