Keeping your houseplants healthy during winter months may seem difficult. Light from windows is reduced, days are shorter and humidity may be lower due to heating. But by making a few changes, you can help keep your houseplants healthy.

Keeping things light

In winter, your plants receive sunlight for less time and in less intensity. Houseplants native to rainforests that are used to lower light will be fine with that, but most plants need more light. Try to move your plants near a brighter window (S/SW exposure) to get them more sunlight.

If you have no brighter windows (due to shade trees or apartment living), you might want to consider the purchase of plant lamps that are designed to provide the full spectrum light your plants need. They can be mounted under shelves, over plants or on specially-designed plant stands. Leave them on about eight hours a day, and they'll give your plants the light they need.

You can also use cool fluorescent bulbs as close as 6 inches from the top of plants.

Temperature

Most plants do not do well when subjected to rapid fluctuations in temperature. Keep them away from hot air sources and cold drafts alike. Run ceiling fans on low if the house is closed up. Fans break up stagnant air; that's healthier for both you and your plants.

Humidity

Some symptoms of low humidity are brown leaf tips and wilting. Low humidity makes your plants work harder to get moisture from the air and soil, as well as keep what they have inside.

One way to give your plants some extra humidity is to mist them two or three times a day. The water will evaporate off the leaves and provide a cloud of higher humidity around the plant. For a less labor-intensive method, put a layer of pebbles in the bottom of a tray and fill the tray with just enough water to cover the bottom of the tray (below the top of the pebbles). Place potted plants in the tray.

Other Tips

Fertilizing should be done less often for most plants in winter.

Give your plants a good washing. Dirt, dust, grease, and other particles can settle on leaves. Dirty leaves can't absorb as much sunlight as clean ones. Gently wipe clean the leaves with a soft sponge or cloth dipped in plain water. Sturdier plants can even be given a quick shower in the bathroom with tepid water.

One of the most spectacular winter blooming plants is the Florist's Cineraria (Pericallis x hybrida). What makes these plants so special is that the deep green, slightly lobed leaves of these colorful beauties are often completely covered by immense clusters of velvety daisy-like flowers for their entire growing season.

These bright and bushy plants have an amazing kick of contrasting colors. The blossoms may be white, pink, red, blue, purple or violet, with blue or white centers and rings of contrasting colors that create a rainbow of hues for any sunny windowsill.

These beautiful plants are native to the Canary Islands off the coast of Portugal. Annuals that can bloom indoors from as early as December to as late as May, they are usually discarded after their blooming season is over. But few plants can beat these beauties for color while they are doing their thing.

Cinerarias do best in a bright room or sunny windowsill. They are fairly thirsty plants, due to the large volume of flowers they produce, and like to be kept moist (but not wet) at all times. They need only occasional feeding while in bloom, with a water soluble plant food.

So, if you need a little help shaking off the doldrums of winter, consider purchasing some cinerarias to brighten up your home today!

A garden can have many uses besides just providing beauty to a home. It can also provide a safe haven for birds to eat and have shelter, and provide one with hours of bird-watching entertainment.

Birds are naturally drawn to trees and shrubs because these plants provide a place to hide from their enemies, a place to nest and roost, a place to get a meal, and a place to rest. The key is having a mix of trees and shrubs that are either evergreen or bear fruit, nuts, berries or cones.

By providing a variety of different trees and shrubs, you will attract a greater variety of birds to your yard. Some can provide food; others will provide shelter. Birds have various individual tastes, so if you provide a variety of food sources, a greater number will decide your garden would be a nice place to visit or even live.

It helps to have a diverse variety of heights, foliage types and densities. Consider planting bushes in groups, making a special effort to be strategic in locations that will receive less human traffic. Birds need cover to hide from their enemies and to stay safe during cold or stormy weather. Dense evergreens can actually shelter birds and insulate them from winds. In summer these same trees and plants will provide protection from the sun and heat, as well as a place to nest.

It helps to learn about which birds actually live in or migrate annually to and from your area. Create a list of birds and then find out their favorite food and type of nesting place. We have many great plants to provide birds food and shelter. (Many plants produce food for birds in the fall season.) So come in and visit us soon. Our staff of nursery professionals will be happy to help you plan a garden that is not only beautiful, but one that will also keep the local bird population happy!

In 1875, Charles Darwin wrote the seminal treatise on carnivorous plants; ironically, botanists, including Linnaeus, had previously rejected the idea. Darwin recognized that carnivorous plants adapted to growth in places where the soil was thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, by trapping and consuming insects.

But petunias? While they have sticky hairs that can capture insects, they probably don’t have the ability to digest the trapped insects, or to absorb the breakdown products. Tomato and potato plants also have fine hairs that catch and kill some small insects, which then fall to the ground, degrading into nourishment for the plant. This is known as “passive carnivory” and is one part of a sliding scale of carnivorous activity in the plant world.

The seductive title of Professor Chase et al’s paper, “Murderous plants: Victorian Gothic, Darwin and Modern Insights into Vegetable Carnivory” would have us look beyond the commonly accepted carnivorous plants, which employ five basic trapping mechanisms. These are pitfall traps that trap prey in a rolled leaf containing digestive enzymes; flypaper traps that use a sticky mucilage; snap traps that utilize rapid leaf movements to capture their prey; bladder traps which generate an internal “vacuum” that sucks in prey; and lobster-pot traps that have inward-pointing hairs forcing prey to move towards a digestive organ. The degree of activity or passivity depends on whether the plant incorporates movement to aid in the capture of prey.

Plants commonly considered to be carnivorous are North American pitcher plants which belong to the genus Sarracenia and which form upright, tubular leaves; the sundew plant (Drosera capensis) which is covered with dense, sticky hairs that trap the prey which will then be enzymatically digested and absorbed by the plant; and its relative, the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula, Droseraceae) which employs a snap trap formed by hinged leaves fringed with stiff hairs. As the leaf blade closes, it traps the insect behind the intermeshed hairs.

For gardeners, it’s fun to delve deeper into the science of botany. The next time you’re planting six-packs of petunias in your window boxes, best to not turn your back on them.

Soil pH indicates how acid or alkaline a soil is. In technical terms, it is a logarithmic function of the hydrogen ion concentration [H+]: pH = -log [H+]. Got all that?

In simpler terms, a pH of 7.0 is neutral. Below that number is acidic, above that number is alkaline. The scale is progressive too. A pH of 6.0 is ten times more acid than a pH of 7.0; a pH of 5.0 is 100 times more acid than a pH of 7.0, and so on.

You can test your soil pH with a simple pH test kit.

• To modify or correct acidic soils you need to apply lime.
• To modify or correct alkaline soils you need to apply soil sulfur or aluminum sulfate.

Most plants prefer soil slightly on the acidic side of 6. Use a lower pH for acid-loving plants like blueberries, azaleas, and ferns.