Houseplant care checklist
Most houseplants die of kindness in winter and neglect in summer. This runs as a monthly round, with the seasonal jobs marked where they belong.
32 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- Every week
- Check the compost with a finger, not a calendarWater when the top two centimetres are dry.
- Empty any saucer that still has water in it
- Turn each pot a quarter, so they grow straight
- Look under the leaves for pests
- Every month
- Dust the leavesA dusty leaf is a leaf doing less photosynthesis.
- Remove dead leaves and spent flowers
- Feed, but only in spring and summer
- Check nothing has outgrown its pot
- Spring
- Repot anything root-bound, one size up
- Fresh compost on the top of the big pots
- Start feeding again
- Prune leggy growth
- Take cuttings from anything you want more of
- Summer
- Move anything scorching away from the south window
- Water more often, and check twice a week in heat
- Mist the ones that want humidity
- Arrange watering before you go away
- Autumn and winter
- Stop feeding
- Water much lessThis is when most houseplants are killed, and it is with a watering can.
- Move plants off cold windowsills at night
- Away from radiators
- Wipe the windows so they get what light there is
- Kit worth having
- Watering can with a long spout
- Liquid feed
- Spare pots one size up
- Peat-free compost
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- How often should I water?
- When the top two centimetres of compost are dry, not on a schedule. Overwatering kills far more houseplants than drought does, and it looks the same at first.
- When should I repot?
- Spring, and only when roots are coming out of the drainage holes or the plant dries out within a day. Go up one pot size, never three.