12 Winter Plant Care Tips | How I keep my houseplants happy in the colder seasons ❄️☃️🧣

In today's video I'm going to be showing you how I keep my plants happy through the colder season, through the winter, through the dark seasons of the year, because plants can go dormant, plants can just go downhill as well in the winter, and today I'm going to be showing you how I keep that from happening and how I keep my plants happy. My plants don't go dormant, they just consistently grow throughout the whole year. I do have to say I am very very lucky with the conditions that I have in my home, but I'm obviously going to be talking about that today and telling you why I have such great conditions and what makes my plants so happy. But I also do some extra things in the winter months just to, you know, have that little bit more of a secure feeling that they are going to be okay and that they are going to be happy. So I hope that these tips are useful and that they help you. If you have any extra tips to add onto this video, leave it in the comments so we can all help each other out. But this is just how I do it and how I've kept my plants happy over the last five, six years throughout the winter. Hello everyone, welcome to My Jungle Story. I'm Jacqueline and before we get into all of the points, I'm going to timestamp everything if you want to go to something specifically. But I just want to say thank you to the sponsor of today's video and that is Spider Farmer. I have had my Spider Farmer plant stand for almost six months now, between the five to six months, and I have been absolutely obsessed with it. It is definitely something that I've gone to a lot more now since that it's been getting colder. I've put succulents in there, I'm going to be putting my carnivorous plants in there as well because I am noticing a deterioration in them. But I'm going to be doing a separate video on that where I'll do like carnivorous plant care, giving them a little bit of a pep up and doing a little bit of repotting as well. And then they will winter in the Spider Farmer plant stand. I have a complete playlist on this plant stand. If you want to see the setup, if you want to see all of the updates, I'll link it in the description if you want to see a little bit more in depth. But all I can say is that I highly recommend, especially this time of year. I have noticed usually this time of year, my cacti and my succulents are the ones that struggle the most. I do have a south facing window, but we don't get that much, especially actually lately, we have not had a lot of sun at all. It has been very gloomy, very overcast. So yeah, you know, plants need light. It's not because it's colder, it's not as much sun, it's less daylight hours. They're going to say, okay, I completely understand, you know? No, they still need that consistency. So putting them in the plant stand has just made the world of difference, not only for my cacti and my succulents. I feel like it's also going to make a difference for my carnivorous plants, but that video will be coming, don't worry. I have also noticed that things like propagations, they have not, usually this time of year, they will slow down. That's just how it's been. Whether I put them in a, whatever environment that I've put them in, and I've had previous like expensive, uh, what do they call, they call them the propagator. That's what it is. I have no idea from what brand it is, but anyway, that doesn't matter. I've had one of these really expensive propagators. We still have it, but even putting plants in there in the winter and the colder seasons, it has not made any difference whatsoever. And now the last two weeks, we've had incredibly cold weather. And that's usually when I see that my, my plants just go, or my propagations just go downhill very, very quickly. And I struggle. I really, really struggle with them. It's usually also this time of year, I can't trade or sell plants because they just don't do very well. And I obviously don't want to give plants to people that are not doing very well, but in this spider form plant stand, they have been thriving and they have been going for it. It's like no stopping them. I've actually noticed that because it, the plant stand gets quite warm and because the room that the plant stand is in is also quite small, it keeps the humidity and the warmth quite high in that little room because there's no heating in that little room. It's just the, the plant stand that is giving off all of this warmth. All of the plants that I've brought inside that I used to keep in my back room here, they have all of a sudden started kicking off, going insane, giving me amazing new growth. It's just, yeah, and this is obviously, this is the first year of me bringing so many plants in actually, and also putting them in that propagation room with the plant stand. It's the first year. So I've just been so incredibly impressed by it and it has really blown me away. So as for one tip that I want to give you, and I might as well get into, it's, I've done these in no order whatsoever, but again, I'll timestamp them all. If you want to keep your plants happy, I would highly recommend a spider farmer plant stand or a grow tent. They have, they also, they have so many options on their website to whatever budget that suits you. There's also, this week is Black Friday, so they have a lot of amazing deals going on their website. So go ahead and check it out. I also have a discount code. Everything will be linked in the description to the link to the specific plant stand that I have. I have the Excel version and also all of the different links for the different countries and yeah, just go ahead and check it out because I am so incredibly