Ficus trees are great house plants and very easy to care for after the initial trauma of being moved to a new location. They have a tendency to drop all of their pretty green leaves on the floor when you first bring them home as they seem to despise moving to a new environment. This is the Ficus benjamina or Weeping Fig.

This type of Ficus tree is notorious for being difficult to acclimate to a new environment. In fact, I would have included it on the list of best house plants if it were not for the problems many people have bringing a Ficus tree successfully through its transition to a new home.

Even those that work in the interior landscape business know the trouble that a new Ficus tree can be. However, on the positive side, if you know that it will most likely happen (some Ficus trees barely lose a leaf), you may be a little more prepared to deal with it when it does happen.

I find that most indoor plants are very adaptable as long as changes are made slowly, whether it is a change in location, lighting, or watering. This even applies to the Ficus tree. Ficus trees are often difficult to acclimate because they are quite sensitive to environmental changes and will often react by dropping most of their still green leaves quite suddenly.

Read more about the Weeping Fig Tree or Ficus benjamina acclimation and plant care…

So, if you need a gift for the Plant Person in your life, I have put together some of my favorites from an affiliate and put them together on my website. These are green gifts that can be delivered for you. Any person that you know who enjoys indoor plants would love one of these!

I receive a small commission for any completed sale and that is how I keep my site running! Thanks for visiting the website. Find some great plants and flowering plants to send as a gift…

One of the easiest ferns to care for as a house plant is the Birds Nest Fern or Asplenium Nidus. It is more likely to let you get away with a few mistakes than many other ferns. An added attraction is the leaflets that often fall from other ferns, creating quite a mess, are not present on Birds Nest Fern. This makes it a clean fern in my book, unlike the messy Boston Fern. With a Boston Fern, you may end up spend more time cleaning up after it than you do taking care of it! Not so the Birds Nest Fern.

Light green fronds surround a fibrous nest, explaining the name Birds Nest Fern. The fronds are long and blade shaped with a dark midrib. Birds Nest Ferns can grow quite large and the plant pictured here was well over 3 feet tall!

Read more about Asplenium nidus, also known as the Birds Nest Fern…

Dracaena Marginata is one of my favorite house plants. That might be because it is one of the first large indoor plants that I ever owned. I was caring for indoor plants at the huge Xerox Research Center in Palo Alto, California. A 6 foot tall Dracaena Marginata in lower light that was getting a little leggy and it was decided with my contact person, Gary, that it would be replaced with a brand new plant.

He did not want to keep the old Marginata plant and told me that if I wanted it, I should take it home. That is exactly what I did! Planted in a fairly large terra cotta clay pot, the Marginata did quite well at my house. It was placed next to a large sliding glass door in bright, indirect light. Ever since that time, Marginata has been one of my favorite house plants.

Dracaena Marginata plants are really easy to care for once you know how. And they are very beautiful and graceful plants when they are grown in the home. You can let them grow large or easily keep them at the size you want them by pruning back the stalks or “canes” every once in a while.

Read more about Dracaena marginata indoor plants and their care…

The ZZ Plant has become a popular plant for use in the interior landscape. It is also becoming a popular house plant and many people are using the ZZ Plant to add some green to their desktops, offices, and cubicles. The ZZ Plant has thick, glossy, green leaves and is an easy care indoor house plant.

The ZZ Plant has a clumping growth form, the stems originating from rhizomes under the soil. These rhizomes store water making it easier for the ZZ Plant to survive a mild drought. So, it is best to water the ZZ when the soil has become some what dry.

This plant has a number of common names, its botanical name is Zamioculcas zamifolia. It is more often called the ZZ Plant, other common names being Zanzibar Gem, Eternity Palm, and Emerald Gem. It is a tropical, perennial plant native to eastern Africa. The flowers of the ZZ Plant are whitish-yellow spadix that grow from the base of the plant. Flowers occur during summer and autumn.

