Houseplant Winter Growth Check Is Your Plant Dead or Dormant

Welcome to the winter collection fashion show featuring Diplomeria giving us a single leaf barely hanging on skinny stick realness look. Hey guys what's going on welcome back to my channel for those who's new my name is Christian and I'm a plant and in today's video I want to do a bit of a winter growth update. A couple months ago I did a video for newbies on how to survive your first winter sharing a bit of tips on how to make sure that you and your plants come out of the winter time unscathed or at least with minimal plant loss. Although those tips do help the reality is some of your plants will still go through and experience a bit of winter growth. So in today's video I want to share with you guys a few houseplants are going through a bit of that winter growth compared to what they look like during the summer and then share with you guys what I plan to do with them from now until the winter months to really get them ready to ensure that they are going to be healthy and strong as we kind of head towards the spring and growing season. And then near the end of this video I want to share with you guys a few houseplants are not phased at all by the winter months and they are doing well and thriving. These are great plants to actually get for those of you guys who are starting who don't have plants but want to get plants during the winter months. I recommend those plants. So without further ado we'll get started we'll start with the ta-da this is my ficus benjamina and when I got this over the summer it was so nice full and lush and even a lot brighter and greener than what you see today. You can see that he's dropped a lot of leaves compared to what he looked like before definitely a lot at the bottom and you can even see a lot of dead leaves here collecting at the top of the pot. Now I am finding that this did not drop leaves when I first got it during the summer months even though a lot of people warned me that they typically do drop leaves. During the summer months I had this located here by my string of hearts and it was doing fine getting a lot of that south you know bright indirect light not too close. However during the winter months when the sun isn't as intense and the days are shorter I did decide to move this closer to the window to ensure that gets a lot more light and I was also mindful to make sure that I wasn't over watering this plant. However as we kind of got through the winter months and the days got shorter the leaves kept dropping and it's not as bad as what I've seen out there but definitely not as full as what he looked like. The branches here are still fairly strong and still alive obviously he's just dropping leaves. He is showing a bit of new growth at the tips there but they're not growing obviously as fast as they normally would have during the summer months. So what I plan to do for the rest of winter is actually just leave it in the same location maybe move it back a couple feet so that way it's not too close to the window in case we get a lot of those colder months where that window pane sometimes can get a bit chilly. Just to make sure that it is nice and warm. The one thing I am mindful of with this particular plant though is because I do have my heater on it's a lot drier in here the soil does tend to get a little bit fast because this is a very well area draining soil so I got to be mindful to not have this sitting in dry soil for long periods of time because that can also cause a lot of the leaves to drop when it gets really dry. So very mindful of that but that is what I plan to do for the rest of the winter months and then come spring I am planning on maybe like notching this particular plant so that way it can promote growth at the bottom because I don't want it to look bare or maybe grow it a little longer and then have that nice bare stem I haven't decided yet. Good thing about ficus plants is they are quite resilient. I've owned a few of them in the past different varieties you guys know which makes them honestly one of my favorite genus of plants but yeah so this is what my ficus benjamina is currently at. The next couple plants I want to show you guys are a little bit undecided on whether they want to go dormant or dead. It is the my axolotriangular so this plant all of them the purple one my green one which pretty much looks dead at this point and my other green one that has a few leaves they are not looking good at all they look extremely raggedy they are not sure what to do so I typically have these guys close to my south facing window by the ficus lorata just underneath there so it does get a lot of bright indirect south facing light however I do find that the winter days here in Toronto is a lot more darker and cloudier than say other cities out in Canada like Winnipeg for example has a lot more brighter and sunnier days even though it's colder there I do prefer their winter months so this plant is struggling to kind of keep all of its foliage together you know what it looked like during the summer when it was nice and full you can see there's a couple of growth here because I am trying to keep this one awake throughout the winter it does want to go dormant because axolotriangulars grow from like a bulb or a tuber style they can go dormant during the winter months and it's fine for them to go dormant you can just wake them up during the springtime when you want to but I prefer to not put mine to sleep or go dormant just in case they never wake up so what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut all the leaves back even the ones that are alive but are just really leggy we're going to keep the new growth in and then I'm going to move these guys upstairs closer to my window on top of my greenhouse so that way it gets a little bit more light because it is elevated higher this particular area does get a lot of light however because the sun is a little lower it's a lot shorter in addition I got a wall here like a partial wall that's kind of blocking a bit of the view so that is limiting a bit of the sunlight so I do want to just maximize it a bit more by just moving it upstairs and then I want to make sure I give this a nice good drink because the soil is extremely dry right now and again you want to make sure that the