impressed by this plant stand and I know that it already has, it already has made such a difference for my plants in these colder times. So that is going on to, these are in no order whatsoever. I've just written them all down. There's no real order to any of these. It's just what I do, my tips, my advice is a grow tent, like I said, spider farmer plant stand or a cabinet or even if you have, even if you just have a grow tent or like these little cabinets here, a little akbar, just a area where you can sustain and control the conditions. So that is humidity, warmth and light. That is something that you can do. Again, you don't need to go all in and buy an expensive cabinet. I actually, in my last video, I worked out that it actually turns out cheaper buying a spider farmer plant stand than it is to get one of the IKEA greenhouse cabinets because you have to get the cabinets, you have to get the lights, you have to get the fan, you have to get the shelves as well. I mean, you don't have to get new shelves because it does come with gloss shelves but for ventilation, using the gloss shelves is not ideal. I've tried it, obviously it's not very good for ventilation. You would have to have a fan on each shelf. You need like something to hang, like unless you want multiple shelves or if you want to hang your plants, you need to get things separate for that. It's just, it's a headache. It's honestly, it's a headache and it's a lot of money at the end of the line. So a spider farmer plant stand actually turns out cheaper than one of those cabinets. Obviously, it does depend on your aesthetic but I think they look really good. I think they look really professional and when you see how well your plants do in there, you'll get over whatever I've, I've thought about. I mean, I am still thinking about getting a smaller one. I don't have the room for that. Just how I've seen that my plants react, they just love it. They love it. But any type of controlled cabinet grow tent environment to sustain the conditions is a great way to keep your plants happy through the colder seasons and that actually very easily leads me on to my next point and that is grow lights. Grow lights is definitely something that I would recommend. I have, I have grow lights everywhere. I have a window behind me. You can actually see it is a corner window. This is a north facing window but I've got a grow light here on a stand. I've got grow bulbs at the top there. I've got grow lights. Yeah, I've got grow lights everywhere just because I do have a lot of nice big windows. That is the nice thing about this old house is that they still have the like old big windows. The south facing window as well is huge and my plants love it there. But like I said, it's, we've not had that much sun so they are naturally not going to do as well. So yeah, I would ideally use as many grow lights as you can. Obviously, you do have to think about the cost of that. You just have to look, you know, what is the cost of branding. I have grow lights from lots of different brands. They're all always linked in the description but I do recommend getting grow lights in the colder seasons. It's just, it's too dark. It's, you know, they're called the darker seasons for a reason and that is usually why your plants will also go dormant or they'll slow down or maybe not grow as or at all in the winter is because they are not getting enough light and light is a really, really important factor for new growth. So yeah, I would just highly recommend grow lights. I've, every single year I honestly add grow lights into my home. If you think about it this way, if you have, I have a lot of like price plants. I have a lot of plants in general but a lot of the plants that I buy now are like the more expensive ones because I already have all of the other ones. So usually new plants are, I mean they don't, not all of them, but they are a little bit more on the expensive side and I don't want to have to replace them because they go downhill or they really struggle or, you know, I don't want to have to do that. So one example here is I've actually got a plant right now that I can show you. I, this is actually going to be a plant featured in my favorites list of November but this is the Clemensorium Jungle Splash and this plant has only started giving, I've had this plant for two months now, it's only started giving me, you can see a new tendril there, new growth ever since I put it underneath a grow light and it's quite close to the grow light. I would say less than a meter, it's probably 50 centimeters away from the grow light. So yeah, it just goes to show, you know, you need to give your plants light and especially this time of year, especially this time of year. So supplementing with grow lights is just, you know, if you can't get grow lights then I would recommend just putting your plants as close to a window as possible. And that leads me on to the next point and that is your window sills. Now this is something that actually got pointed out to me by someone. I work in a garden center and I work in the indoor plant department so this time of year I get a lot of questions about, you know, plants that are going downhill, not doing as well and a client actually pointed out she had very, very cold window sills. She was living, she lives in a very old house, still has these really old-fashioned like marble window sills and that got me thinking, I have really old-fashioned marble window sills. So I put my hand on it, I think this was last year that I discovered this, I put my hand on it and it is freezing, okay, it is freezing, it is cold and I have a lot of plants on my window sill. So something that I've done is actually get these little, you can