Where are your house plants spending the summer? Are they still in the house waiting for a breath of fresh air? Or have you set them under a tree – out of sight, out of mind? Why not make the most of their decorative possibilities by using them on your terrace, porch or doorstep?
Give some thought, too, to what the location will do for them. If you place shade-doting plants like begonias and ferns in burning sunlight and sun-baskers like geraniums in shade, you’ll soon be forced to hide them away in a more congenial spot for rejuvenation. By using care in selecting both the plants and their location, you’ll find your house plants can be a year-round pleasure rather than just a winter hobby.
Group Plants By Requirements
Keep in mind that it’s best to group plants of the same requirements. Try to make them look as thought they belong together. For example, a collection of geraniums and coleus will look well in a group, but ferns and cactus are not well mated. Hairy-leaved plants such as African violets and gloxinias will do best sheltered from rain and hot sun. And all your plants will be happier with some wind protection.
When you first bring your plants outdoors, break them in gradually to the open air and sunlight. Even plants from a sunny south window will find the open sun more than they can take in one gulp. Put them first on a shaded porch; then gradually give a little more sun each day to those which are to go into sunny places.
Watch The Watering
Since potted plants dry rapidly outdoors, you can save yourself constant attention with a watering can by setting each clay pot within a nonporous container made of pottery, glass or plastic. If this is not possible, you can resort to double potting by placing the clay pot in a larger clay pot and filling the space between the two with wet peatmoss.
To keep the plants growing evenly, give each pot a quarter turn in the same direction every day. Prune off any straggly growth for a more compactly shaped plant. and for neat appearance and sanitation pick off any faded flowers or yellowing foliage. Watch out for insects, too, and spray or dust at least once a month to keep them away.
Apply Liquid Fertilizer
Every two weeks give an application of a soluble plant food (liquid fertilizer), according to manufacturer’s directions. To prevent burning, make sure the soil is a little moist before using the fertilizer.
Plants not reached by rain will need to be washed regularly to remove dust. Do this before the sun reaches the plants, and dry them in the shade so leaves will not be burned. Choose an hour early in the day for this so the foliage will dry before nightfall.
Only healthy, well-shaped plants should be kept on display. Others belong on the health farm – sunk into the ground under a tree up to the pot rim. Here regular attention throughout the summer involves watering, feeding, pruning and spraying to help make them presentable indoor specimens by fall.
This is a good time to start young house plants from cuttings for the winter window garden. When summer ends, many of your larger plants may have grown so robust in the great outdoors that they’ll be cramped in the space you had for them last year. Keep the young plants you grow from cuttings in the health farm under the tree until they are large enough for decoration.
A few weeks before frost is expected, start moving the plants into the house by gradual stages. First to a, sheltered porch, then into the house, preferably before the heating system is turned on. In this way they will become acclimated to indoor conditions gracefully without shedding leaves or flowers.
by R Peters
