Sometimes, even the best of green thumbs can struggle, and that struggle becomes even more real when winter hits. Plants, naturally, have a harder time in the cold. It’s even getting colder where I live in Texas, which means I have to pay extra special attention to make sure everything stays alive and happy during the chillier months. Houseplants that would normally thrive in outdoor conditions need to be brought indoors, and even those that have lived their entire lives inside need extra help.
So, what can be done to make sure those houseplants make it through the coldest of months? Here are 13 secrets that may be able to help. I wish I had known these tips my first winter — I lost more than half of my newly bought plants because I was, quite honestly, not sure what I was doing. But if my mistakes and these tips can help you out, then it was time and effort well spent!
1. Bring Them Inside Bit by Bit
It might seem like an easier job just to bring all your houseplants in at once, but experts over at Country Living say it is best to transition them indoors over a series of two weeks or so, starting by moving from full-sun areas to full-shade, then bringing them in overnight and returning them outside during the day.
The slow transition helps so they don’t experience “plant shock,” instead allowing them to slowly get used to the different temperatures, humidity, and light. It’s similar to how we, as humans, take time to acclimate to different parts of the country or climates.
2. Use Dormancy to Your Advantage
Dormancy is a natural part of a plant’s cycle and not something you should try and stop. This is due to the combination of less sun and shorter days. You can fight that with grow lights, but it could be detrimental to the plants’ development.
Instead, as the creators over at The Sill say you should let your plants follow their natural cycle. They’ll save more energy and spring back healthier than ever as soon as the days start to lengthen again.
3. Cut Back on Fertilizing
This goes with the prior tip, but you don’t want your plants to focus their energy on growing during a time of the year when they should, technically, be resting. As shared on Better Homes and Gardens, cut back on fertilizing during the winter period to allow your plants to rest.
The less energy they spend on trying to absorb and put into growing new leaves, the more your plants will thank you.
4. Importance of Light Levels
There are many different ways you can take advantage of lights during the winter dormancy period, starting with continuing the trend of the earlier steps and allowing your plants to rest. Use natural light by placing your plants in areas that get a lot of it, such as in front of windows or on enclosed porches, to maintain their health. Or, if you want your plants to grow all winter, you can use grow lights.
Creators over at The Seasonal Home also say to look for signs of damage caused by too little light, such as yellowed leaves, slower growth, and leggy plants.
5. Reduce Watering
Another way to help make sure your plants make it through the winter is to cut back on watering. This might seem counterintuitive, but again, the focus is on making sure the plants make it through the winter and not waste energy.
Gardener’s World suggests watering most plants every two weeks or so. Some plants, like cacti or succulents, need even less than that.
6. Up the Humidity
If you’re worried about your plants not getting enough water, especially with cutting back on how much watering they are getting, you can also increase the humidity. You are also likely turning up the temperature in your house, which is another issue that can dry out your plants.
So pump up the humidity by putting them in a room with a humidifier or even moving them to a more humid area of your home like the bathroom or by the kitchen, as suggested by McDonough Landscaping, Inc.
7. Keep an Eye Out for Pests
If you thought winter’s chill meant less likelihood that pests would get to your plants, you’d be wrong. As shared by Martha Stewart, bugs often like to nestle in plants before winter sets in, so if you’re bringing them outside, they could already be harboring certain insects.
Make sure to check each plant thoroughly and clean off anything you might see. Pests can also be drawn to plants as warmer hiding spots, so checking them throughout the winter is also a good idea.
8. Maintain the Right Temps
Temperature is one of the biggest keys to keeping your houseplants happy and healthy all winter long. If you keep them near heat sources for too long, they can easily dry out. But if they are too far away, they’ll get chilled, which is yet another problem.
Certain plants are more tolerant of chill than others, so make sure you’re researching all of your plants ahead of time so you know where to place them in your home and what kinds of temperatures make them the happiest.
9. Grouping is Important
Houseplants don’t necessarily need to be in groups to get along like humans do, but grouping them up can benefit you nevertheless! This, according to Costa Farms, is because it helps with the humidity issue we mentioned earlier.
Having more houseplants grouped together lets them all build and share moisture between them, creating what is essentially a mini ecosystem. It means less work for you and happier plants all the way around.
10. Hold Off on Repotting
Winter might seem like the perfect time to get some work done and go ahead and repot those plants you’ve been meaning to get to but hold off if you can. Repotting can be particularly hard on houseplants – they have to reacclimate to the soil and the pot and might want to start growing larger – something you want to avoid.
11. Keep Everything Clean
Keeping things tidy around the home is typically a good idea, but it’s even better for our houseplants! Since plants “breathe” through their leaves, collected dust can be a real deal breaker for their health.
Mimic the way wind or a good watering would naturally blow off dust by taking a microfiber dusting cloth and gently brushing off the leaves every couple of weeks or whenever you see them getting a bit dusty.
12. Steer Clear of Drafts
Our plants don’t like the chill any more than we do, which means drafts coming in from windows or creaky corners can be a real pain for them to deal with. Not only can they make them colder — something many plants won’t tolerate — but they can also reduce that much-needed humidity and make them dry out even faster.
You can check for drafts by taking a bit of fuzz or even a thin sheet of paper and hanging it in front of where you suspect a draft to be. If it flutters or floats sideways, that’s a sure sign you need to move your plants!
13. Pick the Right Houseplants
Last but certainly not least, picking the right plants is going to be one of the best tools in your toolkit when it comes to keeping things alive over the winter. Certain plants, like orchids, are divas of the growing world and need a lot more care and attention than something like, say, a snake plant.
Country Living has a great list of low-light-loving houseplants that can thrive in conditions other plans will turn their noses up at, making them far easier to care for over the winter months.