get them like in rolls, they are actually, they, the drawer protectors that you put in your drawer so there's plates and glasses, they don't like scrape your drawers and they don't damage your drawers. They, you can get like paper ones but you can also get the foam ones and those are the ones that I have. It's just a very thin like foam, there's also holes in it so that, you know, if there is any dirt it doesn't lie on top of it and it just goes through and you can just lift it up and wipe it. Not only that but also for aeration, if you have like any, you just have a lot of condensation around your windows, this was actually not, this is actually mainly so you don't have molding issues in your drawers but it actually works perfect out for on your window sills as well because those holes actually also provide aeration if you have condensation issues at your window so you don't have molding issues going on underneath there, you know what I mean? So they're actually perfect and because of that little like foam layer, they are not on that cold cold window sill and I can put more plants on here there because as soon as I discovered that, I took all the plants off there because they were all plants that were struggling anyway and I was trying to find a solution and that is a really really great way of utilizing your window sills even in the colder seasons and not having your plants stand on a freezing cold surface, you know, because they're not going to like that at all. So that is something that I would highly recommend even if you have, I've seen in America if you have like wooden window sills, it's still by window, it's still going to be cold, maybe not as cold as marble, yes, that does get very very cold but even if you just have concrete ones or whatever, it's going to get cold, you know, in the colder seasons, that's normal. So I would highly recommend doing that on your window sills because it has changed the game for me. I don't do it on my south facing window but actually just the other day, the window sill is right next to the computer, I let my arm on it and I could feel it was actually still cold so I think I might do that on my south facing window as well but I've done it all the way around here and yeah, I can still put plants on there which is very very helpful when you have a lot of plants. The next point is humidity. So humidity is something that again, I have discovered this through trial and error. I have been using a humidifier, sorry about that, that's Lexi, I've been using a humidifier for probably about three years now and I actually only got a humidifier for my own health purposes. I have asthma and in the winter, we also have floor heating here so it can get very very dry and very warm in here and I struggle with my asthma and I also just struggle with, you know, congestion, just always being stuffy and all of that and then in the spring and summer, I have allergies. It's just a humidifier, I found out that that is a very good way of helping with all of those factors but it also helps in the colder seasons because we have our heating on whether you have floor heating or radiators. Radiators actually dry out the air even more than floor heating but you just, I would just use a humidifier, okay? All of those extra tips like clay pebbles, putting water in trays, they also work but they are just a little bit more high maintenance. You just have to fill up the water a lot more whereas if you get a humidifier, if you get one with like a five litre tank or a six litre tank, I mean I have to fill mine up every single morning. It's on all the time now especially now that this last week it's been a lot colder. Today is actually the first day that I noticed that it's raining today and it's staying at like a 60% level so I'm not having to fill it up today which is nice. So yeah, it again, it does depend on the weather outside but obviously the colder that it gets, the more it's going to be on and it has been on almost every single day. At night, it switches off on as well. I can see it on the app while we're in bed because then it can, it obviously gets a lot colder then, all the lights are off and humidity can actually get really really nice in here when that is on. Also, I would recommend if you are someone who's a little bit nervous with fire issues, I have seen issues with humidifiers that can catch fire and all that, just make sure that there's a safety on there and that it is not one of the cheap ones. So I would recommend investing in one. I paid 90 euros for mine and I've been using it for three years and it's still absolutely fine. It now and then does, it is starting to make some funny noises, I do have to say, but I just give it a little bit of a tap and it's fine. I think it might actually be the stool that it's standing on, I don't know, it might not even be the humidifier but just raising humidity in your home when you have the heating on is really important because a lot of the times these plants, you know, these are tropical plants that we are keeping in our homes and they are used to high humidity. You know, literally almost every single plant, I'm surrounded by plants here, they all come from rainforests. It doesn't matter where in the world, whatever rainforest is going to have high humidity. So that's why I say no matter what time of year, I would just recommend having high humidity but especially in the winter, in the colder seasons because of the heating that we have on in our homes, the air just dries out very very quickly and plants will not like that. They will just slowly deteriorate and if you have a little bit more of a finicky class of plants like alocasia for example, my humidifier is standing in my alocasia corner because