Hints for houseplants

•  Free houseplants

Every time you eat an avocado, save the stone and grow a houseplant. Just clean the stone pit and insert three sturdy toothpicks into it just above the base. Fill a drinking glass with water and put the stone on its rim. Change the water often and top it off as necessary.

After several weeks, the stone will sprout a shoot and roots, at which point you can put your fledgling houseplant. Keep the pot in a sunny position and pinch back new shoots, including the central leader stem, to make the plant bushier. Planted in rich soil outside, it should fruit in seven years. (Do not pinch out the leader before planting.)

•  Coffee filter soil guard

When potting plants in flowerpots, put it small coffee filter in the bottom of the pot first, then add drainage material and soil. This way, excess water will leak out of the drainage hole while the soil stays put.

•  Cleaning hairy or corrugated leaves

 Smooth-leaved houseplants can be cleaned by wiping with a damp paper towel, but hairy or corrugated leaves require special care.

1. Brush dust away An effective way to clean African violets and other hairy-leaved houseplants is with a soft-bristled toothbrush, a paintbrush or, best of all, a pipe cleaner. Brush gently from the base of each leaf toward the tip.
2. Breeze dust away Dust plants with corrugated leaves with a hair dryer. Set the appliance on Cool or Low and blow air onto every leaf.
3.  The cloth-glove trick

Wearing an old cloth glove lets you clean houseplant leaves in half the time. Just run each leaf through your gloved fingers from bottom to top and you’ve dusted both sides at once.

•  Go one size larger

To prevent houseplants from becoming root bound (and dying out too quickly), replant them in a larger container. Add extra soil to the bottom and sides of the pot, and your plants should grow faster and live twice as long.

•  A when-to-water pencil gauge

Houseplant manuals tell you to water whenever the soil dries out, but determining dryness is easier said than done. Here’s an easy trick that’s foolproof: push a pencil deep into the soil then pull it out. If bits of dirt cling to the bare wood point, the soil is still moist. If the pencil comes up clean, it’s time to water your houseplant.

•  Water with ice cubes

Place ice cubes on top of the soil of potted plants, making sure that they don’t touch the stem. The ice will melt slowly, releasing water gradually and evenly into the soil.

•  Pot within pot

Use a casserole dish, Dutch oven or large saucepan to water cacti and succulents. Just pour a few centimetres of water into the pot, put in the houseplant and leave it there until no more air bubbles come to the water’s surface. Drain the plant well before putting it onto a saucer. Other houseplants that benefit from the pot-in-a-pot method include anthuriums and grassy-leaved sweet flag (Acorns gramineus).