23 Tips, Ideas & Thoughts About Nurturing HouseplantsUnity Consciousness #300

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1. Houseplants are outdoor plants brought indoors. They are not a special breed of plants designed specifically for indoors.

2. What is usually grown indoors are plants that cannot survive year-round in the area where you live. In places where these plants can survive year-round, they are perennials and in places they cannot, they are annuals, unless grown indoors. This is why they are marketed and sold as houseplants. All plants are perennials somewhere and all plants can be annuals somewhere.

3. Though some indoor plants can grow under indoor lighting, sunlight through a window is better.

4. Plants that will die outside in cold weather, when they are kept indoors they must not be exposed to prolonged drafts of cold air, even from air conditioning and humidifiers, otherwise these plants will suffer.

5. The plant you see depends on the plant you don't see. The roots need room to grow and a soil ecosystem that automatically and slowly releases nutrients as a result of natural processes. This is better than slow-release fertilizer.

6. Nurturing plants requires communicating through listening and getting to know each plant. This will help you know when to water, prune or adjust the nutrient providing system for each plant individually.

7. Cover all or at least most of the soil with plants or some other type of mulch.

8. When possible, grow more than one plant in a container and place more than one plant in the same area of the house. They benefit from each other.

9. If you can stand the thought, allow some insects to live among the plants such as spiders, wood lice and earthworms.

10. Consciously appreciate the plants often and touch them.

11. If your indoor environment is hot and dry, spritz the plants with water from time to time whenever it comes to mind or place a container of water near the plants. Also gently wipe away some of the dust from the leaves if noticeable but no need to shine the leaves or wipe them too frequently because you're just trying to do a little of the washing rain would do. Not doing this at all won't make or break the plant unless the plant is covered with dust.

12. Put parts of the plant removed from the plant back on the soil around the plant unless diseased. Put them there as is, crunch them up or chop them up. Put dirt and dust you sweep up, back on the soil.

13. Collect rainwater to water the plants. Melt snow in winter.

14. When you boil or steam fruits or vegetables for yourself, save the water and after it cools down to room temperature, pour it on the soil. Also soak crushed eggshells and pour the water and shells on the soil. Experiment by soaking the peelings of fruits in vegetables and using the water. Also use coffee grounds in moderation. Use coffee grounds after using egg water to quieten the egg smell.

15. Re-pot and/or divide the plant if progress seems to be halted despite doing everything the plants needs and it is the season for growth. Add some fresh soil but not entirely. That “old soil” still contains good familiar stuff for the current plant and can be used for other plants also or for plant divisions of the same plant.

16. Give houseplants a taste of the outdoors when the outdoor season approximates the plant's natural environment. The plants will need to be re-acclimated to the outdoors by moving them to a very shady spot and then every few days moving them a little farther out of the shade. Remember, direct sunlight in front of a window indoors is nowhere near as strong as direct sunlight outdoors. The plant will burn if placed outside in full sunlight too soon. I put mine under the overhang of the house on side receiving the weakest and least amount of sun. On overcast or rainy days, I moved them out to get rain and cloud-filtered sun. It takes one to two weeks to acclimate a houseplant. You will know when it's time by how the plant looks as it is experiencing direct sunlight. After that, the plant can be placed in full sun if it is a plant that is supposed to receive full sun, otherwise place the plant in the type of partial light it's supposed to receive. The plant will thrive outside in more of a natural environment even though its roots are still restricted in a pot of soil that is not a complete ecosystem. This outdoor experience will strengthen the plant.

17. If something doesn't seem right with the plant, something ain't right. Follow the intuitive self. It is the spiritual frequency that allows us to communicate with plants.

18. A healthy plant goes through processes that includes new growth and some growth dying. During certain times of the year there may be more of one than the other.

19. A plant is a life that is happiest and healthiest when it is able to go through the full range of its life processes: growing stems, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds.

20. The plant will always tell you what it needs. At times, treat them like babies. At other times treat them like adults so they can toughen up. At all times, treat them like a fellow living being.

21. Observe houseplants in their natural environment or read about them. Consider changes to the indoor environment.

22. Relax. Plants are forgiving of attempts to understand them fundamentally and communicate with them spiritually. Plants are not very tolerant when their basic needs are neglected. Grow and learn to know yourself as a human being and this will translate and transfer over to your understanding of houseplants and the similarities you share as created beings.

23. No two home environments are the same. Each home environment is a unique micro-climate to which the plant must adjust and adapt. You must also adjust and adapt this environment to foster a healthy relationship just as you would when another person is transplanted into the house.