A dumb guide for people who cannot keep a plant alive longer than a week, written by someone who has no clue either but owns a lot of plants. Here is what you can expect from this post:
Why should I bother to get a plant?
Do I really have to water them?
What do you mean plants need light?
Leaves need your attention.
Earth and oh no the plant grew!
Help I think my plant just died.
Some recommendations. Plants and prices.
I hope this is helpful! I put in some pictures ^^ The whole text is under the cut!
1) Why should I bother to get a plant?
Yes, why bother? For me, plants are pretty and that is reason enough, but there are actually more reasons why this might be a good room-mate for you! Firstly, plants and nature are known to reduce stress. This may feel obvious to some, but the effect of indoor plants are even greater, as it is very evident that plants improve emotional and mental well-being, as well as physical. As the list of its benefits is too long to summarize here, here is the article to a recent study that narrows past research down: An Update of the Literature Supporting the Well-Being Benefits of Plants: A Review of the Emotional and Mental Health Benefits of Plants – Charles Hall; Melinda Knuth – Journal of Environmental Horticulture (2019. I will put the link in the replies so tumblr doesn’t blacklists me.
Another great aspect of plants is that you can train yourself to take care of a living being and handling responsibility. For example, if you were to consider getting a dog, or fish, but are new to the field of keeping others alive, a plant may be a good start for you to see if you can do that task. Although, in my opinion, plants have one great disadvantage to most animals: They don’t bark to let you know that they’re thirsty. Though, maybe, this may be even more reason for you to get a plant, so that you can train yourself to think of this responsibility unprompted and find a structure.
Next to being very pretty, maybe even smelling really good, plants are also good for the climate! Not only do you help yourself, but also the environment. Plants create oxygen and that’s pretty neat! Getting a plant isn’t only beneficial to you, but to the whole world, basically, even if it is only on a small scale.
So are you convinced to get a plant now? Great, then let’s look at where to start!
2) Do I really have to water them?
Ah yes. So many plants. Killing plants in the past, you may think I will go for a cactus or succulent – and that’s not at all a bad thought! But let’s dive into this matter a little more.
There are very different kinds of plants, and some are really hard to take care of, some are much easier to take care of. Most of this is tied to how you need to water them.
Generally, there are different kinds of plants all over, and no matter for what kind of plant you want to go for, I highly suggest that you google it before. When you get a plant you should know how to take care of it as this varies individually quite a lot. But generally speaking, too little water and too much water can kill a plant equally. So if you had a plant in the past and wondered why it died although you watered it so much – that might have been the reason. The reason is very simple too and it is tied to the plant’s roots. If the roots stand in the water for too long they start to rot, and then there is no turning back. How long a plant can survive in water depends on the plant.
If you have found yourself with a fellow that can absolutely not stand water on the roots (again, best would be to google your plant to find this out), you can put some small stones at the bottom of the pot, so that the water that is too much doesn’t actually reach the plant’s roots.
Alternatively (that’s what I do), you can take the plant out of the pot and put it into the sink, fill it for water, let it simmer for 20 minutes.
There are some more things you should take care of though:
the water should be room temperature, not too hot or too cold
depending on the season, the plant might need much more water or way less, especially when it stands close to a heater in winter or close to the window in summer, or when it is blooming!
→ this is why schedules often don’t work!
Ideally, just put your hand in the soil and look if it’s wet or not. If it is wet, don’t water the plant, if it’s basically dry as sand, go water it.
Yes, succulents and cacti often don’t need as much water, in that way they might be good first plants. But this is not a general rule among all succulents and they can be more complicated than it looks. More to that topic at the end when I give some recommendations.
The best thing, I say it again, is to google your plant and check how much water it actually needs. This way you make sure to not kill it with too much or too little love.
3) What do you mean plants need light?
This is an extra point, because the light aspect is really important, but the consensus is the same as for water. Depending on your plant it may need more or less light. I actually had a plant that nearly died once because it stood in a place that was too dark o(〒﹏〒)o
So go and google your plants and check how much light it needs! If it needs a lot of light, placing it in the window is a good idea (this applies to most succulents and cacti), if it doesn’t want that much light, find the darkest corner in your room!
4) Leaves need your attention.
