Beginner’s Guide: 10 Things I’ve Learned As A New Plant Parent

Firstly I want to start off by saying I am amazed at how quickly my plants have grown on me! This might not be true for everyone but I honestly don’t know if I will ever stop being a crazy plant lady. Maybe it will ease out a bit, or take over my life completely. I guess we will have to wait and see. I find myself watching movies and series and freaking out about the plants in the background. I sometimes miss the plot completely because I was looking at the character’s plants. Has this happened to you? Anyway I am going to keep this post short and sweet!

Here is a list of 10 things I have learned as a new plant parent:

1. It is possible to get addicted to buying plants.
2. Check your plants regularly for pests. Checked yesterday? Check again!
3. Plant your houseplants in well draining soil. I repeat. Plant your houseplant in well draining soil.
4. Even easy going plants can die – Aloe! I am looking at you!
5. Plant people are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.
6. You can’t learn if you never make any mistakes.
7. Over watering is not just a watering issue but a light and drainage issue as well.
8. Keep your new plants away from your other plants until you know they are pest free.
9. Spring will become your new favourite season. New leaves everywhere!
10. Caring for houseplants is not (just) a hobby, it will become a way of life.
    

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So the whole idea behind #NewDayNewGrowth is to focus on growth, not just having a lot of plants in our space, but learning to keep plants alive and to let them thrive. I believe you can't learn and grow if you don't make mistakes. But the important thing is to learn. And I want to learn from you as well. What is the most important thing you learned as a plant parent? Maybe an interesting hack? Someone that taught you a lot or inspired you that I should follow? Ps. Don't say "don't over water" 😂 Read: How to raise a plant and make it love you back by @cleverbloom & @plantingpink from @houseplantclub #PlantParentJourney #PlantParentCommunity #HousePlantClub #IrishHousePlantClub #Growth #Pothos #MarbleQueen #PlantsSparkJoy #MarbleQueenPothos #UrbanJungle #PolkaDotPlant #Hypoestes #PlantsProvideSmiling #NewDayNewGrowth #UpleaftingCommunity #HowIHousePlant #LeafyBeauties #UrbanJungleBloggers #HousePlantsOfInstagram #IndoorGarden #IndoorPlants #PlantParent #PlantLove #HouseOfPlantLovers #IrelandIndoorJungle #IPlantEven #PlantMom #HelloPlantLover

A post shared by Becoming A Plant Parent (@newdaynewgrowth) on Mar 26, 2020 at 1:28am PDT

Here are 5 things I have learned from other plant parents:

@shelleys.indoor.jungle: Always check the soil and roots when buying a plant.

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KATNISS – My #SyngoniumPixie – Happy #TinyPlantTuesday ! I apologise in advance at how shockingly bad this plant looks right now 🤣But there's a lesson to be learnt from this. If you look at picture 2, you'll see how gorgeous and lush it was when I bought it back in January. Unfortunately, I realised way too late that when I bought it, the soil was soggy and it got root rot. ALWAYS CHECK THE SOIL AND ROOTS WHEN BUYING A PLANT!! I repotted it but it lost all of its leaves and I was sure if was a goner. With its last 6 or so leaves lingering (by the way, they're still dying off!) it finally pushed out new growth! The lower leaves are all new. They're quite small but I really don't care. If it means this plant is going to make it, it's a win for me! I'm keeping it in bright light and I water it when the top 2 inches of soil are dry! I'll keep you guys updated as I think this cutie is going to look so much better in a few weeks! It's pushing out new growth like mad! Follow Katniss' journey on #shelleys_katniss . . . #syngonium #tinyplant #rescueplant #ihavethisthingwithplants #plantgang #indoorplants #plantsofinstagram #instaplants #plantsmakepeoplehappy #plantpeople #plantmagic #talkplantytome #ihavethisthingwithplants #house_plant_community #houseofplantlovers #houseplantplantclub #houseplantclub #plantsaremagic #fenestratedleaf #foliageplants #houseplantcommunity #plantparentcommunity #helloplantlover #urbanjunglebloggers # #tinyplants #tinyhouseplants #houseplantrescue

A post shared by Shelley's Indoor Jungle 🌱 (@shelleys.indoor.jungle) on Apr 28, 2020 at 8:09am PDT

@greens.and.tea: You can drill holes into mugs or other objects to turn them into plant pots.

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New plant baby 🌱 My gorgeous Syngonium White Butterfly arrived from @babyplntscom yesterday and I couldn’t wait to pot it into my favourite mug from @anthropologie 😍 Unfortunately the mug has a slight crack in it that leaks a bit so I can’t drink tea out of it anymore but I knew it would be a perfect vessel for my new baby 👶🏻 What should I call it?

A post shared by Katia Rapota (@greens.and.tea) on Apr 5, 2020 at 7:57am PDT

@green.dopamine: It is easy to grow other plants like herbs and vegetables as well! It is also easy and satisfying.

