My plant room is probably my favorite space in my home. It’s filled with sunlight and lush with more than 30 plants, from a baby crown of thorns to a towering bird of paradise whose leaves threaten to touch the ceiling.
Maintaining a large plant collection can take a lot of time and energy, but I’ve figured out how to streamline care for so many specimens and ensure the plants get what they need. Here are my tips for managing a roomful of lush, leafy houseplants.
Plant Selection
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One big reason I chose the house I live in is because of this room’s large bay window and southern exposure, ideal for light-hungry indoor plants. But it’s taken some time to figure out exactly which ones will thrive in this bright, sunny space.
Plenty of varieties that prefer shadier conditions struggled, even as I placed them at the opposite end of the room from that big, bright window. Some have adapted, but I ended up passing on others to fellow gardeners.
Consider temperature as you populate your plant room, too. I’m lucky to have the extra space, but because I have a separate bedroom and home office, it’s not cost-effective to heat and cool my plant room to ideal levels year-round. My plants need to be able to handle 90°F temps in summer and 60°F temps in winter.
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Arranging Plants
Shelving is your friend! Two vertical shelves flank my plant room’s bay window, holding sun-loving plants like African milk trees and fiddle leaf fig props. Lower shelves are ideal for plants that thrive with bright indirect light.
At the back of the room, more than 10 feet from the window, I have a corner shelf for plants that prefer medium indirect light, like philodendrons, satin pothos, orchids, and bird’s nest ferns.
Larger specimens like monstera, rubber plant, and bird of paradise sit in cache pots directly on the floor or on low plant stands around the perimeter of the room according to their light needs. I reserve ceiling hooks in the sunny window for light-loving trailing plants like succulents.
Plant Room Gear
The Spruce / K. Dave
I’m not the kind of indoor gardener who relies on fancy gadgets like moisture meters or hygrometers. I use plastic takeout containers and bins for watering (more on this in a minute), basic grow light bulbs screwed into a vintage floor lamp for my calamansi tree in winter, and repurposed takeout container lids as saucers. You don’t need a lot of fancy gear to help your plants thrive!
Watering, Fertilizing, and Repotting
Watering a sizeable plant collection takes a lot of effort. I lay down a small tarp in the middle of the room to protect my hardwood floors. I fill a 30-gallon storage bin about a quarter of the way with water and put it on the tarp with another empty bin. During spring and summer, I’ll add half the recommended amount of liquid fertilizer to the water once a month.
I place each plant in the bin of water, using a combination of top and bottom watering by pouring water over each pot’s soil with the pint container. Once the soil is saturated, each one moves to the empty bin to drain before it goes back to its cache pot or saucer.
When I’m all done, I only have a little water left, which I dump outdoors. This process takes a little over an hour but minimizes the amount of water I need and the distance from each plant to the water source. I water weekly-ish in summer and closer to every two weeks in winter.
Repotting happens similarly. The tarp goes down to minimize mess. I use bins to transport multiple plants at once or hold discarded potting mix, which I’ll reuse to bulk up the soil in outdoor ornamental plantings.
Pest Management
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My biggest pest problem in my current plant room is fungus gnats, which I’ve dealt with before using Bti. This bacteria is safe for your plants but kills fungus gnat larvae in the soil before they can hatch.
It’s typically an issue after bringing plants in from my porch in fall, as I’ve learned to quarantine and inspect new plants carefully to catch any pest issues before they can affect the rest of my collection. I use sticky traps to track progress after treating the soil for pests.
