Houseplants Require Time

Before I had a child, my houseplants always looked beautiful. Now they still look nice, but I am unable to give them the care an attention they deserve. Many people, like myself have many houseplants. All together I have over 20 plants scattered around the house. Everything from philodendrons, Yucca's, Warneckei, Corn Plants, Madagascar Dragon Plants, Bird of Paradise, geraniums and the list continues. When you purchase your first houseplant you think, all I have to do is put it in a good spot and water it. Easy! Then if you're like me, you get another plant, and then another and the addiction begins.

Well now that I have the little one, I am really beginning to realize how much time my houseplants do take. Not only does watering them take a significant amount of time, but then trimming, repotting, and routine care. I had today off of work so when the little one went down for a nap, I told myself this time is for my other babies, my houseplants. My outdoor gardens need work too in order to get ready for winter, however the last couple days in Wisconsin have been totally out of the ordinary with high 80’s and extremely humid, so I'm avoiding the outdoors until tomorrow when it's supposed to be a normal October temperature, around 60.

One of the things I did today was give my heart shaped philodendron not just a haircut, an extreme makeover. On my post for the Heart shaped philodendron you can see my philodendron was huge, covering most of the sunroom walls. Well a lot of that growth was old and thus no new leaves were growing so I had 12 foot vines with 6 feet only having leaves. The plant is over 7 years old, but it was from my grandmother's funeral, so it's very sentimental, thus my lack of ambition to give it the much needed makeover. It is now only about 3 feet tall, with the longest vine only being about 4 feet. Of course all the other vines are in water now in order for them to root. Now new growth can grow from the bottom of the plant again instead of being choked out. My walls just seem so bare now though!

This is just one example, where time runs away from you and you are unable to do the things you need to in order to keep your houseplants healthy. So the moral of the story is, that houseplants are fairly low maintenance, but sometimes all of the other things in life can takeover, so be sure to allow yourself adequate time to work on your plants. Giving you not only cleaner air in your home, but the enjoyable atmosphere they provide.