I have cared for many ZZ Plants and those that do the best have always been located fairly close to a good source of bright, natural light. No direct sun required and they can be maintained under bright artificial light but the plant will most likely become thin and weak over time. Read more about ZZ Plant watering and care…

 Four months ago, I relocated within Central Florida. I uprooted some of my 10′-12′ tall Rhapis excelsa palms to take with me & potted them in 24″ wide pots, using Miracle Gro’s Moisture Control Potting Soil. I planted 12 plants, at a rate of 4 per pot. Unfortunately, they didn’t do well during the move & only 4(in 1 pot) seem to have survived. The others wilted & seem to be rotting from the top down, though 5′-7′ of each trunk from the ground up are still green. I cut off the dead fronds and there’s been no new growth from the tips, which are now rotted. What can I do to try to save them? Please, advise? Thanks!

Many plant questions don’t have a simple answer. Finding out what is wrong with your plant often takes detective work. You have to ask yourself questions. Did I forget to water my plant last week? Did that move out onto the porch for a day cause this problem? Or the recent power outage that dropped temperatures into the 40s. Did something, anything out of the ordinary happen that my be the cause of my houseplant problem? Did my crazy cat use the plant as a litter box? Haha but you never know. I have some wild stories about plants on interior landscape accounts, but will save for a later date!

It sounds like the person who wrote this email pulled plants out of her/his yard, planted them into pots, and then moved to a new home. May have root damage, transplant shock, could have been exposed to excess heat or cold during the move, or all of these. I don’t know any of these things, so this is a hard question to answer.

A photo of a Rhapis Palm is posted next, in case you may be wondering what a Rhapis excelsa palm is or looks like. Sometimes people use the common name of Lady Palm for Rhapis palm. Just so you know, you cannot just cut back the stalk of a palm plant like you would many other houseplants. That will stop all growth from that stem or stalk. It may or may not put out new shoots from the base of the plant. Anyway, Rhapis excelsa palm picture…

I have had Rhapis palms that were in similar condition that I was able to regrow into healthy, vigorous plants but since I don’t know much about how you plan to use the palms, what kind of light they are in, etc. I can only give a general answer to this. If the roots of your palms are still somewhat healthy, you should cut any stalks that have started to die back off just above soil level. This will help the plant direct energy to growing new healthy stalks. Given some time, the plant should put out new shoots and, if you give it proper light and watering, it should be a nice full plant, if somewhat shorter than you started with, given some time to regrow.

This was all I could really tell her about her plants. Care of Rhapis excelsa palm plants…

Indoor House Plants Care

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Some houseplants do not really fit into this category. Palms and cactus need to be looked at in a different way, so do not apply anything in this post to them. I received an email from a person who has a Schefflera arboricola bush, what she referred to as an Umbrella Plant. Some people also call the Schefflera arboricola a Parasol Plant or Dwarf Umbrella Plant. Anyway, the email I received was this:

Hello, I’m just wondering how to prune an umbrella plant. My plant is getting out of control, growing upwards and I can’t seem to get it to grow like a bush. I’m afraid to cut it to shape cause I might kill it. I’ve had this plant for over 10 years and from the picture I sent you can see it’s still growing good. I just want to trim it down but I want to do it properly. Thanks!

My answer to her follows…

When pruning an Arboricola (umbrella plant), cut just the stem, just above a leaf node. I usually cut the tallest stem back into the center of the plant, leaving some leaf nodes below the cut for new growth to start. Doing this every once in awhile keeps the plant fuller and shorter.

You can cut the really tall stem that you have growing past the top of the door to maybe 12 inches or so in height. Cut just above a leaf node.

Cutting it should not kill it, it will just promote some new growth from the stem that you cut. It also keeps it from getting so tall that the stems start to fall over.

I usually cut anything that has gotten tall enough or leggy enough that it no longer can stay upright without some type of support.

