How to care for your houseplants in winter

For me especially as I suffer from seasonal affective disorder houseplants are the lifesaver that get me through from autumn until the following spring. They’re like your outside garden but indoors and I love the fact that they’re reliant on my care and love to get them through the winter, so in reality the love I give them is returned in that their beauty sustains me and together we get each other through winter, it’s a kind of seasonal symbiosis. 

Whether plant or human we all need to help to get us through nature’s toughest time of year and there’s different measures we can take to achieve this, but today it’s not about me it’s about my houseplants, what do they need to get them through the coldest, darkest most dormant time of the year. 

One of the most important factors for houseplants in winter is light levels, many of our beloved houseplants come from tropical areas of the world and are used to consistent high light levels not the huge fluctuations we have between midsummer and midwinter, so it’s really important to ensure your houseplants have the maximum amount of weak winter light as possible. 

There’s two main ways to do this, one is obvious which is to move your plants as near to windows as possible whilst making sure they’re not going to be subject to cold draughts and big daytime and nighttime temperature differences, the other is to ensure your houseplants can absorb the maximum light available.

If the leaves of your plants are dirty or covered in dust this can dramatically affect the amount of already low light that their leaves can absorb and therefore impact photosynthesis and the whole health of the plant. 

For plants with many leaves you can literally give them a shower, making sure the water is tepid and the shower pressure not too aggressive, also check there are drainage holes in the pot so you don’t drown the plant! For plants with larger leaves just clean them gently with a damp, soft cloth, and if you have cacti for example then gently brush them up and down with a feather duster. Removing dust and dirt will allow your plants to see the light of day and help them to maintain maximum vigour during the difficult season. One thing to avoid at all costs are artificial leaf shining sprays, these just cover the surface of the leaf with chemicals that just seal in the dirt, this never happens in nature so why do it in your home! 

Another critical consideration in winter is how much water to give your houseplants and the answer is simple, just enough to see them through, too much and the root systems will rot and the plant will collapse and die! More plants are killed by over watering than under watering, houseplants can survive periods of being very dry by shedding leaves or stopping their growth but if the pot is full to the top with water they can’t pump it out they’ll just drown! So the answer is to let the compost dry out between watering and then to add just enough water to moisten the compost, you can by watering sensors for your houseplants that will tell you when to and when not to water your plants if you’re really unsure. 

When it comes to feeding your houseplants in winter then as with the watering this can be much reduced to perhaps every four to six weeks, your houseplants are in slow mode this time of year and just don’t need too much feeding. 

Be it in summer or winter houseplants are always vulnerable to pests and the most common are red spider, mealy bug and scale insect and all of these survive by sucking the sap out of the leaves and stems of your plants. 

Red spider tend to live on the underside of leaves and create tiny, silvery webs with affected leaves eventually looking yellow and mottled, mealy bug leave fluffy cottonwool like deposits on leaves and stems and scale insects are raised round domes again found on leaves and stems. Sometimes some of these pests can leave a sticky, syrupy deposit on your plants known as honeydew that they secrete from their rear end. All of these pests can be removed manually or using a household insecticide, red spider hate high humidity so spray affected plants every day with warm water, mealy bug and scale insects can be scrapped off with cotton buds, you just need to be persistent. 

Hopefully you’ve found some tips and tricks here to keep your houseplants and therefore yourself happy through winter until the glory of spring returns.