Tag: environment

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Seasons.

Some plants can thrive in any part of the year indoors, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t be affected when the seasons change. What do I mean by this? If we see that they need regular sunlight, and they are by a window with bright or not-so-bright sunlight, depending on where you are, it will affect the plants and how they grow.

You may not be in a place that has all four seasons, or even something closer to two or three of them. But for argument’s sake, I’ll discuss the impact of all four seasons on plants outside, and indoors.

Winter.

We can see this as the season for most plants to already be in dormancy. For some trees, and bushes, this won’t always be the case. Some may be in a slow down, and some may have their leaves become a duller color, due to having less sunlight, and rain (water).

Spring.

Once plants come out of Winter, they begin to transition to their normal routines. Sometime after that, they will begin to bloom as the weather get warmer.

Summer.

For lots of plants, the flowering begins, and stays this way during the Summer months. Since they get much more sunlight during this period, it’s great for flowers to be produced, along with any fruit, which will more likely be seen in the Fall.

Autumn or Fall.

This is when the weather gets colder, and for some trees and bushes, the leaves will being to change color, and start falling. Leaves aren’t the only things that Fall from the trees and bushes. You have this from fruits (berries, nuts, etc.) also, and they will be known for falling during these months.

Those will affect most outdoor plants, regardless of how big or how small they are.

Now, of course, being indoors, the plants that you own, can thrive without having to be exposed in these extreme conditions, like Winter and Summer. The exception would be the plants and their owners, living in a place where there’s always Winter, or always Summer.

The areas where you are more likely to have Winter all year, are within the most Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, just as the areas closer to, at, or below the equator, which is near or within the Southern Hemisphere. Notice that dormancy doesn’t really come for warm weather extremes, because this is all year round. Those trees and bushes adjust quite well to these surroundings.

With the plants you have indoors, the issue is making the place comfortable in either instance, both for you, and the plants you own. Just like with the environments you live in (see environment) you need to adjust your surroundings, and know where the plants should be, and keep them there. Make those plants as comfortable as you possibly can, and you’re good to go.

There are some places, where the annual season, is either like Spring or Fall, is ideal for plants, and there are only so many places on Earth that are this way throughout the year. For those like many reading this, if you can’t have your home in such an ideal setting, how about adjusting your home, where it can be such an ideal setting.

Most of these steps, can be viewed in journals such as temperature/humidity, and lighting, as a potential guide to helping make this work for your plants, and for you. After all, you breathe out what your plants breathe in, just as your plants breathe out what you breathe in.

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Other Types.

I can’t put these under failures per se, because many of them appear to thrive for a while, until they don’t. In some instances, certain changes, and other circumstances may take affect, leading to the plants simply not living.

There are a variety of plants that I have chosen to have in my home. I look at a few plants, that eventually just don’t make it. There may be reasons, that put them in the category of fickle, while other simply just don’t survive for very long. Now, you could put this under fickle plants, because there are some that are quite fickle with their environment, even when they eventually reach the point of flowering.

However, when it comes to fickle plants, most of us have been there. No matter how we care for them, try to keep them alive, some simply either can’t or won’t stay alive.

In many instances, it’s out of our control. However, if we can control the circumstances around us, it will take a lot of effort for little positive outcomes. In the end, the plant will still end up perishing. That happens, and it can happen with certain plants. Your environment often results in some plants either struggling and then dying, or being just fine, and can live for quite some time. For the ones that had the former result, I will discuss here.

NOTE: This was my experience with these plants, and it may not be the same for other people.

Much of the environments can lead to good results as well as bad results. An example of this can lead to a plant thriving at first, but later on, you start to not see something happen, such as overall growth. If you have a set of plants that grow, but there’s one that doesn’t, you have to figure out why.

One for me was an air plant. For some it’s quite easy to maintain, but it’s not always the case, especially if you live in an area, or an apartment for example, that’s extremely dry. The air is so dry, that it can give certain people nosebleeds. That needs to be fixed with either a humidifier, and evaporative air cooler, or something that can lead to the air being of normal/moderate humidity, or slightly humid for the plants.