so that they are the first plants that it gets to but yeah, it's just, you know, I love alocasia, they're my first genus. If you've been following me for a while, you know but that's just how I keep them happy all year round is just raising the humidity and especially in the winter, I noticed that they really really appreciate it. Another tip, now this actually links in with light as well because I mean not with like grow lights but just with lighting in general and that is keeping your windows clean which I know that can be a bugger in the colder seasons because it's raining, it's snowing, it's freezing, it's your windows just get naturally a lot dirtier but try and keep them as clean as possible and I actually noticed that I have to clean my windows more frequently in autumn, winter than I do in spring and summer just because of, you know, the conditions outside that's normal but yeah, keeping your windows as clean as possible. If you have a layer of dirt on your windows, your plants are not going to be able to absorb light as easily so you know, I would just try and keep them as clean as possible which leads me on to also keeping your plants dust free and again, I actually have to in the winter, I actually have more maintenance with my plants now that I think about it because A, keeping my windows clean and B, keeping my plants dust free. In the spring and summer, I'm not that worried about it honestly, I probably do shower them off a lot more in the spring and summer because it's easy just to take them outside but in the autumn and winter, it is just as important to keep your plants dust free because there's less light, less daylight and that means that whatever sun, whatever light that they are getting, they need to be able to photosynthesize properly and that's not going to work as well if you have a layer of dust on there and also naturally, when we have our heaters on, it naturally also gets a lot dustier in your home which is very annoying, very annoying. Like I said, I've got more maintenance in the winter than I do any other time of the year but yeah, it's part of it. We just have to be good plant parents and try and help them out as much as we can in their process of trying to photosynthesize. That's a tongue twister that one but yeah, dust free plants and keep your windows clean and then if you want to actually, if you are living for example in a country where you have even less daylight hours, I'm thinking now, I mean this is because I've lived there but I'm thinking now of in the UK because I remember coming home from school, it was like half past three and it was already getting dark because there's like an hour's difference whereas now, it's like an extra hour here in Belgium because right now, they're an hour behind so it gets darker a lot sooner obviously but I just remember thinking, oh my word, like you go, I was going to school in the dark and I was coming home in the dark and I just absolutely hated it but if you are living in the UK for example and you want to give your plants a little bit of an extra boost, I mean even if you're living, you know, if you're living more up north, if you're living, you know what I mean like or if you're living in a country, I mean in the UK as well, it's constantly raining so I don't think we, I don't remember seeing a lot of sun there when I lived there either and I lived there for eight years but anyway, if you're just living anywhere where in the darker seasons, it is incredibly dark for you and you have even less daylight hours, I would recommend using a little bit, giving like a little bit of an extra supplement to your plant and a lot of these, there's honestly, there's lots of different brands that have this. I see a lot of brands, they call it Photo Plus and it basically just means that it helps your plant photosynthesize a lot better, like a lot quicker as well. So for example, I'm just picking, it's just a plant that's right next to me here, this Clemensorium, I have this under a grow light. If I give this the supplement Photo Plus or even if you just go into Google and you Google photosynthetic or photosynthesize boost for house plants or even just for other plants, for outdoor plants, I don't really think that you would need that for outdoor plants but anyway, it usually will be for house plants. If you just Google that, you will find different products, whatever brand that you are able to get in your country but if I give that supplement to this plant, it will be able to photosynthesize a lot quicker and better even underneath this grow light, you know. A lot of people also think that you can only do that if plants are getting like sunlight, if they're getting enough but it's just light in general, whether you're giving it a grow light or you're putting it on your windowsill or whatever, it'll just give your plant a little bit of that extra boost and it will help it out more to photosynthesize. So that is something else that you can do. I personally don't do that. Again, I'm very lucky with the lighting that I have in my home and I also have a lot of grow lights so and all of the extras like the spider farm, the plant stand and all the cabinets that I have, they are just a way I just move a lot of plants in there and I know that they will be happy in there because I've got very controlled conditions. Something else to be careful of in the colder seasons is watering and this is probably the only time of year that I would recommend a moisture meter and it is the time of year where I've also used my moisture meter. In the spring and summer I've actually not used it once. I also have all of my plants in clear pots so I can tell by the substrate if I need to water it or not but in the winter