All indoor plants have benefits – but some are more difficult to grow than others | The Compleat Home Gardener

Published 12:30 pm Wednesday, January 14, 2026

The second week of January means your Christmas tree is packed away, the lights are stored and the mantel cleared.

Time to clean the air by adding a few indoor plants to get you through the last of the winter weather. All plants give off oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, which is the gas we humans give off as a waste product. This is why plant life is crucial to every breath we take.

Some specific plants also absorb particles of indoor pollution such as bezene. All houseplants add more than just color, texture and a designer look to a home. The simple act of caring for a living thing has shown to improve moods and even slow down dementia.

Here are my favorite houseplant tips from over the years.

Houseplant most difficult to grow: Miniature roses

My dorm room at WSU in the 1970’s was brimming with indoor plants and most of them would thrive in the bright light of a large window. I made the mistake of trying to grow mini roses indoors over a Pullman winter and those tiny rose blooms cost me much in heart ache and disappointment. Over the years I have heard from other houseplant growers experiencing the same difficulties with these adorable but difficult rose plants.

Growing tips for indoor rose plants: a warm room, high humidity, bright light and the perfect amount of water and fertilizer will keep your mini roses plants alive – for a while. Rose plants that stay under 12 inches tall and are sold as houseplants have been hybridized and bred to stay small but have also lost the vigor and disease resistance of wild and full-size roses. As a determined horticulture student, I fought off mildew, black spot and white fly to keep the mini roses plants in my dorm room alive. Finally, it was the short days of winter that stopped them from flowering. When all the leaves turned yellow and dropped to the ground, I snuck the leaf less rose plants into the college dumpsters and bid them good riddance. If you have a warm greenhouse, or enjoy a growing challenge, you can find mini roses plants for sale online. Good luck.

Houseplant easiest to make flower: African Violet

The secret to getting an African Violet plant to rebloom is to boil an egg. Use the cooled water from boiling several eggs to drench the soil of an African Violet and all that calcium that had leached into the water will jolt the African Violet into bud production. The other tip for keeping these compact houseplants happy is to water from the bottom. This means you should allow your potted violets to sit in an inch of water once a week so they can soak up the moisture from below. This ensures the hairy violet leaves do not get wet from overhead watering. African violets are also sold as mini versions much like the miniature roses bred for tiny spaces. These teeny tiny bloomers are a bit easier to grow than tiny roses, however. Mini African Violets are most often sold with a watering wick emerging from the bottom of their oh so tiny flower pot. Care is simplified because the water reservoir simply needs to be kept topped off and the plant drinks as much as is needed without worrying about too much or too little water.

Houseplant that causes the most complaints: Weeping fig or Ficus benjaminia

For more than 40 years readers have been writing to me about their weeping Ficus trees. They must have earned the nickname weeping fig because they make grown gardeners weep with frustration trying to keep this houseplant from dropping leaves. Every designer wants an indoor tree to fill an awkward corner and yes, the pointed, shiny leaves on an indoor Ficus are beautiful especially in the winter months. But here’s the dirt on Ficus benjamina: it likes to throw tantrums and drop leaves, turn yellow or wilt for the slightest insult. You move it to a new room – leaf drop. You let it dry out for one day – leaf drop. The room gets too cold one night – leaf drop. But what really sets the Ficus apart from other houseplants is that it will also drop leaves if given too much or too little fertilizer. Most houseplants may turn dull, stop growing or become pale in color from lack of fertilizer. The Ficus goes in full blown leaf drop fury and may not grow new foliage again for months.

Here is how to keep a Ficus tree happy and full of foliage: Don’t move it, water when barely dry but do not over water, feed monthly except in the winter months when it needs feeding only every other month, keep it in a room that stays consistently at 65 degrees and give it bright light but not direct sun. This means a large window facing East or North but not so close to the window that sunlight will touch the leaves – did I mention this light loving houseplant also gets sunburned? Ficus trees are lovely but only stay that way if you are prepared to meet their many needs.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For answers to gardening questions, visit plantersplace.com and click “As The Expert”. Copyright for this column owned by Marianne Binetti. For more gardening information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.