I’ve mentioned the notion of this air plant that I had, was fickle, and that requires explanation. The air plant that I bought is no different than any other, but I was given some advice, in regards to humidity making them grow quite fast, or at best showing to be greener and happier when it’s in a humid area. Every so often, air plants will need to be dried out, naturally. I made that mistake, in doing this a bit too late; so this may have been a mistake on my end. However, what I did realize when I didn’t see it grow, some cases, it’s recommended to pull off some of the outer leaves. When I did this, I saw some browning of where it should be rooted. By the way, air plants don’t have roots. Those leaves were coming off a bit too quickly, and this continued until there wasn’t anything left.

To a degree, it may not have been a fickle plant, but for me it was. I had it in, “the tank”, usually hidden under the fast growing plants around it. However, when I raised it to be closer to the midst of the environment, atop of some of the parlor plants, to get more light, this resulted in drying it out quite fast, becoming its default grey color, once again. It was in a very high humidity environment, where, “the tank” has an average humidity around 85%. It may have become temperamental because of being in that environment, but as stated earlier, it may have had a bit of rotting in the bottom of the plant, behind the outer layer of leaves. This may have been the sign that I could not see, that the plant may have been dying, and I couldn’t see that, until it was too late.

I’ve had my issues with succulents, and I had an issue with one type, where I did things right, and even tried to not water them too much. Keeping them in a dry air environment wasn’t an issue, but apparently it was, because they eventually died. Leaving an overwatered succulent to dry out, should be easy, but in some instances, it wasn’t the case for me. I didn’t have the succulents, and yes, I had maybe two or three, and all in open air environments, and no matter what I did, all of them died. I watered when needed, less frequently than the other plants. Just like with cacti, they can’t be watered too often; they need to be watered maybe weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. If the environment is dry, then maybe bi-weekly just to counter the dryness; which is better for most plants that prefer moderate to higher humidity.

For me, succulents don’t work. I can deal with cacti, but as long as I get the ones that don’t have fake flowers hot glued on them, it will be worthwhile, but for me, succulents are a no-go at this time. I can’t include those type of cacti, because they were manipulated, and damaged, and it’s not an issue of them being fickle, in my opinion.

When it comes to fickle plants, I can say with clear certainty, lavender plants are in this category, because no matter what I did, repotting, giving them good lighting and water, It still resulted in both plants dying. I bought two, and both of them dried up significantly. The problem here, was no matter what I did, nothing would work.

Lavender plants are no good in tropical environments, at least the ones I bought didn’t like high humidity. I tried propagating them, with a humidity dome and in soil, and it resulted in the plant developing mold, instead of rooting. I tried this without the dome, and just in water, and that didn’t work either. Many have tried these methods, and for them, they worked. For me, nothing worked. It was more stressful just trying to maintain them, and to keep them alive. After a while, I just gave up, because it wasn’t the water, and it wasn’t the lighting, and it couldn’t have been shock either. This plant simply didn’t want to be in the environment it was in.

I can also add the string of pearls, and although it is a good plant to have, where I live, it’s very fickle, and only lasted maybe a few months at best, before it finally shriveled up and died. It’s one of those semi-succulent types of plants, where they don’t really care for humidity, but require water and sunlight regularly. (Some say otherwise, but either way, I got the results that came with it.) Again, the issue may also have been the environment, because of its excessive dryness in the air around it. You can’t over water them, and you can’t keep them in bright sunlight either. You also can’t under water them, or keep them too dimly lit. Other people may have the opposite experience, and some of that maybe because of where they’ve chosen to keep these plants, but for me, it just didn’t work out, and now that plant is a distant memory. Yes, I did try propagating them, several times, but to no avail. Oh well.

I can say that I took a chance and bought a random set of plants from a plant vendor at Union Square, where they often have the Farmer’s Market. One of them I looked at was a plant that was already flowering, and it kept this up for a while. This was called a Kawaii Soiree, or Kawaii Catharanthus, and it’s also called, “white peppermint”. I can’t say much about this. Right now it’s pretty much gone, just like the lavender. Only difference, it wasn’t truly that fickle, because it spent the entire summer just flowering, and it was only once the weather got a bit colder, it chose to change, and not for the better. It gave me no trouble, until maybe late September, and after that, it was nothing I could do. I want to say that it went dormant, but I’m sure that’s not what happened.

