Intro to Houseplant Care Guide

Beginner's guide for houseplant care

Here at Uprooted, we want to provide realistic and easy to understand houseplant care tips. We know how confusing it can be when you're starting your journey into understanding indoor plant care. There's a lot of generic and contradictory information out there! This guide will

  • Explain the basic of houseplant care - think of it as a houseplant care 101
  • Explore four key areas of houseplant care: light, water, soil and repotting, and fertiliser and pest products
  • Give you bite-size information. We've divided this into a five part post series (including this one) so you can read the all at once if you like, or take your time and read one at a time to absorb the info
  • Provide relatable information with a big dash of common sense - it's written by plant loving humans who have lived side-by-side with houseplants, observed their quirks; chatted with thousands of plant lovers and read everything we could get our hands on!
  • Empower you as a new plant owner to have a stress free and easy experience with your new unicorns and green friends

First and foremost, there is no right or wrong when it comes to plant care

This is an important thing to keep in mind! Just like there is no single recipe for spaghetti bolognese (maybe your Nonna would beg to differ), there are loads of ways to care for plants. They've been around a lot longer than us mere humans, and are way more resilient than you could imagine. This is why understanding that there is not one "right" way to care for houseplants - they can survive the battering of a harsh storm, the intense conditions of drought, and so much more. 

Don't forget that plants are living organisms

It is easy to forget that plants are deeply complex living organisms, especially when they can look so spectacular on display in your home. You know those time lapse videos that show a vine reaching up and curling around in circles like this example? This is a great reminder that plants live and move on a slower timeline than people, but are capable of big things if given the space. The reality is that any plant you have in your home will change in comparison to how it looked when you brought it home. It might lean in a certain direction, it might develop brown tips, it might grow long vines without leaves on them, it might grow smaller leaves than its original ones. Attributes like these sometimes are referred to as imperfections, but are actually just a sign that your plant is in fact just living! We encourage you to embrace these "flaws", and in the next few posts we will explain how some of the fundamentals of plant care (such as light and water) impact how a plant grows when it's placed inside our homes.

What to expect from this guide

In this guide we'll share advice and suggestions on how to care for a new houseplant. These suggestions may stem from best practice principles, or are just options we've found to be easier than others. You might notice we purposefully avoid terms like "always" or "never" or "you must" (and so on) because we understand and appreciate how resilient plants are. You only have to look at the Maiden Hair Fern, deemed by some as "impossible to keep alive" as a houseplant, yet will readily grow out of the cracks of a stone wall out in the wild!

So, let's get into it! This guide will cover off the below categories. Ciick each point below to skip ahead to the topic that interests you:

  • Light – common terms and how to understand light in your space.
  • Water – how and when to water your plants, what happens when you water a plant too much or too little, and more.
  • Soil & Repotting – how to choose the right soil and when to repot your plant.
  • Fertiliser and pest products – what products are useful for your plants and how to use them.

Have any questions?

Get in touch at hello@uprooted.com.au - we are just one friendly email away!

So, shall we get started?

Start with our section on light by clicking below.

 Houseplant care guide: light