Becoming a Plant Parent
Understanding the basics of indoor plants so that you can create the environment where your plants are happiest and become the plant parent you want to be!
Because plants are living things, external elements are key in keeping them alive and allowing them to thrive. Our goal is to help you learn how to keep your plants happy, how to develop an environment in which your plants are happiest and to ultimately develop as a plant parent with confidence in growing happy plants.
As such, we want to help you to understand the 4 main basic care elements for indoor plants and how these contribute to creating the environment where your plants are happiest.
The Basics of Indoor Plants:
In order to create an environment where your plants are happiest, you need to understand the following key care elements for all indoor plants:
- Light
- Humidity
- Watering
- Feeding
Light Conditions for Indoor Plants
Indoor plants will always come with a recommendation of low, medium or bright light. This refers to how much indirect sunlight your plant needs to thrive. And accordingly, helps you select a place for your indoor plant based on how much indirect sunlight a room/space gets.
Low light; means your plant needs only a little bit of natural light.
Bright light; means your plant needs a space where sunlight pours into the room most of the day, but it is not exposed to direct sunrays.
Medium light; means your plant can thrive in an in-between space. A bright room that gets sunlight, but less light than bright light. The space may be deeper into the room or slightly sheltered by objects, walls or furniture.
The light conditions are up to you to create for your indoor plant.
All plants bought from us come with a specific care card. You can use our care card (or our product pages that detail care instructions for each indoor plant) as a guide to know what type of light; low, medium or bright your indoor plant needs.
And then it is up to you to find a suitable space in your home or office that will work for your indoor plant.
Humidity for Indoor Plants
Humidity refers to the amount of moisture in the air. Humidity is an important care element that is often not considered.
With this being said, not all plants need moisture in the air around them to thrive. But those that do, would appreciate your effort in enhancing this element.
A home or office that has regular goings on and human activity generally has enough humidity for most indoor plants to survive in, and as such you won't need to do anything to provide a humid environment for your indoor plants. But we would like to recommend some ideas for enhancing the moisture in the air around your plants so that, the ones that need this, can enjoy a slightly more humid environment.
Mist the leaves of your indoor plants with water every few days (or according to the guidelines in our care card) using a spray bottle or mister, in order to increase the moisture in the air around your indoor plants.
Grouping all your plants together in one space, close to each other, can also increase humidity - plus it looks awesome too.
Or, if you have a plant that really is happiest in a humid environment and the space you choose has dry air or aircons/heaters running. You can create a pebble tray for your indoor plant by placing small pebbles on a saucer, filling the saucer with water and then placing you plant pot on top of the pebbles.
Please note that misting or spraying the leaves of your indoor plants is not a replacement for watering. These are two separate care elements and you still need to water your plants even if you mist them.
Watering Indoor Plants
Watering is the most important care element!
Watering according to your specific plants needs is key. You need to understand and learn the water requirements of each specific plant that you own. We believe the best way to learn the watering needs of your indoor plants is to test the soil dryness/moisture by sticking your finger deep into the soil of your plant and feeling how wet the soil still is.
Use our care card guidelines to determine when to water your plant based on how dry the soil is. Most plants either prefer consistently moist soil, or for the soil to dry out completely before being watered again.
If they prefer consistently moist soil, stick your finger into the soil every 2-3 days and feel for when the top layer - this is about 2-3 cm's down - is dry, but the rest of the soil deeper down is still moist, then you can water. If they prefer the soil to dry out completely, stick your finger into the soil every 4-5 days and feel if the bottom of the soil is dry, and then water.
As time goes on, you will come to know how often you need to water each indoor plant and you won't need to feel the soil any more. You will develop a routine and a better understanding of your plants needs.
When you water, you must always try to rather water well by pouring water all over the soil in your plant pot until it runs out the drainage holes at the bottom. Do this outside on the lawn, over a bucket, in the bath or in the sink. You can then leave your plant to dry for a few minutes and then place it back where you keep it, into its terracotta pot, decorative pot cover, on its saucer or in its basket - if you use these.
Also understand that; plants in smaller pots will dry out quicker than plants in bigger pots. Plants will dry out quicker in hot weather (Summer) than in cold weather (Winter). Plants will also often dry out quicker in bright light positions than low light positions.
Feeding Indoor Plants
Feeding is a care element that is often overlooked.
Just like humans, plants need to eat in order to get the nutrients that they need to grow and thrive. Just watering isn't enough to keep your indoor plant healthy. You need to provide them with the added nutrients that they need to remain healthy and to keep on growing.
Use a liquid plant food to feed your indoor plants according to their needs - given to you in our care card, or according to the info on our product pages - based on the dilution instructions on the bottle of the plant food. Most often this is every 2 weeks or once a month depending on the plant.
Water your plant first with plain water (this makes sure that the food does not simply run out the pot, but rather gets absorbed into the soil for the roots to take up) and then dilute the plant food in water in a watering can and water in the food over the wet soil, just as you would water your plant.
Creating the Environment Where Your Plants are Happiest
Once you understand these 4 key basic care elements for all indoor plants you can then discover the environment where your specific plant is happiest - using our care cards or the product page description - and the easily create the environment that your plant needs to thrive.
Being a Plant Parent
Being a plant parent is the most extraordinary and rewarding experience! Plants are magnificent happiness providers and really do reward your effort in creating a happy environment for them, by delighting you with new leaves, growth and wonderful changes, as well as a happy and healthy environment to live and work in.
We are so happy that you have decided to embark on the journey of becoming a plant parent and we hope that you will let us know if we can help you in any way throughout this most uplifting and exciting experience!