Holiday care

As many look forward to a summer break, we ask Green Rooms –the marketplace for plant lovers –for their top tips and product suggestions to help take the stress out of plant care while you’re away...

Most houseplants like Monstera, Epipremnu, Sansevieria and Pilea, for example, will be happy for a week or two without water if watered before you go and grouped together out of direct sunlight. Grouping the plants together will allow them to make the most of the increased humidity as they all transpire, releasing moisture from their leaves.

The plants that you ought to take extra precautions for, however, are those that don’t like their soil to dry out –think Calathea, Maranta and Ferns that are native to the shadier, damp conditions of tropical forest floors. A great solution is self-watering pots. Simply fill the reservoir at the bottom of the pot, feed the wicking cord from the water reservoir into the soil, and there you have it. The plant will take up as much water as it needs slowly over time.

Green Rooms’ top picks of self-watering pots: For small plants, we love the Potr self-watering pot (10cm, £16; various colour options available).

Forlargerplants, we’d choose the Potr self-watering pot (18cm, £24; other colour options available).

Fortheminimalistdesign-lover, Flo Stand selfwatering pot in white, £65 (picturedleft).

Forthecolour-lovers, go for the Flo Hang selfwatering pot in yellow, £70 (pictured right).

Sun lovers

Cacti and succulents are happy with periods of drought, so if the soil is completely dry, give them a good drenching of water before you go away, then you won’t need to worry about those sun lovers for a good few weeks. n

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