Greenhouse

You’ll need:

Good for you! You’ve willing to overcome your fears and adopt a houseplant or two, but first you are wondering how to care for them. Relax. It’s really pretty easy. Plants need light, water and fertilizer to grow and flourish. Different plants have different requirements and some plants are easier than others. If you are a beginner – or if you are really busy and need something low maintenance – start with one of our easy care houseplants. These plants are durable, will handle a range of indoor temperatures in your home and will withstand a bit of watering neglect.

How much light does my new plant need?

This is a key question and one you need to ask BEFORE deciding which houseplant to bring home. Light requirements are divided into 3 groups:

• Full Sun
  4 to 6 hours a day direct sun – try a southern exposure.
• Medium Light
  2 to 3 hours of direct sun, or 6 to 8 hours of bright indirect light, typically eastern or western exposure, or perhaps southern exposure but not placed directly near a window.
• Low Light
  No direct sunlight, but some indirect light, or even 8 or more hours a day of electric lights (regular incandescent, fluorescent, etc.)

Some plants are more sensitive to light fluctuations than others. For best results pick a houseplant that matches your room’s available light. Look at the plant label to see its group, or just ask us.

How to water your ‘Easy Care’ plants:

After determining the right amount of light, you need to know a little bit about watering. Surprisingly enough, the #1 reason houseplants fail to thrive is OVERWATERING, and that is because many people look at the top surface of the soil to decide when to water. Soil often looks dry on top, even when the plant has plenty of moisture. The real question is how moist the soil is below the surface.

Stick your finger right into the soil to a depth of 2” (about to your second knuckle). Gently pull it out look near the knuckle. You should be able to see if the soil is dry, slightly moist or very wet. Sort of like a human cake tester.

• If the soil is dry at this 2” depth, it is time to water.
• If the soil is slightly moist, wait a day or more.
• If the soil is downright wet at this depth, cut back on how frequently you water.

If possible, water your plants in the morning and use tepid (slightly warm) water.

Water thoroughly and slowly, but stop as soon as water runs through the drainage holes. Make sure that the soil is thoroughly wet when you are finished. If the water runs through the drainage hole too quickly, the pot may be crammed with roots and contain too little soil. In this case it may be time to repot.

Do NOT leave lots of excess water in the saucer – roots can rot if constantly wet. An alternative is to fill your drainage dish with a layer of small pebbles or river rocks. The rocks will keep the bottom of the pot elevated over excess water.

Do I need to fertilize my houseplants?

We regularly feed our houseplants. When you bring it home it is important to continue this care – especially if it is a flowering plant. As a rule of thumb, houseplants should be fed every other week in spring, summer and early fall. As light levels diminish in November, your plant will need less fertilization – once a month or less. Using a complete liquid fertilizer will ensure healthy, thriving plants. Follow package instruction carefully – too much fertilizer can be worse than too little.

Follow these three guidelines and even the most notorious plant killer can enjoy happy healthy plants in many rooms in their home, dorm or office.

Spring Care

When your bulbs have finished flowering, cut back the flower stalks to ground level. Then, and this is important, let the foliage of your flowering bulbs dieback naturally – do not cut it back while still green. The bulb needs this time to make food reserves for next year’s flowers.

Get more color by overplanting with annuals

Want your garden color to continue after the bulbs are finished? You can plant annuals directly over or around bulbs for your summer color. Just remember to leave the Fall bulbs in the ground – do not dig up and store as you would summer flowering varieties such as dahlias.

Critter alert

Squirrels, chipmunks, skunks and raccoons can dig and eat bulbs. If that isn’t bad enough, deer are known to eat the blooms in spring. To avoid heartbreak, apply animal repellant. Some people recommend adding several different types to discourage a variety of animals. You can dip the bulb directly in the repellant; apply in the hole or top-dress. Happy news – all these animals don’t like Daffodils.

Fertilizing Bulbs

Because bulbs are natural warehouses of food to use for blooming, fertilizer is unnecessary for the first year’s blooms. That said, you will need to add a quality fertilizer after the first blooms are done to help the bulb rebuild itself for the following year’s bloom. We recommend Bulb-tone, (from Espoma, the people that make Holly-tone) it’s an all-natural plant food with Bio-tone® microbes formulated to help repeat blooming bulbs.

• You can add the fertilizer now when you are planting the bulbs – the bulb will not take in the food until needed late next spring
• Or you can wait until after they bloom and top dress with fertilizer.

When to plant Fall Bulbs

Wait ‘till it’s good and cold

Bulbs should be planted after the ground cools down. In New England, this is anytime after the first frosts, but before the ground freezes hard. You probably want to buy them early so you have the best selection, but around here, wait until October to put them in the ground. Until then, keep them in a cool, dry place. Also keep the label with the bulbs until planting. Without the label, you can’t tell the red tulips from the white ones.

Where to plant

You can plant bulbs just about anywhere in your garden. However, there is a saying that “bulbs don’t like wet feet” so avoid the bottom of a hill or other areas where water collects. Bulbs need light to bloom. Ideally you should try to plant in Eastern, Southern, or Western exposures where they’ll get six hours of light per day. (“light” does not have to be direct sunlight – filtered light is fine).

How deep?

It’s best to follow the instructions on the package, but the rule of thumb is plant big bulbs about 8” deep and small bulbs about 5” deep. Also consider the proximity to the house or other buildings, and plant the bulbs at least 5 feet from foundations, as heat from the buildings can damage bulbs. When “dropping” the bulb, try to have the pointy side face up – in most cases, however, if you don’t get it right the bulb flower will still find its way topside.

Planting Supplies

Better soil grows better blooms. Dig the soil with a bulb planter, trowel or shovel. If it’s loose and workable, great! If not, you’ll want to mix in some compost. Compost adds nutrients into the soil, improves the soil structure, and provides a healthy biodiversity. Compost helps sandy soil retain water, and helps plants resist harmful bacteria and fungi. Warning: over-doing compost is not a good idea – it can “burn” the bulbs.