4 Easy Ways To Get Started With Houseplants

Yes, it’s all about houseplants today. I shared last month about becoming a plant lady, and if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that my love of houseplants continues to bloom. I suspect that many of us have started a love affair with houseplants this year and there are many beginners and newcomers to houseplants, when we’re staying in our homes more. That’s certainly how it crept up on me. I already had a few houseplants dotted around, but I now have over 40 and I can only see that number continuing to grow. If you’re interested in growing your houseplants collection, then today I’d like to share with you 4 easy ways to get started with houseplants.

Houseplants are good for us, for both our physical and mental health. I think this was one of the things that struck me first and sent me off down the route of getting some plants. It’s such an easy way to improve our environments and in turn our health. Of course, once you get a few, the house plant addiction quickly takes root and before you know it, they are everywhere in your home!

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you order anything from these links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you. 

4 easy ways to begin your life with houseplants

Take a look around and decide which houseplants you like

This is a fun place to begin and an easy way to get started with houseplants. There are a lot of different houseplants out there, and some you’ll no doubt acquire because you happen to spot one whilst you’re out and about and some you might be fortunate enough to be given. There will then be those ones that are on your wish list.

For me, Instagram has been my inspiration here. Accounts that I follow or hash tags searched have given me plenty of ideas and my plant wish lists has steadily grown.

I think if I was living ‘in real life’ right now, rather than ‘coming out of lock-down and being very cautious’ life, I’d have spotted a lot in the homes of friends and family or when out and about in shops and garden centres. I’ve not been doing much of any of this lately, but when I do, I am sure I will spot plants I want everywhere I go!

Improve your houseplants knowledge

I know that I am fortunate with this one as my mum is very green-fingered. I have someone to talk me through and show me about re-potting my plants and taking cuttings and so on, so first stop, look around for a friend who might be able to help out. If they’re anything like me, they will be only too happy to chat plants. And of course, I’m always going to recommend that you pick up a book to help you – the book and plant combo makes me happy!

How To Houseplant: A Beginner’s Guide – Click To Buy

There are then endless articles you can read, YouTube videos to watch, Instagram tags to follow (I like #houseplantcommunity and #houseplantclub) and groups to join. I recently joined the UK houseplant swap and sell Facebook group which, along with swapping and selling, has lots of chats, advice and inspiration about plants. Then I also enjoy Houseplant Enthusiasts and Houseplant Swap Club. I also notice that there are many smaller Facebook groups that might be specific to your local area and are worth a look.

There is advice out there on every single plant, so whenever you get a new one, take a moment to find out how it best likes to be kept and then see how is gets on and move them to a new place if need be to ensure that it thrives.

houseplants

Get those houseplants

There are so many places that sell houseplants now, you are not going to struggle on this one. 

Let me begin with ‘free’ plants as an option, as this is the ideal, isn’t it? Splitting plants and taking cuttings from them, then sharing them with friends has got to be the best way to do this and it’s a lovely thing to do. Many of my plants are still quite small themselves, but as they begin to prosper, I plan to start taking cuttings from them and potting them up for friends. There are then the swap groups I’ve mentioned and if you pop over to places like Etsy and eBay you’ll find lots of people selling cuttings of plants which can be more affordable.

Some houseplants can be grown from seed, and this is going to be my next project to try. I’ve had a beautiful, fast-growing Coleus from my mum’s greenhouse that she grew from seed and it has made me want to give this a go myself. I hope to get a few seeds growing, along with propagating from a range of cuttings, and fingers crossed I’ll have some baby houseplants soon.

There are thousands of online options, so you can buy your plants right now, without leaving the comfort of your own home. You could order these easy care, beautiful plants now and your houseplant life will begin!

Houseplant Collection – Click To Buy

When buying when you’re out and about, try supermarkets, value stores and nurseries, as well as garden centres. Have fun plant shopping! 

indoor houseplants

Get equipped to care for your houseplants

This one is nice and easy. Our plants need little from us. They need varying degrees of light (you can Google care guides for each of the plants you get to find out the light and conditions that it prefers and then watch it to see how it does in its new spot, or use a book or Facebook group to help), water, food and attention. That’s pretty much it. Of course some plants can be more temperamental and require more attention than others, so as a starting point, you might want to go for some easy to care for houseplants and build up from there.

As a general rule of thumb, I water mine once a week at the moment and every other week I include a plant food when I water them. I’ll reduce this in the colder months. Of course I do check how wet/dry they are as I do this and adjust watering them accordingly as some plants need more than others and some are in larger pots than others. I do have a few that I also mist every few days, but I know that some people swear by misting and some don’t, so you’ll have to make up your own mind about this one.

All you really need is a container to water them, ideally with a long thin funnel. I’ve recently bought this one (mine is grey, they have a few colour options), having looked around for a surprisingly long time for a watering can that I liked. I wanted it to be functional, but also stylish as it’s out on my worktop with water in all of the time as I favour watering with room temperature water. This was it’s easy to leave it out sitting ready to go and I think it looks rather gorgeous. 

Indoor Watering Can – Click To Buy

Then some plant feed, I pick mine up with my supermarket shopping, and a misting bottle if you want one. If and when the time comes for you to then re-pot your plants as they are growing or you want to split them, it’s worth having a few pots and some compost in too.

And that’s really it. You are good to go! You are now ready to get started with houseplants.

Has the houseplant bug bitten you?

This post contains affiliate links

Sharing is caring!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *