How To Choose Your First House Plant

When plant shopping for the first time, I recommend going in your local plant shop with phone in hand ready to do research! Even if you opt to order online, find a plant you  like, follow the steps below before you hit the purchase button.

 

Step 1: Compare Your Home & Plant’s Needs

The very first thing to do before you purchase a plant is to compare what your plant may need and what you can offer. Particularly, you want to know what is your plant’s light needs and the most light your house can offer. It easier to peruse the nursery (or online) and look at plant requirements as your browse.

Step 2: Soil and Pot

Most likely, you’ll need to repot your new plant. This is the fun part! While your googling (or asking our facebook group) your plant needs, look up what type of soil that particular plant needs or like. Most plants don’t need any special potting soil, but for example – succulents and cactus prefer cactus soil so it’s always safe to make your aware of the importance of soil. In reference to pots/planters, this part is always the best to me because I love matching foliage with complimenting decor. Nonetheless, if you choose to go with a particular theme or just pick pots as you go, all planters must have DRAINAGE. Drainage holes are just holes at the bottom of the planter (some plastic pots have places where you can literally push and cut in holes fyi) . They allow for excess water to drain out of the pot and cause your soil and roots to become waterlogged (another big word for sitting in standing water). This is super important because the number one cause of first plant deaths are ——- overwatering. Once you realize that your plant is suffering for being over watered, it is typically too late so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Some of the cutest planters (planters are the same thing as pots if you haven’t noticed) don’t have drainage. I recommend newbies to avoid these type of pots at all cost, but if you feel that you MUST have that pot (I get it), here is a hack.

• Place your new plant in a nursery pot/plastic pot.
• Place small pebbles at the bottom of the cute pot with no drainage.
• Place you plant that is in a plastic nursery pot INSIDE of your cute pot.
• The pebbles act as a barrier between your plant and excess water. After 30 minutes, always drain out the excess water from your no drainage pot.

After getting your new plant adjusted to it new planter, give a deep watering and place it in it new location- be mindful to place it in an area that compliments it light needs. Read More: How To Choose The Best Planter For Your Plant

Step 3: Maintain

It this point, you are basically a plant parent. Plant maintenance includes watching for signs of pest, neglect, over watering etc. You can start with the following:

• Check under leaves for pest and along the stem
• Taking notice of any changes in the past few days in leaf color, position, and/or new growth
• Check soil for wetness and dryness. Be mindful for plants sitting in soggy soil for long periods of time (4+ days) or plants completely dried out. Adjust watering based on such.
• Look for roots growing out the bottom of the pot – indication that it needs to be repotted.
• Check leaves for discoloration

Tips

I’m a huge advocate of everyone starting off small when they start collecting plants. Start with one type of plant – tropical, cacti, succulents etc, master caring for it, and move on to another type of plant. It can we very intimidating trying to balance and learn how to care for pothos, cacti, tropical plants such as calatheas all at once. It’s a task to manage with years of experience so for a newbie, it can be discouraging. Take your time, enjoy the journey, and get your plant on. Also, read books. If you’re a book lover, why not enjoy reading how to be a better plant parent.