soil on your solace is not completely dried out and then I want to make sure that you know I just monitor keep this guy awake keep it alive and then come spring it's going to flourish again grow to a nice big full foliage like once we had during the growing season so that is a plan for axalis and yeah they are not you know sometimes if you're not familiar with axalis you can mistake this to be dead and you can just easily throw it out but again these typically like to go dormant during the winter months but as long as you can provide the growing conditions you guys can continue to keep these alive all year long and even some really looking nice and full I have a friend who's got one actually at his place and he lives in the basement gets south facing window and his is so full still so again you just need to provide the nice growing condition and they can continue to grow all year long so next plan I want to show you guys is the tada the pilea peperomiodis so this particular plant is going through a couple of issues right now first of all he is a bit overgrown to the size of pot he's in right now and if you guys remember during the summer months we actually removed a couple of the big babies to give it a bit more space and room so that way they're not fighting for the space within the soil because this does need to be repotted soon but what's happening with this during the winter months is it is dropping a lot of leaves even though this typically does drop a lot of leaves in the base but it's getting higher and higher and now it looks weird with this like ball at the top and then this base at the bottom which isn't as bad as I thought it was the more I look at it I'm like you know what it's not bad it's a little unique it looks like he's got like this disco ball hanging and then all these babies right here are partying and dancing I'm just kidding but he is definitely going through a bit of a struggle right now and I do plan on repotting this come spring I'm actually debating if I'm going to remove all the babies and keep just the mother plant because now that I look at it I can actually probably turn this into more of a tree have this nice like trunk as the base and then have this thing kind of grow out maybe we'll keep a few of the babies who knows but the main thing for me right now is try and just keep this one alive as long as I can especially as we kind of get through the rest of the winter months so for me it's making sure he still gets a lot of bright indirect light he's located here in my living room close to that south facing window always have been in this location since he was a young pup even though one of the winter care tips is to cut back on your watering because your plants do tend to grow a little bit slower and they tend to take a little longer to dry out however with this particular plant I gotta actually keep an eye and making sure that that soil isn't going to be dry for long periods of time because this does still dry out pretty quickly even during the winter months and the reason being is because there's a lot of plants there's a gazillion plants in this particular pot and it's literally fighting for all that moisture so I just got to make sure that I'm staying on top of my watering and again my rule of thumb is just making sure that that soil is you know 90-95% completely dry before I do give this a good drink because you know I do want to minimize the amount of leases dropping because it does look really cool as a nice full plant but again this actually starting to look cool it's starting to grow on me so uh you know I can even do magic here look whoa I'm just kidding so we'll definitely do a video when we do repot this guy because that's going to be a challenge but for the most part I think he's doing okay I know he's not the prettiest right now especially compared to what he looked like during the summer even the spring of last year but his look is kind of growing on me you know I actually don't mind this like ball at the top here bear and then all these babies at the bottom but uh yeah so the next plant I want to share with you guys is actually what leggy growth looks like it is the tada my wow okay that that's what happens during the winter it is my peperomia frost so this plant is going through a few winter issues you know you just saw a leaf drop there so there's dropping a bit of leaves not as full as it was once during the summer months although there are signs of growth and new leaves on this plant they are a lot smaller than what they were doing during the growing season in addition this plant is growing a bit tall and bit leggy and you guys can see how long these petioles are to what they were doing during the summer months when they were a little shorter a little bit more compact which did make it a look a lot more fuller rather than the sparse look it's got going on right now so this does typically happen to a lot of your plants especially during the winter months because they are trying to reach for that light even though I do have this it is in that middle shelf so it is getting a bit of shade from the rest of the plants that's on top of that shelf so I do plan on moving this one upstairs and I am also going to place this on top of my greenhouse or on top of that floating shelf to try and elevate it a bit more and maximize the lighting this can get I don't plan on actually cutting this plant back I'm just going to leave it as is you know remove a lot of dead leaves just make sure that the watering is consistent and I don't have this sitting in dry soil for long periods of time causing a lot more bad leaves to drop or I don't also over water this causing a lot of those leaves to drop again I just want to keep this one alive keep it healthy and then come spring we're actually going to repot this to maybe a six inch because it is in this four inch container to try and give it a bit more space for those roots to grow especially when we head into kind of the growing and active season so that is what I'm going to do with my Peperomia Frost and again a beautiful Peperomia one of my favorites I just love the frosted you know blue foliage this thing has so man I remember I went to the store for this back because I saw it I didn't get it because I got it the same time as I got the Benjamina I took the Benjamina