My children, who are learning to care for plants rather early, have been grounded in one fundamental fact—feel the soil in the pot to see if the plant needs water. If the soil is dry, fetch the watering pot (succulents can be an exception). I have been told my kiddies have had arguments at school about watering the plants which cluster on the sunny window sills. The usual procedure in our Redding school is to assign the care of the plants to a different child each day. He, or she, floods everything with water and then retires to his, or her, desk with the feeling of having done his, or her, good deed for the day. Plants, alas, are not like goldfish. They don’t care for swimming.
This brings up a question I am frequently asked about house plants: “How often should they be watered?” Even an IBM calculator with a thousand cards feeding through its maw couldn’t come up with a better answer than this simple statement: “Water them when they need it.”
At the risk of repeating myself, I will sum up my thoughts on this problem, and then go on to other subjects. Test the soil with your fingers, if it is dry, you can most likely water with impunity. If moist, more water is inviting root rot. When you water, make sure the entire soil ball is so saturated that excess water runs out the drainage hole in the bottom of the pot. Miniature plants are likely to require more frequent watering, because their pots are small and they are small. Frequency of watering: Here we get into an awful lot of tangibles, and some intangibles. There are such things to consider as the type of plant and its moisture needs, size of the plant and its pot, what sort of soil is in the pot, is the plant root-bound or not, is it in active growth or dormant, what is the weather like out of doors—is it warm or blustery, clear and sunny, dark and humid, or just another day. Remember, on hot dry days the moisture is going to slip away into the atmosphere. On cloudy days it will hang around longer; humidity will take care of that. If you feel your plant needs water and you are afraid of flooding it, you might try another device. Put some moist peat in a larger pot—or you can use vermiculite or perlite—and set the plant and its pot inside this larger pot.
Right now you may be wondering about hanging baskets and those plants that are wrapped in osmunda and mounted on slabs of wood. Give them a good dunking in the kitchen sink but let the excess water drain off before you hang them again, out of deference to your carpeting and furniture. Actually, the plants don’t care whether they spot your furnishings or not.
If all of this is confusing, may I sum it up in a phrase: “Just use your common sense” (horse sense may be a better term). I know I have written a few books about plants and gardening, and countless magazine articles, but here is a very candid confession. Until a very few years ago I knew practically nothing about the subject. What I know I learned by reading books and magazine articles, and “doing.” I know I killed a few plants out of ignorance, but I killed more with kindness. Every time a plant withered and died I felt badly. But I considered it a lesson in what to do, or not to do. I tried to find the cause for the demise. Today I have the satisfaction of having raised thousands of plants to beautiful bloomhood, and largely because of the sacrifice of some obscure begonia, or petunia, a few years back. I have been acclaimed as having a “green thumb.” Actually I do not have a green thumb. No one has. I thoroughly dislike the term. I dislike the implication that a person has a God-given quality which makes plants grow. Making plants grow and prosper is largely the mastering of a few rules, and the use of a lot of common sense. I’ll grant you, much of your common sense comes the “hard way.” But it is fun. I bow most respectfully to those plants which I killed with ignorance and kindness.
Grooming
This is the “beauty-parlor” treatment for your plants. Fading flowers and dying leaves are as unattractive on a plant as those unruly ringlets in a woman’s coiffure. In fact, they are even worse. They take strength from a plant and are unsanitary. Remove them as regularly as you can. You’ll be adding to the welfare of your plant. If the plant is of a type that needs to be pruned or pinched to keep it comely and compact, perform the operation before the branches get that gangly, middle-aged spread. Pinching out the new growing tips, either with sharp fingernails or sharper scissors, usually produces two new branches. If you pinch out the tips of these, you will most likely get four new branches and your plant will become pleasingly plump. The exception is the plant that blooms from the ends of new growth. Stop your pinching before the bud-setting season.
Not many miniatures need staking to keep them upright. If stake you must, do it as inconspicuously as possible and tie the stems neatly in their natural growing manner. Train miniature creepers in the direction you want them to grow, and miniature climbers up their supports. Rinse foliage with a fine spray (use that discarded Windex bottle I described earlier) as often as you can to wash away dust and dirt. Please, may I throw in a plea right here—recently I saw a commercial product which some people use to make their plants more green. It is a spray for foliage. For the moment it makes plants look green with its sheen. But it also clogs the pores on the plant and its leaves. For the moment it is beautiful; for permanency it is harmful. Decide, do you want your plant to live for the moment only?
Insects and Disease
Not long ago, when visiting a friend, I was taken out to her sun room to see her plants. She was proud, but I was shocked. What I saw was the most amazingly bug-ridden collection of fuchsias and geraniums I have seen in many a moon, plus a few poor distorted other flowers which were trying to survive. My poor hostess, honestly, I think she had no idea of her problems and the future of her plants. In fact, they had little future. I thought over that problem for a spell, and then told her the facts of life. Fortunately, she was able to save much of her greenery.