You are standing in front of two leafy green palms in matching nursery pots, and the tags read “cat palm” and “majesty palm.” They look close enough to swap, but they behave very differently once they are home in your living room. The short version: In the cat palm vs majesty palm decision, the cat … Read more >>
A potted calla lily sits on your windowsill with glossy, arrow-shaped leaves, and you can’t tell if the soil under them is thirsty or still damp from last time. If you’re wondering how often you should water calla lilies, the answer depends on the season, the pot, and how warm and bright your room is. … Read more >>
You notice clear beads hanging from the leaf tips of your pothos, or a sticky film on the windowsill under your ficus, and you wonder what the plant is trying to tell you. If you are asking “why is my house plant oozing liquid,” the answer depends on what the liquid looks like, feels like, … Read more >>
You notice tiny specks on the underside of a leaf near the window, a faint web in a stem joint, or a cluster of cottony fluff where the petiole meets the stem. A homemade bug spray for houseplants can clear many of these pests, but only if you match the recipe to the bug and … Read more >>
You have a pot of glossy, arrow-shaped leaves sitting by the window, healthy and green, but no flower stalks anywhere. Getting calla lily leaves but no flowers is one of the most common complaints from indoor growers, and it is rarely a sign of a sick plant. The short version: Most calla lilies stop blooming … Read more >>
You are looking up at an empty ceiling hook in a room where the only window faces north, wondering what could possibly trail down from it and stay green. The short version: The most reliable low light indoor hanging plants are pothos, heartleaf philodendron, satin pothos, spider plant, Boston fern, trailing peperomia, hoya, rhipsalis and … Read more >>
You have a self-watering planter on the windowsill, a reservoir gauge reading full, and a plant inside that is either thriving or quietly yellowing. The right houseplants for self watering pots turn that setup into steady, low-effort care, while the wrong ones slowly rot. The short version: Self-watering pots suit plants that like soil kept … Read more >>
You press a thumb against your cactus on the windowsill and the stem gives way like a ripe tomato instead of pushing back firm and solid. If you are wondering what to do if my cactus is squishy, the answer depends on where the softness is, what color it is, and how it smells. The … Read more >>
A clear glass jar on a sunny sill, holding a heartleaf philodendron cutting with pale new roots, is one of the most satisfying sights in a plant-filled room. The short version: Propagating philodendron in water works best with a 4 to 6 inch vining cutting that has at least one node, set in room-temperature water … Read more >>
You are looking at a cactus on your windowsill that has grown too tall, dropped a pad, or sprouted a cluster of pups, and you are wondering if those pieces could become new plants. They can, and this step-by-step guide for growing cactus from cuttings walks you through the process from the first cut to … Read more >>