For some plants, you can be doing everything right, including adjusting the humidity in your home, and it will still not work for some plants for whatever reason. I will admit, there may have been things and assumptions on my end, this is especially the case with the air plant. For the others, they simply didn’t want to be there, or they simply couldn’t adjust. You know it looks bad, when you have them in different settings, and no matter what you do, they both end up dying anyway. That proves why some plants simply aren’t compatible with some areas, no matter what you do to accommodate them.

Could some of them die, because of an infestation that you cannot see? It’s been said to be the case for a few plant enthusiasts. I’ll have to look into this personally.

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Environments.

When looking at plant care, you should first understand the type of plants you want to buy and care for. Certain plants will thrive in pretty much any setting, but others will not be so easy to grow and maintain. Most of us find this out the hard way, when buying certain plants they deem to be their favorite, or one they would like to have in their homes.

Some apartments will be in good enough shape, when it comes to temperature and humidity, while others may have their issues with both throughout the year. It’s not just the apartment on the inside, but its overall location can also be a factor.

For example, if your apartment is well above ground level, you may have to deal with dryness at its worst. This will be noticeable to those who especially have dry skin, dry hair, and nosebleeds. Think about many sporting events, where certain areas are referred to as the, “nosebleed” section. They happen to be so high up, you may need binoculars just to see the action. In other words, the higher up you are, for your living space, the drier it will be for you and your plants.

To verify the dryness of your apartment, get a humidity gauge. You have several places where you can find these, and they will be very helpful. Let’s say you get one, from the hardware store for example. These will often show you at what percentage will show how dry it is, what’s seen as normal for humans and some animals, and what’s humid. If it’s very dry, you’ll need a humidifier, and preferable a heavy duty device. Let’s say you get one from a pet store (see hacks). It will show something different, more tailored towards animals like turtles, frogs, and snakes. The readings show three sections, which match similarly to other types of humidity gauges. The dry setting is labeled desert, which is good for those animals that prefer this kind of environment. The normal setting is labeled moderate. The humid setting is labeled tropical.

Depending on what you are looking to get, you have to be aware of how these plants can and will grow. It’s not to say if a plant is tropical, that it won’t thrive in a moderate environment. Often, the tropical humidity will aid in speeding up growth of those types of plants. It will also help with rooting faster, and potentially producing flowers. In fact, there are many plants that will thrive in various environments, and high humidity will aid in making those plants happier, and they aren’t designated as tropical plants.

If your apartment is a certain way, you have to be aware of that, before you purchase plants. The same goes, for being in an area with various seasons. Your plants will adjust accordingly, and often it may not be how you want. Some plants go dormant in late autumn and winter weather, so it’s best to keep them away from open windows during such weather changes. Also, keep the areas warm enough; generally temperatures above 70 degrees will be just fine. Just like with humidity, if you are comfortable with it, your plants will be comfortable with it.

Also, understand this one thing. Drier environments will require plants to be watered more and more often.

As a default, before getting a plant just to get a plant, if you get one, get one from a plant store, and ask about the type of environment that would be best for the plant you will choose. You can do your own research to verify or compare and contrast what’s being said. If you don’t, you may struggle a bit, or altogether, and in the wrong environment, that plant may die.

Now, there are some plants that simply are so fickle, that no matter what you try, it doesn’t want to live. Those types of plants need things to be exactly how it likes it. If that doesn’t happen, it will die very fast, no matter what you do to revive it. You will know why this is, if it happens. In some instances, it’s a case of trial and error for some plants, but for those that are simple, it’s because it is okay with the environments they are in. It may take some acclimation to new residences before they can be anywhere near a window with bright sunlight especially. Some plants do best with indirect sunlight throughout its lifespan, while others will be better in a window with bright and direct sunlight. You have to be aware of that also.

There are many factors needed to care for plants, and the environment is one that’s often not look at properly. Remember humidity/dryness, and direct/indirect sunlight, are factors you need to look at for where you live, and to what plants you want to get. You try to do so, with a random plant, then good luck, you’re gonna need it.