you need to be especially careful because you will notice that you will not have to water your plants as frequently. Now that can change depending on your conditions. For example, in my situation at the moment we have had a couple of weeks where it's actually snowed this week but it's been quite dry and quite cold. Today is actually the first day that it's raining but because of that I have noticed that I've had to water my plants a little bit like a day or two earlier than what I'm used to because the heater has been on full blast. It's been very very dry outside which obviously makes it very dry inside as well and also the last couple of days I forgot to fill up my humidifier so it's been very dry in here. I think I came downstairs the one morning and it said like 39 percent humidity which is that's really really bad. That is really really dry and I can feel it like on my lips as well, your skin as well you will feel it. I have asthma so I also feel it in my chest but yeah I've had to be careful with watering. I've had to water them a little bit more frequently but I have noticed now today it's raining I'll see that in the next week I will probably not have to water it because usually if it rains it's been raining like all day it's unless it like freezes at night which it's actually not going to this week so it's going to be okay. I know from the conditions that it's that it is outside that I know that inside this week will be okay and I can keep to my like regular schedule or I mean I check my plants every day but just like the regular schedule that I usually keep to. I usually do like a round and by the time I'm all the way around I have to start on you know like the next lot. I don't do it all in one day I don't have a set watering day just because I can't do that I have so many plants I have over 300 plants I can't do that I can't water on one day that would take me way too long and I think that would also end up causing issues because this plant might need water a lot sooner than the plant next to it you know it's every plant is different whether it's the same genus I've even noticed that two plants like they'll have a double of that's the same species the same genus same species they are kept in a different area like a different corner or whatever or they kept close to a fan or closer to you know everything it all depends it all depends so watering is definitely something to keep an eye on and if using a moisture meter will help you in that aspect I would recommend I also use it in the winter now I use a lot of my aroids are in a aroid mix and that aroid mix is quite tree fern fiber heavy I can use the moisture meter with that and it works really really well so that's just been a really good way of being able to make sure that the plant actually needs water because sometimes what can also happen is that on the outside of the pot like I said I use clear pots on the outside of the pot it will look still look moist but I always also look at the bottom I always look around the holes at the bottom and if I see that the substrate is lighter there then I know I know that it's time to water even if on the outside it still looks quite dark that can just be because it's compressed up against the outside it can also be that so moisture meters can be very very helpful in that aspect just be careful like when you put them in your soil put them in slowly and gently if you have a plant that has a little bit more finicky of a root system just you know be extra careful extra cautious with that but I found it a very helpful tool in these I did it last year as well in this winter season so I recommend it is cheap easy to find you can get it any garden center really it's actually I get a lot of questions about it at work and I always have to send them back to the outdoor section because it's always there we should actually have it in the indoor section as well but it's a really good way you know because a lot of the times in the winter because it's so cold outside you will not have to water as frequently also another thing is if you if your plants slow down in the colder seasons you will also notice that you will not have to water as frequently because the plant is not absorbing water as much as it needs to because it's not pushing out a lot of new growth you know so that's also something to bear in mind but again with that aspect the moisture meter can really really help you now if your plant is growing consistently all year round in spring summer autumn and winter and it is giving you new growth consistently I would recommend to fertilize all year round I do not go through a period of not fertilizing my plant I fertilize every single time I water my plants and that is because I have made such a controlled environment for my plants and conditions don't really fluctuate that much they are consistently growing they're not really slowing down they're not really going dormant or anything so as long as your plant is giving you new growth it needs nutrients it needs food you know it's normal it's it's I get this question a lot in the garden center I really do and everyone says oh yeah I know that in the winter you don't need to fertilize the first thing that I say is yeah but is your pot giving you new growth and 99% of the time they will say yes and I always say then you have to fertilize then because that new growth needs nutrients it needs food so just observe and look at your plants that you have in your home and if they are giving you consistent growth I know I'm repeating myself but I just want to make it clear because I get this question a lot just fertilize okay if you notice that they are slowing down and not like going dormant they're still giving you growth