Bringing an aloe in from a shady porch where it has lived happily for a year and setting it on a south-facing windowsill for the winter seems like it should help, since more light can only be good. Within a few days, though, the tops of several leaves can go brown and slightly sunken, almost … Read more
Moving an African violet to a sunnier windowsill, thinking more light will help it bloom more, can come with a surprise: within days the leaves curl downward around the pot, almost cupping themselves, and feel noticeably thicker and stiffer than before. It looks like something is wrong, and the temptation is to move the plant … Read more
A Phalaenopsis watered on schedule, every week like clockwork, can still go soft and slightly pleated, like the leaves have lost some internal pressure. Increasing how much it’s watered, on the assumption that it just isn’t getting enough, makes the leaves worse instead of better. The problem often isn’t the watering schedule at all: slide … Read more
A jade plant left on an outdoor windowsill a little too long into a cold snap — just one unexpectedly frosty night — can show a handful of leaves gone glassy and soft, almost see-through at the edges, the next morning. The first assumption is overwatering, since that’s the usual suspect with succulents, and it’s … Read more
A money tree’s thick braided trunk makes it easy to assume, incorrectly, that it stores water the way a succulent does and can be watered on a similarly relaxed schedule. Keeping it on a stingy watering routine at first out of caution, then overcorrecting once it isn’t thriving and watering more generously without really checking … Read more
A rubber plant moved to a spot that looks perfect — bright corner, good light — can still end up in the path of a draft from the front door. Every time someone comes in during a cold snap, a little blast of cold air hits it. Watering is fine, soil moisture is fine, and … Read more
A jar of pothos cuttings on a kitchen windowsill, the classic way to propagate them, can look great for a solid three weeks with nice white roots forming. It’s easy to get a little complacent about changing the water since everything looks fine, and then the roots go dark and slimy and a couple of … Read more
Moving into an apartment with genuinely dry air, the kind where you can feel it on your skin within an hour of the heat kicking on, can leave a calathea’s leaves rolled into tight little tubes within about a week. It’s natural to assume the plant is dying and water it more, which does nothing … Read more
A whole stem on a ZZ plant can go completely yellow over about two weeks, base to tip, while every other stem stays dark green and glossy. It’s easy to become convinced the whole plant is dying and root rot has set in — but pulling the plant to check shows roots and rhizomes that … Read more
A spider plant that develops brown tips on basically every leaf within a few months of coming home, despite doing everything the care tag suggests, is easy to chalk up to watering — and fiddling with the watering rarely helps. Unpotting it can reveal the real cause: the entire pot is just roots, a dense … Read more