Hi! Your newest plant parent popping in to share some advice I’ve picked up from keeping my plants alive for the last year.
I’m not an expert, just a gal who takes a lot of pride in her healthy plants.
Step 1:
Pick your plants based on the light available in your apartment/home. I don’t get a ton of direct natural light in my room but I do have shady spots, and indirect light so I picked plants that worked within those parameters. If you already purchased a plant and you’re concerned that it isn’t getting enough or the right type of light don’t be afraid to try it moving it around your apartment/room/home.
Step 2:
Water as needed only! If you listen to your plants, they’ll tell you what they need the same way your body does. My biggest indicators that my plants need to be watered are droopy leaves and dry soil. On the other end of the spectrum, I know if my plants are getting too much water if there’s pooling at the bottom or if the leaves start to change color. I picked pretty resilient plants and tend to wait until my plants look desperate for water to give it to them.
Step 3:
Clean your leaves! I don’t know about you, but my apartment gets dusty in seconds. The same way dust builds up on (literally any) horizontal surface in my room, it can build up on plant leaves too, preventing them for soaking up water & sunlight. I’ve been using banana peels to wipe down the leaves, especially of my Peace Lily, because it’s more sustainable than damp paper towels.
Step 4:
Remove any dead or dying leaves. Don’t be afraid to cut out the bad to let the good thrive! (Another life lesson that applies to plants.) I love cutting and removing dead leaves to give new ones room to grow. While the dead ends may look ugly for a bit, they’re easy to pull out once they die completely and cutting them down speeds the process up, so you don’t have discolored or burned leaves. Once the stalks do die or dead leaves fall, be sure to continuously clear the top of the soil so you don’t block new growth.
Step 5:
Re-pot as necessary. Keep an eye on soil levels, and pull the plant out of the nursery pot (if you can) to check the roots. Once my plants started really growing, it was clear the nursery pots they came in were too small. I re-potted my snake plant and jade plant and they seem much happier in their bigger homes! To re-pot, first pull the roots out a little bit to shake loose any dry, old soil, then place the plant into a pot 1/3 full with soil and pack in additional soil around it to keep your plant in place. Water after re-potting and watch it grow.
Plant-specific pro tips:
Peace Lily
This has been my hardest plant to care for, but the gorgeous, shiny leaves it produces make it worth it. I’ve had trouble with overwatering and sunburn (yes it can happen to plants too). Yellowing can mean over-watering, and if your leaves look like burnt they could be getting too much sunlight. I recently moved my Peace Lily to a darker corner of my room and it is loving it. I only water when it shows me it needs it and it’s never looked better.
Snake Plant
Snake plants can survive thirsty for extended periods of time. With a snake plant, always check the water levels at the bottom of your pot, especially if the nursery pot is sitting in a pot with no irrigation hole. Before I re-potted mine, it was sitting in a ton of water, which was probably turning the leaves green. The new pot allows me to check more easily to see if it’s sitting in water so that I can avoid overwatering. My snake plant is also my fastest-growing. Even after re-potting, I was worried it still didn’t have enough room. It was growing in two different places, so I decided to separate them and see if they’d be able to grow more on their own. So far so good but I’ll share updates on if they continue to thrive in their new, separate pots.
Jade Plant
I’ve had no problems with my jade plant. It loves my window sill, always has the perfect amount of water, and nice, firm leaves. It likes sun, but not too much, and water, but not too much. Everything in moderation for this guy. On the contrary, the other jade plant we bought at the same time barely looks good. For some reason it just doesn’t like our kitchen or living room. Don’t be afraid to try new locations if you’re struggling with jade (or any other plant for that matter). Even if two plants are from the same family, they may respond differently to the same conditions.
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