Herself's Houseplants

If you are lucky, you can skip watering your plants for a few days; place the pots in a cardboard box and put the box in your car and go. It is not always that easy.

Some plants get very large while you are living in your home. Some are delicate. And some will have to travel a long way to their new destination.

If you are just boxing the plants and moving them in the car be aware that the light in the car is far brighter than in your home. Most of your house plants will need to be placed on the floor of vehicle or covered to prevent burns. The reason for not watering them first is just to keep your car from getting soaked.

If the plant will moved by the movers you need to do a little more work. First water it and let it drain really well. Then take a plastic bag, what ever size works best for your plant, and place the plant and pot in the bag. Then pull the bag up around the top of the pot and the base of the plant, allowing the plant to stick out. Use some string to tie the bag closed. This will keep the dirt in the pot and the plant in the pot while it is being relocated.

If the plant will be boxed use the trick the orchid companies use. Take a bamboo stake like you use to tie up your tomato plants. They can be found cheap at any garden center. Cut it to about an inch shorter than the inside of the box. Press the stick into the soil near the center of the plant and all the way to the bottom of the pot. Then place your plastic bag around the pot and tie it up over the soil. The bag will keep the dirt and the plant in the pot. The stick will keep the plant from bouncing up and down in the box and getting damaged. Despite the best efforts of the post office, UPS and FedEx not a single orchid in spike shipped to me this way has been damaged and I’ve received well over 100 of them.

All of this works for larger plants as well. If a box is not available put several stakes, as heavy as you need to protect the plant from breaking around the outer edges of the pot. Use cellophane wrap instead of a bag to keep the soil in place. You can wind in through and about the stakes. Then just cut the cellophane off when you reach the new home.

More information:
Getting the “Dirt” on Relocating House Plants

If your plant has roots escaping out the bottom of the pot it needs a new larger home.

If the plant needs to be watered more than once a week the pot is likely too small.

If the plant is no longer growing well it probably needs fresh dirt.

If when you water the plant the water pours right through rather than soaking into the soil first then draining you probably need a larger pot for the plant and fresh soil.

If it has been in the same dirt or moss for more than a year it likely needs new moss or dirt.

Repotting House plants

Now that the weather has warmed up all over the country it’s time to put houseplants outside for a break. Besides you’ll be busy all summer and they will be easy to take care of this way.

First off put them in a shady location, not sunny. The house plants you have inside even in the sunniest windows will only tolerate shady conditions outside. Also you will be bringing them back in again come fall. If you adapt them in the sun all summer they will not do well when you bring them back inside.

Try to put them some where they will get rain water when it rains. The rain water is more acidic than your tap water and the plants love that. The rain water will also wash away much of the salts from tap water and fertilizers that have built up over the winter. Don’t forget to sprinkle them with the hose if it does not rain. They’ll need more water outdoors in the heat than they do inside.

Your orchids and other flowering plants are much more likely to reflower for you if you put them outside where the temperature changes 15′-20′ between day and night. Be careful with the phalaenopsis orchids. They can only tolerate temperatures between about 50-80 and shade. They are the only house plant I do not put outdoors.

You have heard that fluorescent lights do wonders for your electric bill. Mine dropped by a third. Not only do they use less electricity than incandescent lights but they don’t throw the heat that incandescent lights do.

They also are wonderful for your house plants. We’ve noticed that house plants that are not doing so well will thrive when placed under a fluorescent table lamp. The lamps also do not heat up so they can be placed closer to plants that need a good dose of light.

I’ve found many low light plants will do just fine on a desktop with a bright fluorescent bulb.

A good rule of thumb is to use 20 watts of fluorescent light per square foot of plants.