Are you one of those people that feel they are completely unable to keep a plant alive? All your flowers wither after a month since you brought them home? Maybe it is time to think of it that way: It is not you who is wrong for the plants, maybe you simply had the wrong plants?
There are many house flowers that actually require very little attention.
One of them is the Red Edged Dracena, which is an outstandingly resistant plant. It likes sunny places but without the light shinning directly on it. The best temperature for it is 20 C, 15-18 C during the winter. It can be watered moderately once a week, again, during the winter even less often. It likes moist air.
Another one can be bamboo. It should be kept directly in the water (it should reach about an inch above the roots) and out of direct sunlight. If you change the water every two weeks, it shouldn’t require much more, perhaps some fertilizer every now and then.
Another plant very resilient to it’s owner’s lack of attention is Cthenenthe oppenheimiana. There are several kinds of it but they all have long, striped leaves with red underside. It is a perfect plant for smokers, as it doesn’t mind smoke. An interesting think is that it actually lets its owner know when it needs to be watered – its leaves are folding when it really needs water. Definitely helps those prone to forgetting.
If you have trouble with remembering to water your plants, you can set an alarm in your mobile phone to go off periodically, in the mornings, before you leave for work or afternoons, when you are already back home when it starts ringing.
Agree with yourself about specific days of the week for plant watering, for example once a week on Monday for plants that prefer dry ground, 2 or 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) for plants that need more water. It is good to mark each plant with a stick that has one, two or three water drops drawn on it – it will save you time you would spend wondering which plant should be watered on what day. A bottle with stale water should always be standing in plain sight, refilled immediately with fresh water after it is all used up.
A word of advice for succulent plants cultivators (you can recognize them by their meaty leaves) – it is good to put them into a bowl of cold water once a week, for the soil in the flowerpot and the plant itself to regain its necessary moisture level.
Once a year all flowers should be replanted into slightly bigger flowerpots (about 1,20 inch wider in diameter than the previous one), with addition of some fresh soil.
To prevent forgetting to fertilize the plants, you can buy special long-lasting universal fertilizers in the form of sticks that are inserted in the soil. Usually they work for three to six months and then are simply exchanged for fresh ones.
[photo: delphaber]
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