It’s time to deconstruct your holiday decorations. Christmas china and tchotchkes go back in their boxes. But what do you do with those holiday plants?
Sometimes the problem is not keeping these alive, but wishing they would hurry up and die. Who wants poinsettias hanging around at Easter? Back when they were all ungainly and red as Rudolph’s reindeer nose, poinsettias were a joke, but breeders have worked such wonders that they have won the grudging respect of even plant snobs. Not only do poinsettias now come in an attractive variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, they are able to survive any amount of neglect. Unfortunately, they are still totally identified with Christmas, so unless you want to look like the horticultural equivalent of someone who never takes down their Christmas lights, you are forced to discard these as plants while they’re still healthy.
Do it. Even if you feel like a murderer. While you’re at it, throw out the paperwhite narcissus, which will never rebloom anyway, plus any other seasonal plants that have finished flowering or of which you are just plain tired. This is a really hard thing for gardeners to do. We are oriented toward nurturing. Air freight and mass marketing, however, have made houseplants so much cheaper than they used to be that it’s time to change our attitude.
We get a bouquet of flowers, it begins to look tatty, and we don’t think twice about throwing it out. But most of us feel a commitment to keep houseplants alive, when they can really be viewed as disposable. Why run a hospital ward, trying to nurse these things along for another year?
If you do want to try to have a long-term relationship with holiday plants, try thinking of your window sills as pieces of real estate. What counts for the plants is location, location, location.
You can have a black thumb but a cool house with a perfect draft-free nook in a south-facing window and even finicky plants will thrive. Or you can be attentive as an Earth mother but live in a house with dark windows and forced-air heat and watch your houseplants languish from lack of light and humidity. So experiment by trying plants in various windows to find the magic nook.
South-facing windows get the most light and are the best location for most flowering plants, succulents, bromeliads, and herbs. Begonias and gloxinias like east- or west-facing windows. Peace lilies and many foliage plants such as ivy, ficus, and ferns will tolerate north light.
Orchids do best in an east-facing window. Or keep them a couple of feet from a south window to lessen the strength of the sun’s rays. Moth orchids, called phalaenopsis (and pronounced fay-le-an-op-sis), are the easiest and longest-blooming type. Tropical lady slippers, or paphiopedilum (paf-e-o-ped-duh-lum) orchids, are less reliable rebloomers but have many fans because of their incredible markings. Orchids don’t like hot or cold drafts, so don’t put them near the radiator or a door because that might blast the buds.
Newly purchased flowering plants have been prepped to bloom in a well-lit greenhouse, but because light levels are low in New England homes in winter, there are relatively few flowering plants that will put on a good repeat performance next year if you keep them. You can get amaryllis, orchids, azaleas, cyclamen, gloxinias, and kalanchoes to rebloom with some effort and luck. Christmas cactus and peace lily are relatively easy rebloomers.
People are discovering that colorful foliage plants require much less light than flowers to thrive, and can more easily serve the same purpose of brightening up a home in January and February.
Fittonia, draceana, dieffenbachia, croton, and calathea are among the new tropical plants that have gained intensified leaf colors and patterns at the hands of European breeders.
Not all foliage plants are easy. Rosemary and other herbs need a lot of light but are worth pampering until spring because you can harvest sprigs for winter cooking when fresh herbs are expensive, and plant them outside in May.
Ferns need humidity and don’t do well in homes in the winter. They won’t die. They just won’t grow happily until spring comes. A home humidifier will help dramatically, or you can plant them in a terrarium.
The average New England home in winter is as dry as the Kalahari Desert. Plants that can stand this include cactus, peace lilies, jade plants, kalanchoe, and ficus. Still, if your cat won’t let you pet her because of the static shocks, you probably should buy a humidifier and run it at night.
An alternative for humidifying houseplant is to place them on saucers or trays of pebbles. Every houseplant needs a saucer to catch runoff from the hole in the bottom of the pot when you water, but some people make the mistake of letting the extra water stay in the saucer, which means the roots in the bottom of the pot are sitting under water and will rot. Filling the saucer with pebbles solves two problems. You don’t have to dump the water out of the saucer after each watering (as long as it doesn’t rise to level of the bottom of the pot), and that extra water creates a microclimate of higher humidity around the plant as it evaporates. Any kind of pebbles will do.
Indoor varieties of azaleas need a lot of water. But you can keep them going for years. Put them outside in the summer, then bring them back indoors in the fall because they are not hardy, and they’ll flower again. Fertilize them every two to three weeks when they’re not flowering. They need a lot of light.
Rex begonias have multi-colored leaves and make an undemanding, long-term houseplant. They like bright light but not direct sunlight. The flowering begonias are Reiger begonias, and those, you treat like an annual. They will bloom for nine months. Keep the old flowers picked off and discard them when they stop blooming.
Cyclamen and gloxinias should be kept slightly moist in a cool room. The trick is that they need a dormant period. They bloom October to May. Then they’re green during the summer. Stop watering them the first of August and let them die back and place them in a cellar for two months of rest. Then bring them back up, take them out of the pots, shake off the old soil, repot and water. Then don’t water again until they sprout.
Amaryllis will also rebloom after a dormant period. They usually start off with one flower stalk and a few blossoms, but you can encourage a second stalk by cutting off each flower as it finishes. Then cut off the entire stalk when all the blooms have finished. Water it once a week and feed it with a houseplant fertilizer such as Peter’s 20-20-20 water soluble fertilizer every other time you water it for two or three months. Don’t keep it too wet or it will rot the bulb. While it’s blooming, put it wherever you want to show it off, but when it finishes blooming, but it in a sunny window. The leaves will get strappy. Cut them off when they turn yellow. Put it outdoors in the shade in late May and water it once in a while. Bring it inside in early fall and repot the bulb in the same pot with fresh potting medium, so that one-third of the bulbs stick out above the new potting soil. If it’s rested outdoors enough, you don’t need a dormant period indoors. Fertilize it twice a month and it may rebloom in January or February.
And if it doesn’t, take it on a one-way trip to the compost pile.
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