Keeping a Poinsettia Alive Indoors
How to pick a healthy poinsettia at the shop, get it home without a chill, and keep its leaves through the holidays: light, temperature, drafts, watering through the foil sleeve, and what it takes to make it colour up again next year.
How to Quarantine New Houseplants
Two to four weeks of isolation catches the pests that shop lighting hides - spider mites, thrips, mealybugs and scale - before they reach the rest of your collection. Here is a realistic setup, the inspection schedule that catches problems early, and why the fourth week matters most.
Get Rid of Fungus Gnats
Fungus gnats are the most common houseplant pest. Here's exactly why you have them and a step-by-step plan to get rid of them permanently.
7 Common Houseplant Pests
Identify and treat the 7 most common houseplant pests - spider mites, fungus gnats, mealybugs, scale, aphids, thrips, and whitefly - with a clear treatment plan.
How to Choose the Right Plant
Stop buying plants that die. A step-by-step method for choosing the right houseplant for your light, your room and your lifestyle, following University of Illinois, UC IPM and RHS advice.
How to Propagate Houseplants
Turn one plant into many. A beginner's guide to propagating houseplants - stem cuttings, cane and leaf cuttings, division, offsets and plantlets, and the case for rooting in mix rather than water - following University of Illinois Extension advice.
How to Repot a Houseplant
A step-by-step guide to repotting houseplants - the signs your plant needs a new pot, choosing the right pot and soil, and avoiding repotting shock.
How to Water Houseplants
Overwatering is the classic way to lose a houseplant. When and how to water, how to read your plant, and how to fix soggy soil, following university extension advice.