Winter plant care tips
Our gardening expert Karen Murphy, has advice on looking after your houseplants this winter
Winter is a wonderful time to nest indoors, making your surroundings as glorious as your summer garden. And what better than windowsills crammed with plant beauties with colourful leaves and flowers when outdoors is rainy, cold and drab! But we don’t want to spend ages clipping, potting and tending to houseplants – we want something that copes with everything we throw at it, right? So how about trying something a little bit different, such as orchids? You’ve probably got a moth orchid or two, which in winter simply enjoy a little water and a light feed every month. Keep them at around 16°C and you can forget about them and enjoy their beauty. But just as easy is the more rare zygopetalum, available from www.bakker.com or orchid nurseries, with beautiful spotty green, brown and purple blooms. Their lovely clove-like scent will brighten the deepest, darkest winter! Christmas cacti defy the season, blooming profusely indoors all winter. They’re just the easiest plants to keep and, even with a bit of unintended neglect, can last for simply decades! Just increase the watering when it’s flowering, and decrease it from late January when it finishes. Other succulents, such as Kalanchoe, with its large, fleshy leaves and pretty flowers need barely any water; just deadheading and kept at no less than 12°C. Just as low maintenance are lovely rosette-leaved aeoniums – you may have one or two in pots outside in summer, but they love being indoors, too. They need very little water and can withstand temperatures as low as 5°C, so why grow anything more demanding? For all houseplants, be aware of the change in environment during winter indoors, which can stress some out. Keep an eye on where they’re situated – if they aren’t getting as much light as they should, place them in a brighter spot, and watch for frosty windows and draughts. Hot, dry radiators could also be the death of them. Wipe and spritz leaves, check for pests, snip away any dead growth and don’t overwater – they like a little winter downtime just like us!