home and then like five minutes later I drove back to Home Depot and got the Peperomia Frost so I definitely want to make sure this is going to thrive come spring so those are a few plants are experiencing a bit of the winter growth you guys can see what dropping leaves looks like what legginess looks like or what a plant that wants to go dormant looks like with the Exalis now I want to show you guys a few houseplants that are not phased at all during the winter months they they are living their best life so I want to start with the Aloe Vera so this big boy right here could care less what time of the year it is or what season it is because it is just living its best life it's growing really well during the summer months I do find that it is growing a lot faster and bigger however during the winter months I am also noticing this new leaf that's growing from the top and then all the babies here are still thriving and looking really really good I actually moved this back from my south facing window because that's where it was during the summer months but because I wanted to make space for a lot more of my smaller plants I moved this back actually hanging out here by my kitchen and it's doing really well it's doing really fine so it is one of those plants that honestly is the easiest plant you can ever care for similar to a ZZ plant a ponytail palm or a snake plant I do always recommend an Aloe Vera for beginners because they are really really easy to care for they're hard to kill as long as you're not over watering so you do gotta be mindful that the potting soil you are using is cacti soil with a lot of perlites and just making sure that you are only watering when that soil is completely dry so stick your fingers in there or use a moisture meter but definitely one of my favorite plants because I also grew this from like a baby plant and it's one of those plants that means so much to me and I really like this upside down kind of a octopus or sea urchin like he's got going on but a pretty cool plant and then the next plant I want to share with you guys it's also not phased at all by the winter months it is the the ZZ plant so as I mentioned similar to the aloe all my ZZs whether it's a Raven the Zenzi or even my traditional ZZ plant they are all doing well during the winter months not experiencing any winter growth I mean they're so stable and so consistent you know you don't obviously expect a lot of new growth or fast growth when it comes to ZZ plants but for the most part you know they are healthy all year long you can't go wrong with them they're great for beginners easy to care for they can thrive in pretty much any lighting condition and that's why these plants typically aren't phased by the winter months when the days are shorter and that sun isn't as bright or as intense because you know they can they can tolerate low light I barely water these guys during the summer months I think was like once every three weeks very little watering make sure that water drains through and then during the winter months I go about like once every month or every four weeks and uh yeah they're they're living their best life again you can't go wrong with a ZZ plant so the next plant I want to show you guys is actually one of my favorite house plants I did not move its location at all it's staying in the same location all year long but it is actually doing really really well this winter it is the tada my string of hearts you guys can see that's been in this location since I first got this plant and it is doing really really well this winter season it looks so full it's still growing you can see it's all the way down to the floor now it is a bit tangled down there so I do need to spend some time entangling it although the leaves are a little smaller than the ones a little higher up here and that's because obviously there's a lot more sun that's kind of like you know hitting the top of the plant versus lower to the ground so I do find that the leaves there are a little bit smaller and they are a little bit more leggier or the internals or the interleaves length is a lot wider than what they are at the top so that is the only winter kind of experience or growth it's doing but it's so healthy and I'm so happy it's doing well this winter season so my winter care for this plant is just pretty much cutting back my watering during the summer months I would water this like every two weeks now I would do it every three weeks because there is still a lot of plants there and the soil is you know cacti based well draining a lot of perlite so it does dry out pretty quickly so I just got to make sure that I don't have this you know sitting in dry soil for long periods of time because there was a point where I almost did actually kill this the leaves were really really soft so they were starting to drop so good thing I caught it in time to get a nice good drink and it is now living its best life again but yeah so that is my string of hearts I would say most of my plants are on my bookshelf that you guys see here are doing all well so I'm not giving them any additional lighting from a grow light they're just here close to my south facing window so the neon pothos is doing well my jade satin synapses are doing well the silvery and synapses are doing well the hoyas are doing well so they're not experiencing like leaves dropping or losing a lot of foliage although the growth is a little bit slower but that's okay you know as long as they remain healthy they keep their foliage they look nice and full still now come spring these guys are just gonna take off and start growing again so there you guys have it those are just a few houseplant updates that are going through a bit of the winter growth and winter blues gives you guys a bit of an idea on what they look like and what I plan to do as we kind of head into the winter season and then obviously a few houseplants are not phased at all by the winter months they are living their best lives regardless what season it is comment below and let me know if you have a few houseplants are also going through a bit of the winter blues and also share a few of your houseplants are doing well during the winter months other than that hopefully you guys enjoyed this video learn a thing or two and we'll see you guys in the next one peace