Everything you need to know about houseplants from two Minnesota experts

No matter what the season is, you can always enjoy some greenery and bring the great outdoors inside your home with houseplants. 

Houseplants saw a boom in popularity in 2020 when many people were stuck indoors because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In 2021, Americans spent more than $2 billion on indoor plants and accessories, up from $1.3 billion in 2019, according to the National Gardening Association. 

MPR News host Angela Davis talked with two houseplant experts: Jenn Hovland, a horticulturist, florist and owner of Studio Louise Flowers in Stillwater, Minn., and Maria Failla, the author of “Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants).” Here are their recommendations.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.   

What are good starter plants?

Hovland: If people have a really bright area, cacti and succulents are great because they don't need a lot of extra care. They just sit on the windowsill and look pretty. They bloom, too. If you don't have that really bright space in your home, you can also do something like a pothos or a sansevieria. Those are two types of plants that will thrive in lower light levels and are pretty hardy and easy to care for.

Failla: It's also about figuring out your personality type and what plants are suited for your personality. So if you're someone who really only wants to water your plants like once every couple of weeks, maybe you travel, maybe you have little kids, maybe you know you're out of your home a lot, succulents are great. But if you're a plant parent who wants to be incorporating plants into your everyday life and you try and water a succulent every day, that's a surefire way to kill it.

How is wellness related to houseplants?

Failla: What I found after investing thousands of dollars into therapy, retreats and different type of healing modalities, plants ended up being one of the most affordable and simple self-development tools that I had. Because I found that if I dedicated a little bit of time every day, which could be as short as one or two minutes, they create space. I think many of us go through our entire day without having a moment to ourselves to think own our own original thoughts.

How can I keep my pets off my plants?

Failla: There is a multitude of houseplants that are toxic for our pets, primarily dogs and cats. ASPCA is a great resource for toxic plants. Plants like the monstera and the poinsettia are very toxic. If you have pets that do nibble on your plants, make sure that you're bringing non-toxic plants home. You can spray apple cider vinegar on your plant leaves. Apparently, the pets don't like the taste of it. I have listeners who put river rocks in the bottom of their pots so that their cats don't go digging in them because their paws don't like the feeling of the river rocks on the bottom.

How to take care of your houseplants

• Clean the leaves: “It's a good idea just to wipe them down with a damp cloth or a paper towel,” said Hovland. It removes the dust from the plants so that they can better photosynthesize.

• Spring shower: “I love to put my plants in the shower once a season, and I'll actually mimic a real rainfall so that the water covers the whole plant,” explained Failla. The dust and any pests hiding under the leaves will drip off.

• Play classical music: “Classical music is like really good for your plants,” said caller Melanie in Wayzata. “I've been doing some research on it and plants can pick up on sound waves. Heavy metal is not good for plants, but classical music — specifically string instrument pieces — are really good for your plants. Some scientific studies have shown that it helps promote growth of indoor plants.”

• Keep an eye on the light levels: “To our eyes, a bright room seems bright all the way across the room,” said Hovland. But “if you were to take a light meter and put it right against the window, versus putting that light meter 10 feet into the room against the wall, there is a huge difference in the quantity and the quality of the light. So moving a plant to a brighter location absolutely can help.”

• Bottom-soak your plants to avoid hydrophobia: “Sometimes our plants get too dried out and then that soil is so dry that it’s almost like a flash flood when you water with a watering can and it just goes straight across the top and is not absorbing,” explained Hovland. “A really good remedy for that is to bottom-soak those plants. You can fill your bathtub or a sink or a small dish with water, set the pot in the water and let it hydrate all the way up until the soil surface feels moist.”

Some personalized tips:

• Orchids: A learned lesson from the experts is to avoid putting ice cubes on your orchids. Some stores will indicate to do it in the instructions, however, “there’s no freezing water in the jungle for these orchids to get. So the fact that you're putting this cold ice cube on their roots directly because they're not planted in soil, it's just so uncomfortable for those roots,” said Failla.

• Fiddle-leaf fig: Failla said it is “one of the most Instagram-famous plants you've ever seen.” She added that it’s “a notoriously finicky plant” and “vigorous growers” that may need to be pruned. They also don’t like being moved and “need more light than you think you’re giving them.”

• Carnivorous plants: Tom in Fargo, N.D. expressed his enjoyment in having “really interesting” plants including venus flytraps, pitcher plants and sundews. Failla said keeping them in your collection can keep pests away. If you are interested in owning a carnivorous plant, Failla recommends starting with sundews or Mexican butterworts. Hovland said these types of plants need special care because they love moisture and high humidity.

Some houseplants from our host and listeners

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 Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.