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9 Mar 2025 17:52
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  •   Home > News > International

    Easy indoor plant hacks: things you can do to make your plants look extra lush

    Indoor plants can bring colour and life to a room, but yellowing leaves and sloping stems can be less inspiring. Experts say there are simple things you can do to help your plants stay vibrant and healthy.


    Indoor plants can bring colour and life to a room, but yellowing leaves and sloping stems can be less inspiring.

    Experts say there are simple things you can do to help your plants stay vibrant and lush.

    How to make devil's ivy extra leafy

    Horticulturalist Tamara Campbell is the owner of an indoor plant store in Naarm/Melbourne, and she says devil's ivy vines can be prone to bald patches.

    To remedy this, she suggests cutting back some of the vines and propagating cuttings. Once established, "pop [them] back into the soil and fill out the space more".

    "It will also encourage the plant … to branch out and thicken up."

    Ms Campbell says the "other option" is to "wind the bald stem around the pot and pin it down so it's in contact with the soil".

    She says nodes along the stem "will activate and send down roots and … a new shoot of foliage [will] come out".

    Plant enthusiast Mike Sullivan says devil's ivy vines can lose their leaves for a multitude of reasons, from a lack of sunlight to under-watering.

    Stake collapsing and splayed monsteras

    Mr Sullivan shares plant care tips on social media and has an online store selling plant stakes and planters.

    He says young Monstera deliciosa, or Swiss cheese plants are "best staked straight away" to train them to grow vertically.

    He says this can help avoid the "hunchback monstera, or sad-looking splayed-out monstera" scenario.

    This can be done with mature plants too.

    In nature, monstera often grows against or onto large tree trunks, explains Mr Sullivan. A stake mimics the support a tree trunk would offer, helping the plant grow upwards.

    This also avoids stems breaking and increases the access of leaves to sunlight.

    Dust your plants

    Greg Moore is a senior research associate at the University of Melbourne with an interest in horticultural plant science, revegetation and ecology.

    For keeping plants foliage lush looking, Dr Moore says "the first thing I'd recommend is you dust them".

    Ms Campbell says by growing plants indoors, we're already reducing their access to natural light.

    She says a layer of dust across indoor plants not only looks bad, "it's like putting a curtain over them".

    "Every time we clean the leaf, we're allowing the maximum amount of light to penetrate the leaf.

    "You just end up with a healthier, happy-looking plant."

    Assess the airflow

    To keep foliage looking good, Dr Moore says to check "where the ducts to your air conditioning and your heating are" and where the air is flowing from split systems in your home.

    He says plants placed in their path aren't going to look their best.

    Whether it's cool or warm air, "the airflow across the leaf dries the leaf out".

    Dr Moore also says some "selective pruning" of any unwanted yellow or brown foliage can help improve airflow around indoor plants and improve the overall appearance when it "doesn't look quite right".


    ABC




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