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One of the easiest and most satisfying greens to grow: green onion. . Two weeks ago, I was making dinner, and I decided to keep the bottom of the green onion I had used, and put it in water to propagate. You can see I had cut above the blue band, about where my thumb is. I had fogotten about it and when I remembered 2 weeks later, it had already sprouted these thick roots and grown back into a tall reusable vegetable. I have now potted this propagation back into soil, and can continue to reuse it in the kitchen. . Day 21 of @urbanjungleblog Stay home with plants challenge: “Grow your own plant” . . . #vegetablegarden #propagation #waterpropagation #currentlypropagating #plantaholic #plantsofinstagram #plantsmakepeoplehappy #plantcollection #plantsplantsplants #houseplant #houseplantsofinstagram #houseplantclub #houseplantlove #houseplantcommunity #houseplantplantclub #plant #plants #plantmom #plantlady #plantlife #chickswithplants #torontolovesplants #houseplantaesthetic #urbanjungle #urbanjunglebloggers #indoorplants #indoorgarden #indoorjungle #indoorgardening

A post shared by green.dopamine (@green.dopamine) on Apr 21, 2020 at 7:17am PDT

@nikolicvladan: There is a difference between potting up vs. full repotting.

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Potting up vs. full repotting🙂 Most people pot up their plants instead of doing full repotting. Potting up means moving the plant with its root mass and soil mostly intact into a larger container and filling in around the soil mass with additional soil. Full repotting on the other hand includes the removal of all or part of the soil and pruning and removal of deffective roots. Examples are damaged or diseased roots, roots that are growing back towards the center of the root mass, encircling roots.⠀ ⠀ Potting up temporarily gives room to fine roots to grow and take water and nutrients, but roots in the old mass continue to grow and become increasigly restrictive to each other, and restrict the flow of water and nutrients. You will also progresively need larger and larger containers for potting up, which will get difficult to handle, which also makes people increasingly reluctant to undertake potting up, let alone do full repotting which becomes increasingly difficult with each potting up.⠀ ⠀ Full repotting and root pruning provides conditions for a plant to reach its full potential under the conditions its in.⠀ ⠀ It's possible having beautiful plants for year without ever doing full repotting. But even if they manage to survive, they will not be reaching their full potential. There is a big difference in longevity of an average houseplant tree and for example of a bonsai tree. The difference in their life expectancy i.e. 5 years for a houseplant vs. 200 years for a bonsai tree is in the way the roots are treated 🙂⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #mrhouseplant #alocasia #alocasiafrydek #greenliving #house_plant_community #houseplantclub #houseplants #ihavethisthingwithplants #interiorrewilding #pausewithplants #peoplewithplants #plantdad #plantdaddy #planterina #plantgang #plantgeek #plantgoals #plantlife #plantparenthood #plants #plantsathome #plantslovers #plantsmakemehappy #plantsmakepeoplehappy #plantstagram #therealhouseplantsofinstagram #urbanjungle #urbanjunglebloggers

A post shared by Mr. Houseplant🌿🌿Vladan Nikolic (@nikolicvladan) on Mar 25, 2020 at 5:06pm PDT

@houseplantjournal: If something is happening to your plant don’t just jump to conclusions. Learn to understand what is happening with your plant and how to change or fix it.

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It's about time to say goodbye to this leaf. I know you're going to ask so let me copy/paste what I wrote about this leaf a few weeks ago: . What's happening to my monstera? – The first thing I check is which leaf is showing the signs: the yellowing/browning leaf from the first picture is the oldest leaf from this vine. – Jumping to conclusions ("…caused by") vs. Understanding what is happening ("…occurs when") – A frequently used jumping-to-conclusions statement is "yellowing is CAUSED BY overwatering", which causes you to think that "careful watering" is the only concern in plant care. – But let's look at this using an approach of understanding before concluding: yellowing *on the oldest leaves* OCCURS WHEN the plant breaks down the nutrients to be reallocated to newer growth. – Analysis: when the oldest leaf turns yellow and falls off, that's a natural occurrence but in this case, I've measured the light to be adequate to support many more leaves on a single monstera vine (at least 8-10 leaves given this light situation – this is a very rough estimate!). So since we're only on the 6th leaf and yellowing is happening, the overall pool of nutrients must be limiting. 3 – the last piece of evidence is the status of the pot – it has been in this small pot for over a year and you can see the encircling roots, peeking out of the soil. – Recommendations: I'll cut off this leaf *once it is fully yellowed* to let the plant salvage what is reusable from this leaf. I'll repot the plant into a larger pot – I'd probably go up to a 16" pot (currently 12" pot) – Hopefully you can adopt this kind of analysis to panic less about your own plants. ~ ~ #houseplantjournal #houseplants #plants #urbanjunglebloggers #houseplantclub #plantdad #plantparenthood #greenthumb #monstera #monsteramonday #monsteradeliciosa #aroid #tropicalplants #tropical #crazyplantlady #plantsofinstagram #indoorplant

A post shared by Darryl Cheng (@houseplantjournal) on Jan 20, 2020 at 5:22am PST

What is the most important thing you learned as a plant parent? Leave a reply by commenting below!