During the short days of winter, houseplants in our small but sunny front room get lavished with appreciation and attention.  It’s a great place to read and shake off cabin fever.  Spring arrives in our front room on any sunny winter day.  Many are small flowering houseplants that add some cheer to the greenery.

One of my favorites for a touch of color is primrose polyanthus.  Primrose come in a wide variety of flower colors.  Once they finish flowering, snip off the spent blooms.  Keep them lightly moist, and in late May or early June, transplant them into a part shade flowerbed outdoors.  They are hardy to -35° and can easily make it through our winters and return for many years. 

If you keep your home on the cool side, you can still enjoy flowers if you choose cyclamen.  Cyclamen are happiest at temperatures well below 70° and the flowers last weeks.  Perfect for a houseplant, don’t you think?

Another reliable flowering houseplant is the kalanchoe.Kalanchoe’s flowers last a long, long time if you don’t overwater.  In the home, kalanchoe needs a sunny south-facing window to thrive.  If you move it outside in the summer, it will need a little protection from strong afternoon sun.  It isn’t winter hardy here in zone 5, but it will flower regularly in a summer bed or patio planter.  If you rescue kalanchoe before frost in fall, it will provide more flowers to enjoy inside
every winter.

Kalanchoe.

In “light challenged” rooms, you’ll want to seek out plants that can thrive in low light.  Two champions for low light are Heartleaf Philodendron and Pothos.  Heart leafed Philodendron and Pothos are both vines, so they are popular in hanging baskets.  They can both be attached to a trellis and grown in an upright fashion.  Neither needs any direct sun at all and can thrive even across the room from the nearest window. 

Philodendron and Pothos.

Over the years, I’ve learned that the #1 way that folks kill their houseplants is by drowning them.  Often we’ll put a saucer under a plant to keep water from ruining our floors or furniture.  These saucers don’t do the plants any good.  If you leave a plant standing in a saucer of water (as pictured above) overnight, you just drowned about 30 percent of the roots.  Most plants tolerate dryness better than sogginess.  Remember, plants “breathe” with their roots as well as their leaves.  If air in the soil is constantly displaced with water, they drown.  Think of it this way:  you can survive a lot longer without a drink of water than you can under water without any air.  Roots that are a little dehydrated can bounce right back, but drowned roots are dead forever.  The best care is less care when it comes to houseplants.   

THANKS FOR THE READ!