8 hints for healthy houseplants

You can use a huge range of beautiful plants to create a bit of garden magic inside your home. Here are a few terrific tips to keep your plants happy.

Use bright windows to provide the perfect settings for a wonderful variety of foliage plants, grown for their beautiful leaves, as well as houseplants that produce colourful flowers.

• Before you buy a new houseplant, lift the leaves gently to check for scale, mealybugs, whiteflies or other pests. Then look under the pot for any critters.
• If the plant passes inspection, isolate it in a room away from your other houseplants for two weeks to allow time for hidden pests to appear.

This can benefit them in two ways.

• The carbon dioxide in your breath may energize their gas exchange cycles, and if there's enough natural light in their location for you to read by, you'll be assured that the plants are getting the minimum amount of light needed for good growth.

• Don't move plants around for short periods of time.

Sudden changes can cause droopy leaves, increase susceptibility to pests and diseases, and cause flowering plants to drop healthy-looking buds. As soon as a blooming plant shows signs of flowering, put it in a spot where it can stay.

• When you're deciding where to put a plant, keep in mind that south-facing windows receive much more light than north-facing ones.
• With east- or west-facing windows, observe the amounts of morning or afternoon sun they get before putting plants next to them.
• Also remember that plants with brightly coloured foliage need more light than others.

• Because the light is more intense in summer than in winter, you may need to move sun-sensitive plants from a west- to an east-facing window in the hot months.

Also keep in mind that plants can tolerate more sun in the house than out; an indoor sun lover may scorch if placed outside in bright summer light.

A half-turn of the pot every day or two will keep the growth of your houseplant even, since its foliage automatically bends toward the light.

Your plants won't like it!

• The ideal temperature to set the thermostat at is between 13° and 21°C, with cooler temperatures always being better than hotter.