House Plants Part 1:
Yes, yes, the holidays are here, in full force. TV commercials are sprinkled with falling snow, the lovely kind. Not the slushy, dirty kind or the cold, frozen kind that creates spinouts or fender benders. And certainly not any kind of snow we are likely to see here at Ocean Shores. Our holidays are more likely to be cold, yes, but wet and windy and rainy. It is a good time for Northwest gardeners to take a break – or at least to turn to a different kind of gardening.
I am a fair-weather gardener. Although I love our Ocean storms, I prefer to “experience” them from inside next to my warm and cheerful fireplace. I have planted my bulbs for next spring and my vegetable and flower beds have been cleaned up and put to rest. But flowers and plants can be so full of joy, just like the holidays. Perhaps that is why some of them are so popular this time of year.
You are familiar with many holiday plants. Most of them are tropical plants, grown indoors where they grace our windowsills and garden windows. With a little care and remembering the Golden Rule of Gardening (Right Plant, Right Place) holiday plants will do more than just decorate our home. Here are a few of the most common ones:
Christmas or Thanksgiving Cactus – Not a true cactus but a tropical succulent needing bright light, moderate water, and a warm and slightly humid room.
Amaryllis – a fast growing plant, great for kids, that needs bright indirect light and not a lot of water.
Anthurium – a tropical rainforest plant (whose flowers are altered leaves) that needs moderate indirect light, high humidity and lots of water.
Poinsettia – a finicky plant that needs bright indirect light, thorough watering, high humidity and slightly cooler temperatures.
Holiday house plants will thrive only if you provide for them the kind of environment they would have in their native home. As with any house plant you need to supply what each need. There are several things for you to consider: the life cycle of the plant, light, temperature, soil and drainage, water both for the soil and the surrounding air, and the nutritional needs of the plant.
Unlike most house plants, you are likely to keep holiday plants around just for the season. Most have been prepared in the nursery to be healthy and in bloom about now, whether that is their natural timing or not. Although we tend to treat them like one season annuals, since all of the above are in fact perennials, you might take on the challenge of keeping them throughout the year and getting them to bloom for next season.
From the descriptions above (and usually found on the plant tags) you can tell what the plant needs. Light is a major consideration. Think of this in terms of where you might place a plant. Where are your windows? Which direction does the sun come from? How strong is the light? How many hours of daylight can the plant survive on? The terms used above have specific meanings when you bring plants indoors during Northwest winters:
Direct – Unobstructed light coming from the south.
Bright Filtered –Light through a translucent curtain or an outside tree, from the south.
Bright but not Direct – Morning light from the east, or afternoon light from the west, or reflected from a bright surface.
Medium – From a north facing window or obstructed (perhaps from a building.)
Poor – In the shadows, reserved for shade loving plants, such as ferns.
Most plants need 12 to 16 hours of daylight to maintain active growth. Many rests during the winter. Holiday plants are often primed in the nursery to bloom for a short time during the winter holidays when we have only 8 to 10 hours of daylight. If you want to keep them you may need to consider adding artificial light.
Temperature is also a concern. Choose plants that prefer normal room temperature – about 65 to 75 degrees, not varying more than 5 or 10 degrees. Be careful of temperature shifts, especially in direct southern light during winter. On bright sunny days, even if it is cold outside, the inside of a window can heat up and literally cook a plant. Be sure to keep away from drafts and avoid being too close to heat sources.
In Part 2, we’ll consider soil and drainage, water for the soil and air humidity, and the nutritional needs of house plants. We will also take a look at some common non-holiday plants that tend to do well here.
This article was originally printed in The Ocean Observer, November 2018.
