Herself's Houseplants

( The first being too little light )

Most of your favorite house plants came from the floors of the jungle. That is why they do so well with so little light. Plus we love those exotic jungle plants. They make the room feel warmer and more alive.

The average relative humidity in the jungle is between 80% and 90%. Relative humidity in deserts varies from an extreme low of 10% to a more common 30% relative. The average home should be 35% but often is 15% in the winter. So even when your home doesn’t feel dry it is closer to the most extreme desert than the jungle and your plants suffer.

Your plants usually express this displeasure by dropping their leaves in bulk.

If you have a bathroom where lots of showers get take you can place your plants in there. Near the kitchen sink is another good place for plants that need more humidity. Placing shallow dishes full of rocks under plants and filling them with water helps too. Put a humidifier in your home in the winter. You and your plants will like the humidity. ( And you’ll stop zapping Fluffy every time you pet her. )

More information:
Houseplants need humidity in winter, ‘Chicago Gardener’

With out sufficient light plants your plants will slowly die of starvation. With out enough light the soil stays sopping wet after waterings and allows bacteria to grow and attack your plant.

In the winter we have far less sunny days and even when the days are sunny, the sun is lower in the sky and not out as long as needed by many plants.

In the winter supply your plants with extra light. A table lamp with a fluorescent bulb works wonders and costs next to nothing to run. Set one up on your desk or a table and rotate your plants under it if there are too many to fit. It doesn’t take much to save those plants from starvation.

If the windows are not too cold for your plants move them closer. If possible, move them to brighter windows for the winter. Plants that sit in in west and east windows can be moved to southern exposures during the winter. Those normally in north facing windows can be placed in east or west facing windows. If you can move back a curtain with out exposing your plant to too much cold, that helps too.

Don’t starve your plants this winter, supplement their diet with extra light.

Carnivorous plants are some of my favorite plants. I’ve a Nepethenes who has pitchers big enough to catch small rodents, lizards and some of the Texas sized bugs we have down here. It was thought the trap was enough now we know they slime their prey as well.

. . . Since Charles Darwin’s time, the mechanism of insect-trapping by Nepenthes pitcher plants from the Asian tropics has intrigued scientists but is still incompletely understood. The slippery inner surfaces of their pitchers have – until now – been considered the key trapping devices, while it was assumed that the fluid secretions were only concerned with digestion. Gaume and Forterre were able to combine their separate expertise in biology and physics to show that the digestive fluid of Nepenthes rafflesiana actually plays a crucial role in prey capture. [ read more Carnivorous plants use pitchers of 'slimy saliva' to catch prey]

A University of Virginia study, published in the Nov. 16 issue of the journal Science, demonstrates that plants grown in the same setting as their maternal plant performed almost 3.5 times better than those raised in a different environment – indicating that maternal plants give cues to their offspring that help them adapt to their environmental conditions.

[ read more Evolutionary biology research on plants shows significance of maternal effects]

Plants drop seeds that generally land right near the original plant. The seeds then grow in the same conditions as the original plant. Changing those conditions, even a little effects the growth of the plant.

What this means for house plant growers is that you should experiment a bit. Start with the general recommended conditions for your plant. If your plant doesn’t thrive try shifting things a little. Change one thing at a time ( more sun/less sun, more water/less water ). Watch and see which changes, if any please your plant more.