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Keeping your houseplants healthy during winter months may seem difficult. Light from windows is reduced, days are shorter and humidity may be lower due to heating. But by making a few changes, you can help keep your houseplants healthy.

Keeping things light

In winter, your plants receive sunlight for less time and in less intensity. Houseplants out of rainforests that are used to lower light will be fine with that, but most plants need more light. Try to move your plants near a brighter window (S/SW exposure) to get them more sunlight.

If you have no brighter windows (due to shade trees or apartment living), you might want to consider the purchase of plant lamps that are designed to provide the full spectrum light your plants need. They can be mounted under shelves over plants or on specially-designed plant stands. Leave them on about eight hours a day, and they'll give your plants the light they need.

You can also use cool fluorescent bulbs as close as 6 inches from the top of plants.

Temperature

Most plants do not do well when subjected to rapid fluctuations in temperature. Keep them away from hot air sources and cold drafts alike. Run ceiling fans on low if the house is closed up. Fans break up stagnant air; that's healthier for both you and your plants.

Humidity

Some symptoms of low humidity are brown leaf tips and wilting. Low humidity makes your plants work harder to get moisture from the air and soil, as well as keep what they have inside.

One way to give your plants some extra humidity is to mist them two or three times a day. The water will evaporate off the leaves and provide a cloud of higher humidity around the plant. For a less labor-intensive method, put a layer of pebbles in the bottom of a tray and fill the tray with just enough water to cover the bottom of the tray (below the top of the pebbles). Place potted plants in the tray.

Fertilizing should be done less often for most plants in winter.

Insects

Insects can be a problem in the winter. A small number can turn into a large infestation in an enclosed environment. Protect your house plants with the new Bonide Systemic Indoor Insect Control. When sprinkled on the soil of your plants, it will prevent insects for up to 8 weeks.

Other

Give your plants a good washing. Dirt, dust, grease, and other particles can settle on leaves. Leaves that are dirty can't absorb as much sunlight as clean ones. Gently wipe clean the leaves with a soft sponge or cloth dipped in plain water. Sturdier plants can even be given a quick shower in the bathroom with tepid water.

One of my favorite pleasures in winter is to be inside my warm house and look out at the wild birds at the feeder. I love to refill the feeders in the morning after a storm, pouring out my gifts to the birds. They know what to expect and start flirting into the bare trees around the feeders as soon as I open the door.

Feeding birds at home is like running any successful restaurant:
You need a good location, a comfortable, clean space and an appealing menu. Different birds have different tastes. So what you put in your feeder should depend on what you would like to attract. Serve a seed special. The superior sunflower seed is the small black-oil type. Most birds who frequent feeders love them. Minimize the mess. Hulled sunflower seed are more expensive, but there’s less waste left behind. Shrubbery and trees offer quick escape routes if danger flies overhead or pounces from the shadows. A sunny spot out of the prevailing winds- near a small tree or shrubs, with a good view of the house- is a perfect spot for a feeder.

If you are new to feeding birds, you might wonder what to offer. In short, offer seeds and water. Many of the birds we see in winter are seed eaters. They have to be: insects are hard to come by this time of year. By setting up a bird feeding station, you are taking your cue from nature, offering the kind of nourishment that the birds are adapted to. You provide a generous, reliable source of food, and the birds gladly come and help themselves, up close, where it’s convenient for you to watch them.

The hands down favorite bird seed is sunflower. It attracts many types of birds including woodpeckers, jays and finches. Buy the black sunflower seeds, sometimes called oil seeds. Birds prefer them to the grey and white striped sunflower seeds sold for people because they are higher in oil content. They are softer shelled, hence easier to crack open.

Another essential bird seed is niger or thistle seed. Finches adore thistle. You may have dozens of finches visiting your thistle feeder at once, which is quite a cheering sight on a winter day. Thistle is a black seed, so tiny and light you can blow away a handful with a gentle breath. Buy a yellow seed sock or a hanging feeder specifically designed for thistle, and hang it where you can see it from your best viewing window. Up close to the house, even under the eaves, is fine. Finches will become very tame and won’t mind your standing two feet from them, on the other side of the window, while they eat.

The only seed mix I have found my birds like is the dove and quail food. I scatter it on the ground for quail, doves, sparrows and finches. Other seed mixes have too much filler seed and the birds seem to kick it around and eat only what they like. Buy the seeds you know your birds want.

When starting up a feeding program, be patient. It may take as long as several weeks before the birds discover your feeders. While you wait, be sure to keep the feeders filled. Eventually, the birds will come... and then they will come back!

Sometimes conscientious people are concerned about whether feeding the birds will harm the birds. Will the birds become dependent on the handouts? And it's often advised that one should only start feeding birds if certain that the feeding can continue uninterrupted all winter.

However, the evidence indicates that feeding is not likely to be bad for birds. They don’t settle in and dine at just one place. Finches, for example, follow a circuit each day, visiting a number of feeders and wild food patches, as we know from studies of banded birds that can be identified individually.

With many households feeding birds, it’s unlikely that a bird will starve because one feeder goes empty. All the same, birds that come into your yard at dusk on a cold evening are hungry, and one does not like to disappoint one’s guests. It’s my pleasure to make sure that they always find something to eat in my yard.