How I Learned to Keep Houseplants Alive (plus a watercolor tutorial)
I always believed I had a black thumb, no plant stayed alive in my care except one. And that one was alive, but definitely not thriving. It sat there looking sad, but I was just happy it wasn’t dead. Deep down I knew I wanted more plants, but I kept making excuses instead of trying.
You know the ones, I don’t have time, I can’t do it. These thoughts stop us in our tracks before we start. One of the greatest mind shifts I ever learned was to ask how can I do it. That tiny word how gets our brain to start thinking of solutions.
I do have a plant collection now and they are thriving, not just surviving. Let me tell you how it started, my top tips to keep plants alive, and the easiest ones to start with (that are also pet-safe). Plus, I have a little surprise for you at the end.
How my plant collection started
Did you start a new hobby during Covid? That’s how my plant collection started. I needed an outlet that didn’t have to do with virtual school, making meals, cleaning the house, or keeping my kids occupied. I wanted to see something grow and thrive in the middle of a season where I felt like I was wilting.
I started researching plants that were easy to care for and learned about their light and water requirements. With this new knowledge in hand, I went to a local greenhouse, found a couple of plants, and began to try.
Once I got the hang of taking care of a few plants, the obsession began. My kids wanted to visit the greenhouse with me and wanted their own plants to take care of too. One plant turned into 15 and the collection is still growing. Want to know how I ended up keeping them alive? Check out my top tips next.
My top 2 tips for keeping plants alive
My number one tip, I named my plants. Sounds ridiculous right? It probably is a little bit but here’s my rationalization. I figured if I personalized the plants by naming them, I’d feel more connected to them and make an effort to keep them alive. Guess what? It worked!
When I say I need to water Jack (my fiddle leaf fig, my daughter named it, thinking it looked like a beanstalk) it’s much more appealing than I need to water my plant. Try it, I promise it works.
My second tip, use an app to track your progress and care. I use Vera. It allows you to take pictures, so you can see what your plant used to look like and what it looks like later.
You can schedule watering, make notes about light and water requirements, and reminders about fertilizing or repotting.
I used this a ton in the beginning until I learned some things about my plants.
4 Easy Plants to Try First
I knew I needed to start with easy-to-care-for plants. They also needed to be cat safe. That limited my options, but not a ton. A few that kept popping up were:
Peperomia - One of my favorite varieties of plant is the Peperomia. They are easy to care for, cat safe, and have over a thousand varieties. Every time I go to my local greenhouse, they have a new variety I haven’t seen before. I have I think I have six or seven different types of peperomia and I love them all.
Calathea - I also love Calathea, but so does my cat. He eats the leaves, so I’ve tried to avoid getting those lately even though I love them. I have three of those that are outside for the summer to help them regrow their chewed-up leaves.
Pilea - This is another excellent starter plant. I had an Aluminum plant named Deko that my cat ate, but I still have a Chinese Money Plant that’s getting huge!
Spider Plant - Another one that’s easy to grow, but also lovely to munch on according to my tabby cat, Link.
If you have cats, it seems to be hit or miss on what they like to chew on. Mine seems to enjoy narrow leaves like spider plants and ferns or thin leaves like the calathea plants have. I do have a fiddle leaf fig, which is not cat safe, but they don’t bother plants with giganto leaves.
Are you feeling excited to try out growing a houseplant? I hope you feel more empowered than ever to be able to make a plant thrive in your home. You never know, you may end up with a gorgeous plant jungle.
For those of you who really don’t want a live plant, paint a watercolor plant with me instead. Let’s go!
