Putting Your Tropical Plants Outside -Part 1 - Change of light

     Most of your indoor tropical plants will benefit from spending the spring, summer and early fall outside, and by now, you may already have set them out. Here are some guidelines and things to consider to ensure their time is beneficial and well spent for both the plants and you.

      Most tropical plants enjoy some sunshine but should not have extended periods of direct, intense sunshine. Plants moving from your lower light, indoor environment to the great outdoors will adapt to the increase in light intensity of being outside. Without your guiding hand, they may adapt by dying. Even outdoor shade areas probably have higher light intensity than most of the areas in your home where your plants reside.

      Plants grown in lower light will have thinner leaves. They may be very healthy and happy because they have adapted to your indoor lower light. Now, when you move that plant outside and it is exposed to more light, both in intensity and duration, there is a possibility that these thin leaves will burn. They cannot process the increase, sometimes quite dramatic, in light energy.

      You can avoid this trauma, by positioning the plant in a spot that only allows 2 hours maximum of sunlight a day. The rest of the day your plant can be in the shade of another plant or tree or roof or building or statuary. You do not need to keep moving your plant every 2 hours; but rather give some creative thought to your initial plant placement. Where does the sun shine on your balcony, porch deck or garden and at what times of the day?

      An increase in light will almost certainly affect how much water your plant will need. We will get into more about that next time in Part 2 of this series Putting Your Tropical Plants Outside.

*This will Help *

 Ants - no they won't help; but we have something that will. Safer's Attack Ant Killer. We have been using this product for a few years to control ants near our trailer and it is amazing. Safer's Attack Ant Killer is a Class 6 Pesticide using Borax as the active ingredient. It is safe to use both indoors and outdoors. The bottle we have is a large 240ml and we sell it at $5.79. We have used the same bottle for 3 years at the trailer and it is still at least half full. It is a great value, it's safe to use and it works.

6" pot Aloe vera (Medical Aloe)

  And one more thing ....

We have posted a new web page featured plant on our web page at http://www.plantsforall.ca . We are offering a 6" pot  Aloe vera (Medicinal Aloe Plant)  for $15.25 with a regular price of $19. Check it out on the "Featured Plant" page of our web site. That offer expires Monday, June 4, 2012.