Potting Houseplants

Nature can be the best healer. Unfortunately, the amount of nature that we interact with on a daily basis continues to decrease. However, potted house plants can be a great way to bring nature into your home. In addition to the health benefits of having live plants in your home, they can also lend a hand in decorating a room. When it comes to decorating, the pot is just as important as the plant. Once you have decided on the correct pot and plant combination, the rest of the process is simple. Following a few easy steps can ensure your plant continues to flourish and thrive in its new home.

Step One: Select Your Plant’s New Home

Choosing the right pot for your plant can be difficult, not because your options are limited but because they are nearly limitless! Nearly anything can be used as long as the item you choose is large enough for the roots of your plant and able to hold soil and water. Once you have decided on a pot, you can begin the steps to correctly transplanting the plant into it.

Step Two: Provide Proper Drainage

The pot you choose must be able to drain correctly. If it does not have drainage holes in the bottom of it, you will need to create your own. A power drill can be the easiest method of drilling holes in the bottom of your planter, just make sure you use the correct drill bit for the material.

Step Three: Place a Tray Underneath Your Plant

Remember to place a tray or plate underneath your planter to catch the excess water that drains from your plant when you water it. If the pot you choose is too deep, packing peanuts or broken pieces of styrofoam can be used to fill the extra space below the plant instead of soil. The packing peanuts or styrofoam also provide additional drainage for your plant, helping to prevent root rot.

Step Four: Prepare Your Plant

Once your pot is prepped for your plant, you need to prep your plant for the pot. Loosen the roots of your plant as best you can so they can spread and fill the new container and knock as much of the old dirt off the base of the plant. The new potting soil you add to your plant will have more nutrients in it than the old dirt surrounding your plant’s base. If your plant is tall or top-heavy, you may need to tie a stake to your plant. Loosely tie the stake to the plant in multiple places along the trunk before placing the plant in the pot.

Step Five: Add the Finishing Touches

Next, have your pot and plant ready to go, place the base of the plant in the pot and fill the rest of the space with potting soil. Moss, gravel, or stones can be used to add a finishing touch to your planter. In fact, it hides the soil and gives your planter a cleaner appearance. It also helps prevent the soil from drying out as quickly between watering.

Whether you are feeling detached from nature or simply need an accent piece for your home, a potted plant can be the perfect addition. Creating the ideal planter and plant combo is a simple task, but it must be done correctly in order to keep your new houseplant alive and healthy.

What have you used as a planter in your home? We would love to hear your clever ideas below in the comment section and remember to subscribe!

Best Plants to Improve Home Air Quality

Our homes are our safe havens and refuge. They are the spot we can retreat from the rest of the chaotic world; therefore, having our homes be a place of comfort and relaxation is essential, but we also need to consider our health. Air quality is an important attribute that correlates directly with our health. You do not want to go home to a house full of airborne allergens and pollutants after a long day of work. Luckily, having clean air can be as easy as buying some plants for your home. Plants give off oxygen and can help purify your breathing air. Selecting the right plants is ideal for having the best atmosphere. Here are three high-quality plants that can help create better air quality in your home:

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera is a very versatile plant. It can help remove volatile organic compound pollutants from the air while being beautiful. In fact, these pollutants are unwanted chemicals that are in the air in our homes, so it is important to have them removed. Aloe Vera also can easily increase oxygen levels while minimalizing carbon dioxide in your home. Having a plant like Aloe Vera is great because it is easy to keep alive and low-maintenance.

Chinese Evergreen

Chinese evergreen is a beautiful and colorful plant. It is also low-maintenance and can be watered as little as once a week while growing in low-light atmospheres. Chinese evergreen is known to be an excellent air-purifying plant. Chinese evergreens are great for pulling unwanted toxins from the air. This is an eco-friendly solution to purifying the air around your home or office.

English Ivy

Another option to consider is English Ivy. Typically, hung in baskets, these house plants can grow quite easily in semi-shady atmospheres. English ivy can cleanse benzene, formaldehyde, xylene, and toluene from the air. These solvents can be dangerous to our health. Studies have also proven that English Ivy reduces the chances of mold in your home.

Your air quality should never be overlooked. Investing in some or all of these plants is a significant, proactive step in freshening up your home. Plants have many benefits in enhancing your atmosphere. Make sure you facilitate them!

The Best Large Trees for Interiors

We have some incredible back-to-nature ideas to help liven up your space and make your home look larger! In fact, you can simply introduce a couple of large tree houseplants to the decor. Just make sure you buy young plants so they can adapt to the surroundings of your home. Also, make sure your ceilings are tall enough to support some trees that will grow quite tall. Live house plants help with removing toxins from the air, bringing nature inside, and are amazing topics of conversations! We hope our following list will help you jump on the bandwagon. Remember, it all starts with just one tree house plant!

Parlour Palm

Let us start with the oh-so-familiar, Parlour Palm. We recommend it because they are inexpensive and will grow tall indoors. The palm has long tropical palms like sprouts coming off the center stalk. To be happy, the palm needs low light with lots of water.

Dragon Tree

Dragon trees can grow well over ten feet. They will grow tall, but the height will not be exactly straight. The tree will have various sprouts from the stalk. Dragon trees need a medium amount to a lot of indirect light and water approximately once a week. A tip is that if the leaves are falling off the plant, it is not getting enough sunlight.

Rubber Tree

Rubber trees have large dark green, glossy leaves and will grow to five or six feet in height. Make sure for maintenance purposes that you wipe the leaves off weekly to keep them beautiful and healthy. Rubber trees need medium indirect light and water approximately once a week or when soil is dry.

Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree

These broadleaf trees are a little high maintenance, but they are gorgeous and can grow to over ten feet tall. They need bright indirect sunlight, water a couple of times per week. Also, they like being left where they are thriving, so do not move around, or their leaves will drop!

Triangle Ficus Tree

This ficus tree has triangular leaves and grows in an open, airy way, so make sure you have plenty of diameter for the tree. It is a very hardy and easy to grow plant compared to the Fiddle Leaf Fig tree. It needs bright light, humidity, and do not let it dry out.

We would love to hear which tree or trees you chose in the comment section. Happy planting!