THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LIGHT

People seem to have the wrong idea about how much lighting their plants require. Let’s start with, “it’s winter!” they need as much as possible everyday. There is no such thing as too much sun during the winter months. In fact, most of the time (since it’s always cloudy) there is never enough light so don’t be afraid to move all of your plants to the sunniest window or patio glass doors.

Often folks think that if they find a plant that “survives” in low light conditions, that it means they like low light. Wrong, it just means they may survive there but full sun would be much better. Now don’t get me wrong, summer sun is a totally different story. Summer sun, at its hottest will injure any plant and that is why in Florida you see full sun plants all burned up.

Plants that will tolerate the lower light of winter are very few but Chinese Evergreen (aglaonema), Cast-iron plant (aspiditra), ZZ plant (zamioculcas zamiifolia) and the Snake Plant (sansavera plant) gives you a few “no-brainer” choices. These plants can almost take anything you throw at them-except water! The sure-fire way to kill one of these is simply to over-water your plant. Once every-other week is probably too often. Once a month is better but still could be trouble. These plants would be happier with very little attention, and no fertilizer!

The use of artificial light does not work well on most plants as they are mostly used by professionals as a means in fooling plants into blooming when they want them to bloom. Another use for lighting is in the growth of African violets during the winter months. Otherwise, lighting is mostly used for high-lighting a corner or any other dark area, but not for growing healthy plants.

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