but the growth is not as vigorous or not it's not giving you new growth it's fast still give fertilizer because it's still growing it's just a little bit slower still fertilize but dilute your fertilizer so whatever fertilizer you use just dilute whatever is recommended on the back of your bottle and I do that with some plants there are some plants that I do notice that kind of slow down a little bit and that is specifically like I've noticed my Maranta that I have here my Bird of Paradise behind here as well also slows down like a little bit I still give them fertilizer because I can still see that they are trying to push out growth you know they still need that nutrients if I were just to stop giving them food and they are really trying to give me new growth that growth is probably going to come out deformed or damaged which is the same thing but you know what I mean you know the growth just won't it won't get as big it just it will it won't have a good time and the plant will inevitably struggle to try and sustain that growth so yeah fertilize if your plant is growing please feed it don't stop feeding it as for repotting I have noticed this year that I am trying to not do as much repotting in the colder seasons and the reason for that is just because of timing this time of year is very very busy I also have two kids so we've already been sick a couple of times I've been sick a couple of times I probably sound very nasal I'm not sick it's just this time of year you just have a runny nose blocked nose it's just normal I don't have a cold or anything I'm always in denial about that I'm not going to get sick again I swear I get sick almost every single month but my kids also bring home all of the germs you know but anyway I just have less time it's also a very busy time of year in the garden center honestly all year round is very busy but you know it's Christmas we have the Christmas trees the Christmas decorations people are also wanting to bring in more greenery because they can't do anything outside so yeah it's just naturally a lot busier and also it's it's the darker season we have less daylight hours which means you have less energy and a lot of people they don't really seem to get that sometimes and it's only when you point it out it's only when it was pointed out to me that I was like wow that is so obvious but yeah we have less light we have less sorry that's Lexi she's having an absolute rant at the neighbors they're supposed to be moving in next month oh she's having a good go let's go I'm gonna have a go she goes as if to say come on man mom why are you moaning at me I'm trying to protect you anyway yeah I forgot what I was saying yeah there's less light and light is you know it's what gives us energy you know we as humans as well we need sun we need sunlight it's normal that in the darker seasons you see a increase in you know depression and and just feeling down in the dumps our plants also go through that you know so I really try and keep the repotting to a minimum just because of timing but if you are living in a home where you do struggle with like humidity or it does get very cold there or you know you have lighting issues whatever I just would recommend unless it's like absolutely necessary and you the plant is like root bound or there's something going on obviously and you need to take action definitely repot like do not wait until spring because you will regret it the plant will just really really suffer for that and even now like right here one of my next videos will be a repot of these huias that I have in this propagation bin here but I keep my huias in a very high light warm environment and I've also moved a lot of huias into my spider formal plant stand and it's very nice and warm in there and they love it and they get a lot of light there so you know I make sure that all of the conditions are right in the winter if I do a repot and I might take extra measures like for example put them in a prop box you know help them that little bit more to that they don't go through like extra shock like if you have a plant that you repot and you put it on a cold windowsill for example make sure you have that layer there make sure that they're not touching the cold window you know things like that things like that but I pretty much repot all year round it's only really now this first year and that's only because I've taken into consideration of not having enough time because of sickness and not having enough time because of work and also not having enough energy because there's just not enough sun going on something you can do to increase the warmth is heat mats now I know that heat mats are usually not very cost effective to run I personally only have two heat mats that I have upstairs and I just have propagation bins on there because I know that the shelf that they're on it's a metal shelf it can get quite cold it's still on a south facing window but like I said we've not had a lot of sun so it's not really ideal so I put them on a heat mat and I know that they will be happy there they root a lot quicker and they just won't get cold you know well Lexi is really having a moan so yeah I would recommend using heat mats if you don't have a lot of plants and maybe only use it with like you know like prop bins or maybe your more fragile plants or more rarer plants or more expensive plants whatever that's usually what I do is I have prop bins upstairs as well with plants that I just have way too much of and I don't put a heat mat underneath there because A. I know that they will be absolutely fine you know they might just slow down a little bit but B. I also have so many of them that I always have a backup but yeah heat mats is also a great way like I