Houseplant Problem at Our Last House

I have always had an abundance of houseplants in every home we've lived in.  I do mean an abundance too, with houseplants in pretty much every room.  Houseplants are a wonderful natural way to soften a room, bring interest and life into a room and improve air quality.  Our last hose was horrid for houseplants and yet I never did figure out what the problem was.  I honestly believe the house was veiled in bad karma!

We moved into that house in June of 2007.  Every houseplant I brought with us and there were a lot, was dead within three weeks with the exception of my variegated pothos.  Even the poor pothos looked like it was struggling though.  I lost my beautiful Boston fern, asparagus fern, several African violets, all of my indoor herbs and even the potted English ivy.  I spent close to $100 replenishing my houseplants figuring there was something with the move that affected the houseplants.  Within the following three weeks most of the new plants were dead.  Over the next four years, every single houseplant I brought into the house died while the poor pothos continued to struggle.  I brought in tomato plant clippings and herbs from the garden.  It was a struggle to keep them going throughout the winter at that house and yet I had been doing that successfully for years in our other houses.  I started cacti seeds from Nevada brought back from our spring vacation in 2008.  They germinated and survived but were struggling as well.  Of the four springs that I started seed trays, the majority failed.

It was not for lack of effort.  I tried to troubleshoot.  There were no signs of insect infestation or fungal problems in the house.  I used chamomile tea to ward off any dampening off for seedlings, fertilized houseplants, moved them into the sunporch during the nicer weather, nippped and tucked them, supplemented with plant lighting and still the houseplants failed to thrive.

We started moving in here September 1 of this year.  I brought the struggling potos and cacti, a sad statement of how bad that house was for growing houseplants.  Within a week both were looking quite healthy!  I went houseplant shopping, picking up a few here and there whenever I had to go shopping for something else.  It has been a little over six weeks now since we started moving in and the houseplants are looking marvelous.  I can't wait to share what I bought with you, the reader!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
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