Keeping indoor flowers in your home allows you to create a cozy and comfortable atmosphere. It's always nice to see a piece of living nature, both in the home interior and within the office space. However, before you make a purchase, you need to know how to care for indoor plants so that they are healthy, delightful with a beautiful appearance and charged with positive energy.
What to pay attention to when caring for indoor plants
To maintain the health and beauty of indoor plants, you need to pay attention to the following:
- watering;
- temperature regime;
- lighting;
- location;
- choice of pot and soil.
When reading about how to care for indoor flowers, you need to start with this. After all, this is the basis of plant life, which assumes that they can only grow in a microclimate that is comfortable for them. For the vast majority of plants, the microclimate they require coincides with comfortable conditions for humans. Therefore, people have the opportunity to grow them at home on their windowsill.
Watering
Just as a person cannot live without water, plants cannot live without watering. Therefore, caring for home flowers begins with choosing the right watering regime. In summer, it is necessary to provide abundant watering for plants, since on hot days the soil dries out faster. In winter, it can be saved and increased to 1 time per week.
For each plant it is necessary to set an individual watering regime. After all, the root system of one flower can be in dry soil, while another prefers to develop in moist soil. It is important to maintain a balance, since in very wet soil the roots can rot, and in too dry soil they will dry out.
Some plants need to be watered several times a day. For example, a plant with large leaves like hibiscus requires special attention to watering. It has to be watered several times a day. If we talk about bulbous flowers, they do not like strong moisture. When watering such plants, you need to use a watering can with a thin spout, directing the flow of water along the walls of the pot, since the bulb itself does not like having water poured directly on it.
It is advisable to select water for irrigation with the following parameters:
- settled;
- filtered;
- room temperature.
If it is too warm, the leaves may become dull and lose their stiffness, and cold water will cause spots to appear on the leaves.
By the appearance of plants, you can determine whether they need moisture or whether there is an excess of it in the soil. Drooping leaves that become very soft indicate a lack of water in the soil. If there is no water in the required amount, the flowers will fade. If there is an excess of water in the soil, it will be too wet and this will cause the root system and leaves to begin to rot. The plant will slow down its growth and mold may appear on the surface of the soil and on the plant itself.
If you find it difficult to choose the right watering regime for your plant, then it is better not to add water somewhere than to pour more water. You can water the flower more often, adding less water to the soil. This way, you will not make the soil too wet and will be able to calculate in time when the soil is dry and you need to add more water.
Temperature
Depending on the species, plants can grow between 13 and 30 degrees. For each temperature range is individual:
- Heat resistant. These include cacti and succulents that can withstand temperatures up to 30 degrees.
- Heat-loving. Among such plants, it is worth highlighting calathea, ludisia or dendrobium. These plants thrive in temperatures ranging from 16 to 29 degrees.
- Cold-resistant. Flowers such as fuchsia, cyclamen, primrose and agave are able to maintain their healthy state when the temperature drops to 5 degrees.
Most plants are able to grow well in a temperature range of 18-25 degrees. Therefore, if you choose any indoor plant in the store, be sure to ask the florist what its temperature regime is and whether you can maintain it at home.
Lighting and location
For active growth of plants and their full vital activity, it is imperative to provide them with good lighting. Most flowers love warm light. However, only a small number of plants are able to stand in direct sunlight. Therefore, pots are generally placed on the south and east side, where there is a lot of light, but care is taken to ensure that they are not exposed to direct rays of the sun. First of all, it is necessary to darken plants on hot summer days.
On the windowsills on the north side you need to place pots with flowers that love diffused light and can be in the shade for a long time. Such plants include:
- asparagus;
- chlorophytum;
- dracaena;
- ficus;
- spathiphyllum;
- Zamioculcas.
Also, do not forget that some plants standing on the windowsill for a long time may reach for the light with their branches. That's why sometimes they need to be returned.
Some plants need light so much that short daylight hours make it necessary to provide them with additional artificial lighting. For this you can use different phytolamps.
Choosing a pot and soil
The basis for the normal functioning of a houseplant is the soil and the pot. The soil must contain all the necessary micro- and macroelements for active plant growth. Therefore, for planting, you need to buy soil in specialized stores. For each indoor plant, the soil composition may be different. Therefore, read the packaging carefully to select the correct soil.
It is necessary to select a pot for a plant that is 2-3 cm larger than the diameter of its root system. As soon as the roots of the plant rest against the walls of the pot, it will be necessary to choose a larger pot model and transplant the plant into it. To prevent moisture from stagnating in the soil, a drainage system must be installed on the bottom of the pot.
Other rules of care
Some plants are able to absorb moisture not only through their roots, but also through their leaves. Therefore, the spraying process is important for such plants. This will provide them with additional moisture. This function must be performed at a time when the plant is in the shade. Otherwise, under direct sunlight, burns may remain on the leaves in those places where there were drops of water. After spraying, the plant should be in a dry and warm place so that pathogenic microflora does not begin to form on the surface of the leaves.
Indoor plants need to be trimmed from time to time and cleaned of dry leaves. Periodically, dust should be wiped off the leaves so as not to disrupt the process of photosynthesis. In order for plants to grow well, they need to be fed in a timely manner. You can purchase the necessary fertilizer with certain microelements in the store. It should be borne in mind that different plants require certain elements in different seasons. When a plant becomes cramped in a pot, it’s time to transplant it into a new pot of larger diameter.
