Tropical Plants/Orchids

Bringing the stunning beauty of the tropics into your home adds brilliance and grandeur.  Outside of their natural environment, however, these plants need special care.  Check on them each day - as you would with anything living in your home. With a little attention and simple practices, you can maintain healthy, stunning tropical plants with ease.

• Watering

  Tropical plants are a lot like we are when we’re in tropical places.  They like to get their feet wet, but they don’t want soggy, muddy conditions.  Monitor your tropical plants regularly.  Soil should be kept damp, so pots should offer good drainage and hold no standing water in or under the pot.  If your soil dries up enough that it pulls away from the edges, tamp it back down before watering - else your water will run down the edges and never reach the roots.

• Location

  Also like us, your tropical plants can burn in the sun.  This sensitivity to direct sunlight happens because most of these plants make up the understory in native forests.  Keep your tropical beauty in bright but indirect light, being especially careful of the strong midday sun.  

  When moving a tropical from one place to another (indoors to outdoors or a darker room to a sunny window), give it time to gradually acclimate to the new light levels.  To do this, move your plant to its new home for an hour or two on the first day, and increase the time spent there slowly over the next 7-10 days.

Succulents

Equal parts curious and gorgeous, succulents bring style to your space.  With so many different characteristics and intricacies among them, it’s no wonder succulents are a beloved addition to our lives, but these beauties require unique maintenance to thrive in a foreign environment.

• Watering

  Though underwatering is not a typical problem for these desert stunners, it can happen.  The best way to care for your succulents is to offer a deep watering every two weeks.  To do this, bring your succulent to a place it can drain thoroughly, like in your sink.  Slowly run room temperature water over the soil until the water begins to drain from the bottom.  Stop the flow of water, and allow the pot to drain completely before returning it to its home.  During winter months you can reduce this to once a month with light waterings in between to keep the top two inches of soil moist.

• Location

  Most succulents prefer bright, direct light, needing about six hours daily.  Try to place them in a south or east facing window.  Additionally, during warmer months, you can move your succulents outside.  Just remember to give them some time to acclimate by moving them gradually over the course of a week to ten days.