Indoor house plants need more attention than your typical outdoor plants. House plants and flowers have only you to provide them with proper water and light to promote healthy plant growth. House plant care, a place for sharing ideas with Plant Lovers to help you and your plants grow.
Dracaena Marginata House Plant One of My Favorites
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.
Philodendron has been in use as a houseplant since Victorian times and is still a very popular indoor plant today. Most commonly seen is the Philodendron Cordatum, sometimes called Sweetheart Plant. A long-time favorite, it has heart-shaped, green leaves that will trail off the edge of a shelf or climb, using its aerial roots.
Philodendron Silver is similar to the Philodendron Cordatum but has thicker, smaller leaves with a margin of silver. The leaf surface of this lovely foliage houseplant is splashed with silver markings. One of the vining, climbing types of philodendron, the Philodendron Silver and can be used as a hanging plant or table plant. Its small size also makes it ideal for planting in dish gardens or terrariums.
Philodendron Silver Houseplant
Houseplant questions or problems? You can send a Philodendron Silver houseplant care question, free of charge, with no sign-ups required!
Place your Philodendron Silver in medium to bright, indirect lighting. Keep out of direct sun, bright diffused light for your Philodendron Silver is preferable. Philodendrons will survive in lower light but, as with most other houseplants, will becomes leggy and thin under lower light conditions. Additional light from a fluorescent light is beneficial, if available. Temperatures for Philodendron Silver should be kept between 65°F and 80°F.
Philodendron Silver is a trailing plant and will often develop aerial roots and attach itself to wood, walls etc. and climb. This is most likely if there is an abundance of humidity in the air. It is a fairly fast-growing plant if cared for correctly.
Philodendron Silver Plant Watering
In bright, indirect light, water your Philodendron Silver when the soil has dried down about half the depth of the grow pot. Houseplants will not do well if kept too moist for a long period of time. Be sure not to overwater. In low light, allow to dry completely before watering. Please see the sections on watering your indoor plants and lighting for your indoor houseplants for information on the most important part of your houseplant’s health.
Other Philodendron Silver Care
Help keep your Philodendron Silver houseplant full by cutting back the longest of its vines occasionally to encourage new growth. Remove any leaves that become discolored or faded. If you are watering properly and the light is good, you should get some side shoots to help keep your house plant’s foliage full.
Philodendron Silver houseplant is, for the most part, trouble-free but the most common problem would be mealy bugs. These insects can damage your plant and should only be a problem on a new plant or if your plant has been exposed to another plant with mealy bugs. Be sure to check plants before you buy them for any apparent problems.
It is a good idea to quarantine any new additions to your house plant family for a few weeks just to be sure there are not any insects that were not noticed at first. Wash down your new house plant with a mixture of water and mild dish detergent. I like to add a few drops of Eucalyptus essential oil or Orange essential oil to my plant cleaning solution.
Apply to top and lower leaf and stem surfaces being careful not to saturate the soil. You can clean by hand or use a spray bottle to apply your plant cleaning solution. I use a sponge moistened with my cleaning solution to gently wipe the top and lower leaf surfaces. Cleaning of your house plants should be a regular part of your houseplant care. Read more about basic care for all of your houseplants.
Thanks for visiting and come back soon as information on houseplants, pictures and more are being added all of the time. I hope this has been helpful in the care of your Philodendron Silver plant and that all of your indoor tropical plants and all of your plants and flowers are happy, green, and growing because that is why I started this site PlantAndFlowerInfo.com.
Plants require light to produce food. Outdoors that is not a problem but for houseplants light can be quite limited.
I recently did a search for “houseplant care” and was surprised to see that the top, non-paid search result defined high light for an indoor plant as any light for more than six hours a day. Here is a quote from that result – “Houseplants typically require high light (six or more hours a day), medium light (four to six hours a day), or low light (less than three hours a day).” This is simply bad, and incorrect, information.
That gardener’s path is incorrect and I hope that if you find that website you will go on to other results as the person running that site is just making stuff up. He may have a few houseplants, or perhaps not, but…
First and most important, no houseplant should receive light for less than eight hours a day at the minimum. That is if you want your houseplant to be growing, not dying. Your houseplant requires light to produce food to keep itself alive.
Light is measured in intensity and foot candles and lumens are used to describe the light intensity. I have a light meter that measures light intensity but you may not need this type of tool for your plants at home. The meter is much the same as one that a photographer might use to make sure photographs look their best. You may not use a light meter but it is a good idea to know about light intensity, how it is measured, and how important it is for a healthy, growing houseplant.
Low light, medium light and high light fall between 25 foot candles to 250+ foot candles. Low light is at the lower end of that measurement and high light at the upper end. As an example, I have a sliding glass door that faces to the north. The light meter gives me a reading of about 185 foot candles just inside the door on an overcast day. A perfect spot for most houseplants (except my pets would eat them), bright light no direct sun.
When I step back from the glass door about 5 feet, I get a reading of about 40 foot candles, on the same overcast day. When I step outside the glass door onto the patio, same overcast day, I get a reading of 360 foot candles. That is a big difference. Just a note, this picture is not where I measured the light levels. Although, it does show houseplants in nice lighting.
While you may not be able to measure the light intensity in your home, suffice it to say that providing medium to bright indirect light is going to be best for just about any common houseplant. Pick the brightest spot with indirect light. For the most part, your houseplant will not need direct sunlight. Indirect sunlight will be fine.
Duration is the length of time your plant is exposed to light each day. This is called the day length or photoperiod. The amount or length of time that houseplants require light is 8 to 16 hours a day. Medium to high light is okay for just about any houseplant for a minimum of 8 hours. That is if you want to keep them growing and looking good.
Light quality is the next consideration. Sunlight is composed of different wave lengths or colors. It has all of the colors, or light wave lengths, that plants require to survive, thrive, and grow. These colors are the light spectrum. You can see many of those colors in a rainbow. Some are more essential to plant growth (blue and red) and may not be present with some types of artificial light. So indirect sunlight is easiest and best for assuring your plants do well. And it doesn’t cost you anything. Use either lights made for growing plants or cool white fluorescent lights if “real” light is not available.
There are many things that affect the natural light indoors, like the size of your windows, the time of year, cloudy, overcast days and even lots of trees growing outside of your windows. Keep these things in mind as you find a well-lit place for growing your indoor houseplants! If you have any houseplant care questions, you can send them my way. Thanks for visiting www.PlantAndFlowerInfo.com
Do you have indoor house plants that you would like to identify? There are many indoor plants that we use to grow indoors. Some of those houseplants are only available at a greenhouse or from a tropical houseplant grower but some of them are sold at your local home improvement store or local grocery store.
There are a few houseplants that most people have had if they ever tried to keep and grow an indoor potted houseplant. Pothos is a very common indoor plant and I see them everywhere as I am out taking care of plants in commercial interior landscape accounts. Peace Lily is another plant that many people have in their home or office.
If you have an indoor house plant that you would like to learn the name of and how to care for it, I have created a page on my website that shows pictures of the most common indoor houseplants for identification, their names and links to care pages for each plant.
