I'm Andrew from smartgardenguide.com and I'll be sharing all my favorite houseplants and indoor gardening tips with you. Learn how to grow and care for amazing indoor plants and watch as I try to grow all kinds of plants at home.
I'm an indoor gardening enthusiast who loves growing all kinds of indoor plants. I'm an enthusiastic amateur, but learning all the time. Share my gardening successes and failures with me as I try to grow all kinds of plants using a range of growing techniques. Whether it's hunting down rare houseplants, growing hydroponic lettuce in my garage, or nurturing my growing collection of orchids, I can't get enough of watching and helping my plants to grow.
I hope you enjoy this channel and hopefully I can help you develop your own growing skills. Please let me know about the truckload of factual errors in my videos. I'm trying my best, but I'm always learning with help from others.
I also run smartgardenguide.com which is my website about indoor gardening.
Looked at my plant again, and it is not a cast iron. It is a Janet Craig dracaena that is toxic. Happy to learn about another non-toxic plant. Thank you for you video.
I love your voice. Hello, I will be picking mine up June 15/24 I think he is about 19 inches tall in a good filled 6 inch pot. Thanks for the information. Love and Peace.
Please help!!!! I have a calathea warscewiczii, which I loved it and now I hate it. I try to keep up with it's needs, but despite some of the brown cripsy edges, I have gain a lot of new leaves, my problem is that it was already tall when I bought it, but now it is very crowded at the top, which makes the light distribution hard but also ugly. How can I somehow shorten it? I don't want to throw it away but I don't like to see her like that.
This is the most informative video for this plant. I've essentially gone by all of the recommendations here and my plant has thrived. Seriously, humidity is key, and don't touch the roots when repotting! I did mess with the roots when I repotted in August of 2023, and it took until about April of 2024 for the plant to finally stop looking like it was ill. I call it my drama plant, but in reality she's been really easy bc this plant never misses a moment to tell me something's wrong. She is plant zero for mites. They love the delicate velvet leaves so much. Mine is treated with a pesticide I put in the soil, and if I see mites i apply weekly neem oil spray downs for 8 weeks.
Great choices! Why did you say that snake plant you water once a month in summer but every 6 weeks in winter? Isn't it drier in winter therefore the plants need to be watered more frequently? Thank you
Great tips. Thank you I have always thought that it is better to water the plants where they are instead of taking them to the kitchen back and forth which I understand can upset them. So what do you think of watering where they are? Just put water in the tray that they are resting on.
Very pleasant video, could listen to it while doing other stuff without worrying about missing out on anything visual, and for such a strong accent it was very clear and easy to follow! 10/10 would watch again
What can I do to keep calathea leaves from curling? I have a humidifier, a moisture meter and watering meter. Should I repot it to see if they have root rot?
Hi , I would like to know how can I clean the leaves of this plant , it worries me , looks like a textile so I don’t want to ruin it , the little edges are slightly brown but just the little tip what could be the cause ? Thanks for the help.
Thank you so very very much Andrew, I really really enjoyed listening to you and your knowledge and expertise is great. Please stay safe and well too. xxx Mags ❤❤❤❤
Thank you so much - as I rescued quite a large Monstera from the side of the road (poor thing just had a note on it saying 'free' and I felt the guilt of driving past so went back to get it!) A lot of its leaves were yellow and I dumped its soil got a really nice big grey pot for it (a clever plastic one whereby the water doesn't dribble out the bottom?), spoke to it (as you do) repotted it (normal compost though?) and hoped for the best. The leaves have done exactly what you've described here so I've hope that it'll survive. I did do the classic thing of thinking 'it needs more water' so I'll leave it alone for now!!! Great video :D
I have one that I bought from Lidl. It's a gorgeous little thing, and I bought it because I loved the name and the story behind it. However, I never put any of the vital research or time into it. I started studying Ag. at UCD, and thus have learned a little more about plants. It's doing really badly right now, so I'm hoping to kick the little fella back into shape. I of course need to change the pot because as per usual, Lidl sold it in a pot that was much too small. I think I may need to change the soil as well because root rot was instantly a problem.
Thank you so much Andrew, I really really enjoyed watching you tell us all about Begonia Rex, I have a small one, that I picked up from Morisons, it was in a sorry state when I brought it, but it was going cheap too, now it’s thriving. I’ve subscribed and given you a thumbs up too.
My husband took our palms outside for sun and scorched the leaves should I do as you say and leave entire frond until brown to the root? They just look so horrible … Is this the price we pay?
This plants don't tolerate direct sunlight. I had one before and I'd always trim the yellow leaves as soon as they appear. That one slowly died and it was really hard to get it to grow new leaves. Now I have a new one, I'm spraying water on it daily to keep it moisture and I'm leaving the yellow tips on. It seems to be doing fantastic this time. So I guess his advice of leaving the yellow leaves on up until they're brown makes sense cause the plant seems so be able to still use those for energy as he explained in the video
So glad I saw your video. I now have a better understanding about the brown leaf tips. I ourchased mine online. It aaroved woth some leaves with brown tips and a couple of small curled, deep green leaves. Currently, still some brown leaf tips. The new growth looks fine. I guess ill just wait for new growth before removing leaves with brown tips. Or...can i cut them all off? Will new growth occur, or would cutting it back kill the plant entirely?
I don't know if it still matters but i'm going to share my experience with this Calathea. I've been into this very type of Calathea for over decade, have killed quite a few. I used to keep it in regular soil mix and used my fish tank water to water the plant. Sooner or later all of those passed, until the last one, which i kept struggling with.. But then, for some reason i had to leave the country for 4 months, My son was in charge of the plants and fish. To my surprise when i got back my Calathea looked amazing. Healthy leaves, not a single leaf was lost and the plant grew a couple more. I asked my son what he did. He said i was just following my scedule and filled the saucer with water two times a week. And here i was (mama is back) top watering it a again. Nearly immediately i got a couple of so familiar broun spots with yellow edges. Good that i made the connection and started bottom watering it again, and some short time later i put the plant on a wick. Since then, it's been about 3 or 4 years, My calathea grew and bloomed, produced healthy baby calatheas after the flowers were gone, i propagated it with those baby plants and by division. And even though the growths that bloomed and produced baby plants died off afterwards (after i cut the babies off) I still have that same Calathea and now keep growing one of her babies. So i have the mother and the baby plants. Also, i figure the water is crucial for this type of plants.. and i think if my water was "soft" enough top watering wouldn't do any harm. But so far it's just a hypothesis :)
