Winterizing Your Houseplants
If you’re anything like me, you love spring through the early parts of fall. Your plants are lush and thriving. They are pushing out new beautiful new leafs and they are displaying healthy signs of growth. It’s also a time to enjoy pruning and re-potting. All of that comes to a screeching halt once November rolls around and many of our plants become dormant. At that point, it feels like you’re basically tending to the soil. But all of our efforts throughout the winter is what will give us an exciting and fulfilling spring and summer. Below are some small things to do to keep yourself busy and your plants happy.
Placement
If you are cold next to your windows, so are your plants! Especially your tropical plants who love full sun when it’s warm out. Even if you insulate your windows, it’s best to move your plants to a warmer, more temperature stable place in your home.
Lighting
Even though many plants go dormant (slow growth), and some even go into complete hibernation (no growth), it is important to supplement lighting during the short winter days. Artificial plant lighting also give you more versatility on where to keep your plants. You can set up plants in any room of your home, even windowless rooms and they will still thrive.
Insulation
I personally love to add mulch to my indoor plants, and my outdoor garden. Pine bark helps to prevent against gnats, and acts as a cat and critter deterrent. Mulch serves as insulated shady covering for potting soil stopping plant roots from overheating during the summer. Mulch also helps insulate roots during winter months. Plus it looks really nice and adds a nice visual consistency both indoors and out. Whatever substrate you decide to go with to insulate during the winter, pack it as close to the base as possible, while making sure to leave an inch or two of non covered soil around the outer edge of your plant. With less water evaporation in the winter, too much mulch will cause too much moisture retention in your plant and could cause your roots to rot.
In addition to the tips above, remember to save the fertilizing for the spring and summer months. You can also place your plants closer together so they can generate some of their own warmth. And do not panic if you are noticing leaf drop! Just as the trees lose leaves in the Fall, your plants will also push off leaves that are consuming too much energy, or are dying. But always remember, your plants are making room for bountiful growth that you will see during the Spring time.
May you have a peaceful and restful Winter.
