Houseplants need different care during winter. Here’s how to look after yours
Don’t get Daniel Minton wrong when he says our passion for houseplants peaked in the pandemic, after first being revived more than a decade ago. Our fervour for indoor greenery is still going strong, he says, but our tastes are no longer centred on luxuriant layer upon layer of leafiness.
Today, the manager of Fitzroy Nursery’s indoor store is noticing a shift towards displays that are more stylised and less tangled tropical rainforest. Minton is also an avid houseplant grower who at one point set up a greenhouse in his bedroom.
Fiddle leaf figs are one plant that might need relocating during winter, due to its light needs.Credit: iStock
He and his partner, Kina Lin-Wilmoth, currently live in a 27th-level city apartment full of palms, orchids, ferns, peace lilies, a rubber tree, a variegated monstera (that Minton bought for $500 in 2018 after saving all his tips while working as a waiter) and many other plants.
Few indoor growers are as diehard as Minton. But just as his plants are arranged in a way that highlights their individual forms, he says he has noticed indoor growers increasingly homing in on plants with interesting shapes.
A dwarf schefflera (Heptapleurum arboricola), for instance, might be pruned to make a focal point of its negative space. Its stems could even be wired like bonsai so that they strike out at jaunty angles. An elephant’s foot (Dioscorea elephantipes) might be displayed to make a show of its sculptural, woody-looking stem, or a mistletoe fig (Ficus deltoidea) could be positioned to accentuate its bold leaves.
But with such considered arrangements, there’s less room for error. Brown spots, yellowing, wilting or any other sign of malaise are hard to hide without the cover of a jungle or other greenery. If you are going to pare things back, what remains needs to thrive.
So what are Minton’s tips for tending healthy houseplants in the cooler months?
His central piece of advice is to remember that even though your plants are growing between four walls and under a roof, they are not static like furniture. You have to keep an eye on them and be attuned to their changing needs.
This includes noticing the weather. The shorter days and cooler temperatures we are experiencing now are not just an outdoor thing. There are seasonal changes inside, too.
Daniel Minton at home with his plants.Credit: Simon Schluter
At this time of year, most plants won’t need to be fed (wait for them to start actively growing in late August or September) or re-potted (hold off until about October). They also won’t need to be watered as regularly – but Minton says that in any one watering session you will need to apply as much water as you did in summer (take the plants to a shower, bath or sink to allow for drainage).
If you’re unsure whether your plant needs water, stick your finger in the soil and assess how moist it is. You can also lift your pot to feel its weight. Dried-out soils are lighter than wet ones.
While wilting leaves can be a sign of plant thirst, they can also point to the opposite. “If the soil stays too wet for too long it gets anaerobic and dank, and the roots can’t breathe and the leaves get droopy,” Minton says.
But this shouldn’t happen if you keep a plant in its preferred climatic conditions in an appropriate potting medium. Most of the plants we grow indoors are sub-canopy tropical ones that like our houses to stay above 15 degrees. But some plants (such as the fiddle-leaf fig) have higher light requirements than others (the blue star fern, say).
Minton keeps a dendrochilum glumaceum (hay-scented orchid) in his 27th-level city apartmentCredit: Daniel Minton
Minton says that if you notice a plant (for example, a peace lily) languishing in a dark back corner, move it close to a window with bright indirect light and it should be happier. By contrast, if a plant is scorching near a window bathed in direct sun, it will likely do better in a more indirectly lit spot.
“Eighty per cent of plant success is getting the light and watering right,” Minton says. “If you have a draughty Victorian terrace it’s generally quite dark and cool, but a newer place with bigger windows might be lighter and warmer. It’s about working with what you have got and choosing the plants most likely to succeed.”
And if you have a plant that is still struggling? “You could spend years trying to bring it back [to good health] or you could throw it out and get something else,” Minton says. “A plant is not an animal. I don’t think growing things should be that stressful.”
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