Those green thingies on the plant are the leaves and they are the most vital part right with those roots. For the plants to be happy, it needs water (check), light (check), and oxygen. What? But I thought plants make oxygen?! Yes, but that’s basically just trash we should be more thankful for. First and foremost a plant needs to breathe as well and that’s just as every living being by taking oxygen and turning it into CO2. Just in case you weren’t aware. For a plant to breathe, it needs clean leaves, so every once in a while you should check the leaves and maybe get a damp cloth and wipe the dust off. You can also get a spray thingy and cover it with some water, but not every plant likes that, so google first if your plant of choice likes wet leaves!
Even if this is a crucial part of taking care of a plant, be careful because plants generally do not like to be touched. Be very gentle when you take care of the leaves!
Now you may have found a brown leaf. Cut it off. Sometimes leaves get brown, it happens, it’s not a big deal. Just cut it off so that your plant doesn’t waste strength on that part anymore! This also goes for the blooming. When your plant finished blooming and wilts, you may want to get rid of the crunchy bloom. (Although, you guessed it, this may vary with the plant, so google before you cut off dead bloom.)
5) Soil and oh no the plant grew!
So your plant also needs soil. You can’t really make many mistakes with that, but when you get a plant, check which kind of soil it wants. Some fancyTM plants want fancyTM soil, orchids, for example. Technically, soil is what may need fertilizer as well, but I have never used fertilizer in my life, ever. So I can’t give advice on that. My plants are still alive though, so I assume it’s just a neat extra, not a thing you have to have.
Where it becomes tricky, is when your plant grew and needs a bigger pot. When the roots look out of the pot, it’s time to get a bigger one. The rule of thumb is to get it one size bigger (a finger should fit between both pots if you put the smaller one in the bigger one).
This is one of my plants I really should get a new pot for!!
6) Help I think my plant just died?!
Ah, I am sorry! But depending on the plant, it might still be able to be saved! If it’s still alive and green close to the soil, just cut it down! All the dead parts go away, and it might grow new, a lot of plants are really resilient. Even if it doesn’t have any leaves any more, it doesn’t mean it’s gone for good, as plants store most of their nutrients not in the leaves but in the trunk and roots (which is the reason why the plant definitely can’t be saved once the roots start to rot from too much water!). This is my plant Monika that stood in a too dark place and nearly died, but as you can see it started to grow new baby leaves! (You got this Monika!)
7) Some recommendations. Plants and prices.
So which plant should you get yourself? That really depends on your taste! Succulents are pretty and relatively easy to take care of, so this might be a good start. However, I would not recommend an Aloe Vera, those are a bit tricky in contrast and need a lot of water. There's an awesome post somewhere on here that works as a guide on how to choose a plant, but I couldn't find it for the life of me. But generally, if you’re not that good with plants, I would suggest to get a forgiving plant. This means that just because you forgot to water it once, it doesn’t die at once.
Also, if you get a small and cheap plant, it needs much more attention (probably) and therefore is harder to take care of, if you get a bigger one, it might be more expensive, but easier to take care of. Also, if a plant is expensive, it’s probably not a beginner’s plant. That is often a sign that it grows very slow or is very hard to keep a live, probably the latter. This is also why bigger succulents are very pricey, they grow super slow! I would suggest that you look at some plants and get a bigger one that is cheap in contrast. That will probably mean that it is easy to take care of!
My favourite one is probably this one, the peace lily (spathiphyllum). When it needs water it lets its leaves down, and if I water it then they go straight back up. There’s nothing you can really do wrong with it. Blooms all the time, slight good smell. 10/10 would recommend.
This one is a classy one, the gum tree (ficus elastica). When I forget to water it it loses a leaf, which is a bit sad but once it gets watered correctly, it grows many more. Other than that, it’s a bit boring and grows very slow. 8/10 would recommend.
This one is super neat, the philodendron, which basically translates to tree friend! This one climbs and has a lot of air roots since it usually grows in other trees. Mine creeps over my desk and bookshelf. Very forgiving for neglect, grows a lot! 10/10 would recommend!
Succulents, they come in all shapes and sizes and it’s really fun to collect them. Don’t need much water and don’t really bother about anything. But if they’re just surviving and not really flourishing, they don’t really grow bigger and don’t bloom either, which I find super boring. Honestly, a bit overrated. 9/10 would recommend.
So! I think that’s it! I really hope this maybe took some fright from plants and you got inspired to get one yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! If you have critique or additions, let me know. Until then, happy planting (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:✿ ･ﾟ✧ ✿
