Indoor conditions are often unsuitable for plants mainly because the atmosphere is very dry. The majority of houseplants are evergreens from tropical countries where the atmosphere is damp. A moist atmosphere in the house is uncomfortable but it is possible to create a moist zone around plants, by standing the pot or pots in some container, which will either contain water or which can be kept moist. You can put pebbles in a dish, nearly cover them with water and stand the pot on the pebbles or you can get rather a deep bowl, plunge the pot in some moisture-retaining material, which can be peat, or sand or moss, and keep this surrounded always rather moist.
LIGHT-
Compared to even a rather shady situation outside the light in rooms is not very satisfactory. It is naturally, at its best on the windowsill and goes down to a near impossible level in corridors and halls. Some plants have evolved to grow in extremely poor light conditions, but it is only in the very densest forests that you will find the dark conditions of part of our houses. Plants tend to grow towards the light, so if your plant is lit from one window only, turn it slightly every week, so that all parts of the plant will be illuminated in turn.
AIR-
Apart from increasing the humidity of the air, there are other considerations. Draughts are appreciated by plants as little as they are by humans. A draught is a localized stream of cold air, which will attack a portion of the plant only. This will first cause the leaves to drop and may eventually kill the plant, so a very situation should be avoided. Fumes from various forms of heating are another problem. Paraffin oil heaters are normally fairly innocuous, although a few plants will shed leaves if placed near them, but if something goes wrong and the appliance smokes, you may well find many of your houseplants dying. The fumes from gas fires used to be harmful to many plants, but the fumes of north sea gas do not seem to damage plants. Coal fires seem to be harmless and of course central heating which maintains a more or less even temperature is the ideal. In the open air it is a safe assumption that the temperature will be lower at night than during the daylight hours. If you are out at work all day and you don’t have central heating, you will not light your fires until you come home, so that you may get the appalling conditions from the plant’s point of view, of a cold day and a hot evening. Many plants are very tolerant and can survive these unnatural conditions but bear in mind that it is the day time temperature that is the important figure to watch, as it is during the daylight hours that most of the growth is made. |
