Houseplant Care

Take Care of your Houseplants in the Winter

Cold months can be little depressing, especially when you want to keep growing your plants but it's freezing outside, unless you live in a hot, tropical area where the climate remains fairly stable and the sun is hot practically all year round. But, what about gardeners living in non-tropical areas?

Fortunately, there are many plants that can live and even thrive indoors. As long as we know how to protect them and give them proper care, they will remain beautiful until the weather warms up again and we can take them back to the garden, patio, terrace, or some place outdoors. In the meanwhile, these are some useful tips to keep your plants alive indoors:

Location
Whether they are indoor plants year-round, or that you have brought indoors to protect them from the winter cold, where you place them is very important to keep them alive.
Find a place away from heating, since heaters tend to overheat the environment and reduce the little humidity that exists in the air in interior spaces. Usually ornamental plants are tropical species, so they prefer places with certain levels of humidity, such as the kitchen or bathroom, using a humidifier can help for this. Also make sure to place them away from open doors or windows, where very cold breezes constantly enter, the ideal is to keep a constant temperature, generally between 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit at night.

Light
Ideally, it should be the natural light that comes through the windows. But if the days are too cloudy and dark, give them a little help with some artificial light, fluorescent or LED growing lights are good options.
If your plants are not growing fast enough, this doesn't mean that they are dying, they have stopped the production of new leaves to rest and adapt to the new environmental conditions, once the weather changes these will begin to recover quickly. Nothing to worry about unless they start turning yellow, brown or black, losing leaves, getting dry and/or wilted, in that case something may be affecting them.

Watering
One of the common mistakes when we bring plants indoors is over-watering. Indoor plants should be watered in a very different way than those we keep outdoors, especially during the winter season. When we water our plants, they usually absorb only a portion of the water in the soil. The rest tends to evaporate with the light and heat provided by the sun, or goes to the deeper layers of the ground. How to know when to water? use your finger, put about 2 inch of your finger in the soil, if the first inch is dry but the second inch is still wet, do Not water it, when the first 2 inches of soil are dry it's time to add some water to your plant.

Fertilizer, apply or not?
Plants can feel the change of season even being indoors, they take this cold months as an "opportunity" to take a break in the production of branches, leaves and flowers. Therefore they do not need additional food, since the weaving factory will be closed for couple months.
The ideal is to fertilize in the times of greatest sun, which go from Spring to Fall. If you fertilize in times of cold and little sun, you will stimulate the plants to produce new tissues without enough sun (energy) to develop good tissues.

Do you want to learn more about Houseplants and how to take proper care of them? watch our Houseplant Master Class:

More materials about Houseplants:

Growing plants indoors may offer some challenges, but these links may help you to be successful:

Common Houseplant Insects & Related Pests - this Clemson University Extension page has many different sections on prevention, non-chemical control, chemical control and common pests for indoor plants

Houseplant Problems - this Purdue University Cooperative Extension shows many common issues with indoor plants and how to manage them.

Fertilizing Houseplants - this University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension PDF has information on fertilizing houseplants.

Last updated February 13, 2024