Also, turning the entire plant/pot once a month will help to keep it growing evenly on all sides, resulting in full, even growth all over the plant. Hope this helps, send along any other questions.

Pretty easy to do. I have added a picture of the Arboricola plant that she sent with the email. The pink Xs are the two stems that I would cut back right now. It is hard to tell if the tallest stem is growing directly from the soil or is a side shoot from another stem. If it is a side shoot it can be removed from the stem it grows out of. The smaller green lines are where I would cut, approximately.

You should always use sharp, clean, if not sterile, pruners when you cut your plants. Just like people, plants can get bacterial diseases, viruses, and fungal disease and they can be spread through infected tools.

Keeping your houseplants pruned, trimmed, and shaped helps keep them fuller looking. When you remove part of a stem, it releases growth hormones below the cut and helps to promote new, healthy grow on your plant. An over grown plant can also be a big problem if it ever needs to be repotted.

Keep your houseplants in shape and you also help keep them healthy and growing!

Syngonium houseplant is a native plant of tropical Central and South America. Syngonium podophyllum is also known as Nephthytis plant. Other common names for the Syngonium plant are Arrowhead plant, Elephant Ear plant, Butterfly plant and Goosefoot plant. You can find Syngonium with an all green leaf, green and white leaf, a pale, almost white leaf, and a pink leaf. There are a couple of pictures of Syngonium plant leaves below.

If kept in a moist, humid environment Syngonium will produce aerial roots that may attach to surfaces much like a Pothos plant or Philodendron Cordatum plant. These aerial roots can also be set into the soil resulting in a nice ground cover plant. Use Syngonium in a terrarium, as a table plant, hanging plant, or a climbing houseplant.

Watering Syngonium

The soil of your Syngonium houseplant can be kept somewhat moist during spring and summer, allowing only the top inch or two of soil to dry. There should be a reduction in watering your Syngonium during fall and winter months, allowing the soil to almost dry. Do not allow to dry completely but also avoid constantly soggy soil. See sections on watering your indoor plants and indoor houseplant lighting for further information that will benefit the health of your houseplants.

Other Care for Syngonium

Bright light and high humidity will be beneficial to the Syngonium plant. It will become thin, weak, and leggy in low light so a spot next to a window with bright, indirect light is ideal. Some morning sun is okay but keep out of hot, afternoon sun.

Temperatures for Syngonium should be kept above 60°F. The Syngonium is not a plant to expose to cold temperatures.

Regular showers with room temperature water are great for Syngonium, helping to discourage insects. Water evaporates quickly from the leaves of plants so it is not very effective as a way to increase humidity in the long term.

A new plant can be somewhat prone to insect problems. I have seen Syngonium with mites, mealybugs, and thrips. Purchase healthy, insect-free plants to avoid these pesky problems. Always inspect plant roots and foliage before you buy. Distorted foliage, spots, or holes in leaves, brown soggy roots should all be avoided when purchasing a new indoor house plant.

To keep your Syngonium happy and pest free, use a spray bottle to wash down weekly with water, making sure to hit the underside of the leaves. This will discourage insects and help keep your Syngonium plants leaves free of dust.

Apply to top and lower leaf and stem surfaces of your houseplants, being careful not to saturate the soil. You can clean by hand or use a spray bottle to apply your house plant cleaning solution. I use a sponge moistened with my cleaning solution to gently wipe the top and lower leaf surfaces. Cleaning of your houseplants should be a regular part of your house plant care.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon as information on indoor plants, pictures and more are being added all of the time. I hope that your indoor tropical houseplants and all of your plants and flowers are happy, green and growing because that is why I started this site PlantAndFlowerInfo.com.

If you have questions about the care of your houseplants, you can send an indoor house plant question. Visit the PlantAndFlowerInfo.com Facebook Page, a great place to find a compilation of plant, flower, gardening and landscape information, trivia and even humor! Thanks again…

Indoor House Plants Care

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