Hints and Tips

A bunch of helpful hints and tips.

1)Roses like your used coffee and tea grounds. Make sure the tea bags are'nt flavored though. They also like banana peels. Just mix them into the soil at planting time or cut them up and scrape off the top layer of soil and recover.

2)Just because it's a tropical plant does'nt mean it like full sun. Most tropical house plants you buy grow on the rainforest floor. They don't recieve much direct sun because the canopy of the trees growing above them filter it out. They probably would prefer a really bright location with little direct sun.

3)It ok to reuse pots but you should clean and sanitize the pot before you put a new plant in it. This is simple to do. Wash all the dirt off the sides of the pot. soak you pot in a Mixture of 9 parts water to 1 parts bleach. Make sure the pots are submerged under the liquid. Let them soad for several hours. If it's a plastic pot just rinse it off after it has soaked. If it's a clay pot you will have to let it soak in plain water for a couple more hours to clean the bleach out. I usually let the clay ones sit in the hot sun for awhile after they have soaked for the second time. I feel it bakes the bleach out. I don't know if it does but I like to think it does.

4)A good way to get rid of pests on your plants is to mix a couple drops of dish soap and warm water together and spray you plant real good. Spray all over the pests. It won't harm your plant. It's a cheap way to get rid of pests. If that does'nt work you'll have to go to your local garden center and ask them for an insectidcide.

5)When repotting a plant make sure the pot to pick for it is'nt too big. You should only have about an inch of space between the plant and the sides of the new pot. If the plant does'nt have a lot of root growth on it than it's probably best not to go bigger just yet.

6)When you dead head your roses or cut off dead cames put elmers glue on the cut to seal it so pests can't infest you rose and kill it.

7)Be sure to clean your pruners between each cut and deffinatley between each plant to sanitize them and keep from infecting your plants.

8)Most tropical plants like high humidity so to help raise the humidity around the plant mist around the plant. Don't mist the plant it's self but the area around it. Misting the plant it's self will just make the leaves wet. It won't raise the humidity.

9) African violets don't like to be watered from the top. Watering from the top can be a bad move. Water on the leaves can cause spots and the leaves to rot. Let the plant soak up water from the bottom.

-Ducky Layne-

I'll add more as I find them out. :D