have thought about putting a heat mat underneath this acaba because I have noticed at night this these grow lights they switch off around about seven o'clock I think and by the time go to bed right about 10 so it's like three hours later I do notice that it can go as low as 18 degrees celsius in that acaba and that is okay but it's not the temperature that I'm going for like right now it is 24 degrees celsius in there and that's like perfect they absolutely love it the humidity is at 72 percent which is also great you know they just love that little cocoon that little environment it's a controlled area where I can keep it at those conditions but it's just at night you know when the light switches off that it can go it can go quite low you know so I think it goes probably I should have a look on the app but it goes even lower than the 18 degrees celsius because you know it gets colder during the night so yeah I think like the peak point is usually around about one or two o'clock in the morning that it's like really really cold but you it's just you know it's something that I could do is just put a heat mat underneath here and that will solve that problem and then my last point that I want to talk about I have touched on this and that is whether you have radiators or floor heating if you have floor heating I and you have plants that are directly touching your floor I would recommend raising them up and putting them on a little like roller or just put something underneath them so that they are not in direct contact with the floor because what will happen is your plant will dry out very very quickly and you will not be on top of watering and in our brains it doesn't make sense to water in the winter so much but if you have floor heating that can be the case if you don't put something underneath them so I have as you can see here I've got my Strelitzia here it's on a little stool it's probably about that far from the ground but last year I didn't have that stool I just put on like a little roller thing it's easy other plants as well I can see over there I've got an Aglaonema that's probably about that far away from the floor keep your plants off the floor with floor heating as well something I have noticed is that the cabinets they warm up a lot quicker so the cabinets are probably like the feet are about that high but still because of the warmth of the floor heating it still warms up the cabinets so it just you know it works it really does work so that is something that I would recommend doing and I recommend that to all the clients as well as when they buy plants or if they are struggling with certain issues I will also this time of year always ask are you raising your plants off the ground because they will most likely just be drying out way too quickly so raise them off the ground if you have radiators don't put any plants near your radiators that dry warm air they won't like it it doesn't matter what genus it is they just won't like it it's just not not the rainforesty vibes that they want you know so keep your plants away from the radiator from any not even the radiator so like just keep it away from like drafts they will not like it that warm dry air is just going to suffocate them something you can also do to boost humidity if you have radiators is you can get those like I don't know what they're called but there's things that you hang onto your radiator and you put water in them and that water obviously because of the warmth of the radiator it will evaporate and it will boost humidity it is something that you are going to have to top up pretty frequently I remember putting one of those in the previous house that we no wait I read yeah in the first ever house that I rented well it was ages ago but I remember that was a very very old house and it was still those very very old old radiators I mean I love the look of it I thought it looked so vintage and so cool but they were very old and it got very very dry in there and I remember I got these things to hang onto the radiator and I just filled them up with water every single morning and it really did the trick like I noticed a difference because I really struggled with like dry lips and my you know my chest and all that and it did really really help so that is also something that you can do it is probably something that you're going to have to put on each and every single one of your radiators otherwise it's not really going to be that effective but it is something that you can do you can also just get a if you have something I also thought is if you have a planter like a rectangular planter that will that you can put on top of your radiator if you can close the hole at the bottom so I'm just thinking off the top of my head I have ones that I use from outside from eco pots but they have little thing that you can take in and out so you can close it up so that you know no water can come out you can actually get that close it up fill it up with water and put that on top of your radiator and I think you would probably not have to fill that up as frequently and because of the warmth of the radiator the water will slowly evaporate and that's like you know that's a bigger surface a bigger area and you won't have to fill it up that frequently that is also something that you could do that is actually something that I have thought about doing up stays but our radiators are very very low and because of our big windows and some of the windowsills are like really low as well I don't think that's really going to work unfortunately so I would have to get like those hang on things but I also don't think that's going to be very good for the kids they're just going to have a ball with that but anyway something I have thought