Give Your Houseplants Some TLC

With this summer now two-thirds gone, you may have been neglecting your plants.

Actually, you may have been ignoring them, but now’s the time to give your houseplants a good dose of TLC so they can continue to delight you as the days get shorter and colder. After all, few of us buy these plants for the outdoors even though many of you give them “vacations” in the garden, on the deck and patio.

No matter where your houseplants are, they get dirty, insect problems can show up and yes, they may be suffering from neglect. Giving them some TLC now can pay great dividends in the colder months and also avoid issues that can make them unwanted guests.

Most of these plants trace their roots and shoots to their tropical origins. Many are from areas low in the tropical forest understory but even there they are subject to seasonal changes. Even in your living room they respond to their genetic code and the seasonal changes down in the Southern Hemisphere even when grown up north. If you don’t understand this you’ll never really truly understand these plants and how to live with them. They can learn to make do. But we need to do the same and give them some accommodation.

Most, but not all, never grow in direct sunlight. Not all grow in the soil and are epiphytes just using their roots to hang on to larger tree branches, and there are even some epiphytes that are sun lovers growing out in the open or at the top of the forest canopy. Want to have a great relationship with your houseplants? Learn more about them and where they really come from. While they may be grown in Florida or a southern greenhouse — search even farther.

Now, however, is the time to inspect them and clean them. This usually means getting them outdoors, giving them a good shower then inspecting them for the little critters that you can get control of now. Once back indoors — which they should be by mid-September — it’s nearly impossible to control several of the insects that may have hitched a ride on your plants long before they became “your” plants. One single, tiny mealybug that came with your plant a few months or years ago can slowly become hundreds, only to be noticed when they become a serious issue.

No matter how big (or small) make every attempt you can to get your plants outside. Set them in a shady spot where the sun won’t beat down on them. These plants, just like us, can get bad sunburns if over exposed. If the plant or plants are tall you may need a short step stool or ladder so you can look at the top of the plant as well as the rest.

You’ll either need a hose with a spray nozzle or misting attachment or a bucket for water and a large sponge. The water should be room temperature and not freezing cold or hot — luke warm to room temperature is perfect. But before we get into the water part, look over the plant very carefully. On the leaves and stems, you’re looking for signs of insects. The primary villains are spider mites, mealybugs and scale. The mealybugs and scale will have come with your plant when you bought it but only emerged or become visible since. Both will need to be treated though some hand removal is possible. Spider mites may come from other plants, or you may have picked them up if your plant was outdoors.

Mealybugs and scale just don’t “happen” like mites can. The only way houseplants can get mealybugs or scale is if they were in physical contact with another plant that has them and they walked (ever so slowly) from one plant to another. They don’t fly and they don’t spontaneously generate into existence. Both are small and in their early stages both are mobile and moving around. As they mature the mealybugs surround themselves with a cottony covering and the scale develops a hard shell. This is when they are most difficult to control, but not impossible.

Spider mites can be present at any time and can enter your house on other plants, a wisp of wind or from being outdoors near or touching another infected plant. They are, however, the easiest to control when discovered early — and they are tiny. Very tiny. When you see their fine webbing, it may be too late for your plant (like a gardenia) to recover. If you learn how to spot them (with a magnifying glass or jewelers loupe) when the population is just starting, they are easy to manage.

So, first, do your inspection. Be thorough from top to bottom looking in cracks and crevices as well as on the foliage for the mealybugs and scale. Remember, you may find them in the crawler stage while they slowly move around or in their mature state when they are immobile. All stages need to be dealt with. Don’t panic.

Look for spider mites primarily on the leaves. They are quite fond of Hibiscus, Gardenias, small-leaved Ficus like F. benjimina, miniature roses and more. One telltale sign is a yellow stippling of the leaves, but when you find this happening controls may be too late depending on how damaged the plant is.

When your inspection is done make notes of what you find and where. If you find nothing, great, but your work isn’t done. At this point the plant needs to be washed or showered. A light spray or strong mist will wash off the dirt and grime so start from the top and work toward the bottom. Make sure you get the tops of the foliage and the undersides as well. If you’re fastidious about this, do it twice, a day apart, out of the sun.

Having been bathed or showered, the plants will get a coating of neem oil. You can use neem oil that is sold in most garden centers like Captain Jack’s or Bonide (same company). This oil will kill some of the insects it comes into contact with but not all of them and will give the foliage a nice clean sheen. DO NOT wipe it off, just let it dry. It will kill any mites it comes into contact with but not the mite eggs. It may also reduce the population of scale and mealybugs but it won’t kill all of them. There is a better solution.

Several weeks ago I wrote about cold-pressed neem oil. This oil contains an organic natural ingredient that the other type noted above doesn’t have. It’s been refined out. This active ingredient is called Azadiracthin and not only kills the adults but the eggs as well. It also suppresses the insect’s ability to reproduce and to eat. If you’ve noticed whitefly on your plants this product will also control them as well. And like the other neem oil, it will also clean and shine the foliage.

The cold-pressed neem oil is sprayed on once diluted and just allowed to dry. You can check local garden centers for it but most won’t have it. You can also buy it on Amazon where you can get a 23-ounce jug of Verdana organic cold-pressed neem oil for $30. You’ll also need a sprayer, and any sprayer will do, from a 1-quart spritzer to a1-gallon (or more) compression sprayer.

The mixing and application instructions are important. The label says to add 1 ounce of the oil with 1 ounce of “soap” to a gallon of water. You’ll find it much easier to add 1 ounce of the oil with seven to 10 drops — just drops — of Joy Ultra dish detergent to a gallon of warm water and mix well. The Joy allows the oil and water to mix well, and the neem works best with warm water — not cold, not hot, but warm water.

Spray the entire plant from top to bottom making sure you cover the tops of the leaves, the bottoms as well as the stems and trunk. Once the solution has dried the plant can be moved back indoors. However, if you’ve discovered a large population of any of the insects I’ve noted it can only help to make a second application seven to 10 days later.

If you’ve made the application correctly you’ve probably resolved the insect problem for good. And if that’s not good enough for you, remember that this product is not just organic but a cosmetic grade organic that’s safe around pets, bees and birds.

Don’t save any of the spray though. It’s only good for 24 hours once diluted. However, using a small misting bottle you can always make a small amount any time and safely use it indoors as long as you protect furniture, flooring and other stuff from the spray.

This is a simple solution for a problem that used to mean trashing an infected plant or months and months of spraying. I wish it had been available when I was selling and growing houseplants — now called “tropical foliage.” Get this done as soon as you can and of course, keep growing.