about in the future is our bedroom is a south facing bedroom if I can't turn the attic into a plant room I would love to turn that room into a plot room because it's also got absolutely huge windows it's south facing so plants will love it in there but I don't have floor heating upstairs so we just have a small like really long radiator underneath the window so I would have to try with that and I mean obviously I would have a humidifier in there as well but you know those are just things that I've already thought about so that's something that if you have the room for it you could also do that and that way you don't have to like hang something on your radiator because I know that you know that's not always the prettiest thing to look at but those are just some things that you could do if you have a radiator but just keep your plants away from the radiators because they won't like it you know if they're too close to the radiators they will just burn they'll dry up you know they just they won't like it and then I think I've touched all of the tips that I wanted to talk about these are just things that I've thought about that I things that I do differently things that I you know that I've changed up over the years like I said something I'm very excited about this year is the spider form of plant stand and being able to put my carnivorous plants in there my succulents my cacti and just keep them happy all of my other plants they grow all year round but obviously those are plants that require a lot of highlight and if we don't see the sun for a couple of days they will immediately react I've seen it with my cacti and succulents as well they've just kind of some of them were actively growing but because of the like intense decrease in light they've just almost like their growth is kind of like topped off and it looks funny and yeah it's just uh it's sad it's sad so I will be doing some rearranging and putting some more in not all of them because that's a lot that would be my entire plant stand but yeah just putting some more in the cabinets and they will be so so happy I think they'll probably throw fit once I bring them out of there as well because it's just you know it's the perfect conditions but yeah we'll see we'll see you know maybe there will be some that I'll keep in there because I do I think they I just I love seeing plants thrive in there just it makes my day I've got one ficus a ficus belize and that was a rescue it had no leaves whatsoever that plant is stunning it is doing so incredibly well in that plant stand and that is the first time I've ever been able to keep a ficus alive and I have tried several times over the years it's just a classic house plant you know I feel like everyone has a ficus but I've also heard that it's definitely one that can croak on you very quickly as well but I think it's such a beautiful plant it's such like a I don't know it's just like a statement plant it's not it's you know I don't know it's just something it's something that I love about those rubbery beautiful leaves leaves and the belize is stunning absolutely stunning so the fact that it's so happy in there it's going to stay in there and it's going to live in there that's what it's going to do there's a couple of plants that I have in my plant stand that are just going to live in there permanently because they are just so happy so why why change anything up you know don't fix what's not broken but anyway thank you again to spider farmer for sponsoring today's video like I said before all of the details are all in the description of all of my videos actually not only this video but I highly recommend if you want to go ahead and check it out check out the black friday deals they are amazing or use my discount code but I can vouch for them they are really really good high quality I feel like the price that you pay for it as well with the quality of it I feel like it's a really really good balance and like I said it turns out cheaper than the IKEA cabinets that you have to get you know what I mean so just go ahead and check it out it is worth having a look they don't only have plant stands but they have lots of other products lots of really nice like high-tech professional like it's professional stuff you know it's professional grade definitely there's also a lot of tips on there as well just like a lot of information and a lot a lot to absorb definitely but a lot of really good tips a lot of really good information and a lot of really good high quality products so if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up if you haven't yet subscribe to my channel come along with me on my jungle story I share everything on my house plants and I I bring you guys along all the time I post two videos a week and if you want to get notified every single time I post a video make sure you also click the notification bell and then you will get notified as soon as I post a new video but that is every Wednesday and every Saturday depending on where you are in the world you know but that's usually the case I really hope that your plants do well this winter with these extra tips I like I said all of these things are things that I have experimented with that I do myself I'm not just going to throw a video online and talk about things that I don't do myself at all this is all from my own experience I've not googled or searched any other video on this topic I just want to share my experience and what I do and I hope that I was able to help you in any way whatsoever leave a snowflake emoji in the comments let you know if you watched all the way to the end and if you did thank you so so much I really do appreciate it I hope you enjoy it and I hope to see you in my next video bye