Easy indoor repotting plant guide with 7-piece Scheurich pottery giveaway & eye-popping Glasshouse Works plants! $160 value

• Christmas
• Taxes
• Gutter cleaning
• Birthdays
• Window and screen washing
• Hose and grill hookup 
• Cleaning that remote bathroom (Scratch that off the list, we clean that one twice a year….maybe!)

It’s time to add repotting your plants to the lineup. Happy houseplants get repotted every 12-18 months. Fact!

It’s the calm before the storm. Repot before all those other gardening tasks take over your to-do list!

Repotting before active growth commences is a smart move because plants are producing new roots early in a growth cycle (late winter/spring).

​Plants will reap the benefits of fresh, loose potting mix into which they can stretch those new roots.

So we are thrilled to have teamed up with Scheurich and Glasshouse Works to get us motivated.

Let’s repot before your plants go to pot!  Don’t let them die!

Enter to WIN a 7-piece assortment of pots from Scheurich just by filling out the form at the end of this post!

Canadians~ you are most welcome to enter. We love you, too! 

Scheurich style is impeccable. You can’t go wrong with whatever series you choose.

​We were sent the Corteza line to review. Like a breath of fresh air, the Corteza line is authentically natural.

These ceramic pots are right on trend for 2019 for any interior space of your home or apartment.

Be aware that the Corteza line does not have drainage holes. My recommendation would be to use them for indoor use, only. They would likely break in any heavy wind gust or storm out of doors.  

Although Scheurich also manufactures many quality outdoor pots as well!

Take the Corteza line. These pots come in all sorts of shapes and heights ranging from 6 to 25 inches in diameter. 

The colors are neutral and will look spectacular wherever you place them in your dwelling.

​Better still, you have five colors to choose from including white, vanilla, a sage green, taupe brown and gray. Just lovely!

The texture of the pots feels like a grooved, linen fabric and cheerily blends to enhance your dwelling. 

Just the touch you were looking to invigorate your indoor pots now! 

Leaching and topdressing (we’ll get to those later) can only buy you so much time.

Overcrowded roots are unhappy roots. To keep a plant growing above-ground, plants must have plenty of room for their roots to grow under-ground.

​Anything that slows roots below-ground growth also slows above-ground growth.

Conversely, anything that keeps leaves and stems from growing at their normal rate slows root growth.

Eventually, you have to face the facts. Your plant either requires a bigger or smaller pot….and fresh potting mix to replace that deteriorating mix.

Your indoor plant absorbs the vast majority of its food through nutrients in the soil. Soil eventually becomes depleted.

​Even if you fertilize regularly, replacing old soil provides a nutrient boost like none other.

​New soil is a day at the spa for plants!  

2.) The plant is top heavy and falls over on its own. Bam. Repot. For your own sake if nothing else. Plopping plants make a mess. It’s annoying to keep picking up a plant that plops over.

3.) The plant shows signs of rot. Limp, yellowish growth? Plant tilting to one side? Stinky plant with a rotten egg smell  at its base? Time to refresh. Get all the icky potting mix out and start anew. Prune out any sick, dead or dying roots or stems. In the future, refrain from overwatering as your best line of defense against fungus and disease!   

4.) The roots extend through the drainage holes. A telltale sign that your plant wants out is if the roots are poking through the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot; they are that desperate for space.

6.) A mass of circling roots is pushing the plant out of its pot. The soil is densely full of roots and the plant is clearly telling you it needs more space. 

7.) The plant has become root-bound. Gently pry the plant out of the pot and take a look at it from all angles. Do you see very dense, thick roots circling around the inside of the container? Does it have a mass of fine, compressed roots that has invaded all pot  space? Do you see more root than soil? Time to repot.

*If water immediately seeps out the bottom of your pot when you water, it’s a sign your plant is root-bound. By wrapping themselves around and around the inside of the pot, the roots have actually created channels for the water to flow out easily. Freeing up these roots through repotting will help your plant get the water it needs to live lushly. 

9.) The plant appears overly large for its pot. Your call. But the diameter of the pot should be about a third of the plant’s diameter. If it grows more in height than in width, a third of its height.

10.) It’s been about a year. As a rule of thumb (a green one at that!)…it’s a good idea to repot once a year. Mark your calendar. Leaching and topdressing can buy you some time. Most plants don’t want to wait longer than 18-months to get repotted.  

​Keep that hose going and let it flush out that excess salt that has accumulated over the long winter. When done leaching, it’s time to fertilize. 

Topdressing involves scraping off the top layer of the growing mix with a fork, removing two inches (five centimeters) of soil, and replacing it with fresh mix.

Combine topdressing with leaching for a “better than nothing” strategy to give your plants a new lease on life minus the full-blown repotting session. Fertilize after.

Why choose topdressing? Well, maybe your plant is just too dang heavy and this is the best you can do. Perhaps you have houseplants that dislike the repotting process (clivias, birds-of-paradise, and hoyas) and you can’t deal.

Or, you like the current size of the plant and repotting into fresh soil would only stimulate unwanted growth at this time. Go for the topdressing method then!   

If the plant is at your max capacity then repot it in the same pot or another pot that’s the same size as the current container. This keeps the plant’s growth under control.

Repotting is simply a matter of changing the soil, not the pot!
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If going up in size, put a plant into a pot only one or two sizes larger than its previous container.

So a plant growing in a 4-inch (10 cm) pot, re-plant it into a 5-inch or 6-inch pot (12 -15 cm) pot. Never any bigger. Don’t overwhelm the plant. 

You may even find yourself potting down! That is….taking a plant out of a pot that was much too large and selecting a smaller pot.

Two reasons for this:

1.) A plant suffering from rot or root damage could greatly benefit by being transplanted into a smaller pot allowing for a quicker recovery!

2.)  Potting down a shrub to make it fit into a tiny bonsai pot for that cute factor.

{Insert your sad face here!)

So by repotting, you’re encouraging your plants to make babies when you free up space for them to make new plants.

​Repotting is also the ideal time to share your offsets and pups with a friend!

1.) A day or two before you plan to repot, give your plants a thorough watering because they’re easier to repot when the growing mix is nice and moist. 

2.) Pour some potting mix into a bucket and add a little warm water (less than the amount of potting mix.) Swish and blend well.
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​3.) Remove plant from the old pot by holding the plant’s stem between your fingers and simultaneously flipping the pot upside down. If it doesn’t budge right away, try tapping the rim of the pot against a firm surface like a table or floor. Not too hard as you don’t want to break the pot!

4.) Examine the root ball. If thick, dense roots encircle the plant, cut away a 1/2 to 1 inch (2- 3 centimeter) slice of roots with a sharp knife- not only all around the pot, but also from the bottom. You can remove up to 1/3 of the old roots without harming the plant. 

*If you intend to repot the plant into a pot of the same size of smaller, you might need to prune a bit more!

6.) Pour in a layer of your pre-soaked and ready to go potting mix (from step 2). Use just enough so that the top of the roots are at the same level as the pot’s rim projection. For plants that require good drainage, line the bottom with perlite, sand, gravel or peat moss prior to adding potting mix. Succulents and cacti will thank you for this!  

10.) Place your plant in the new pot and fill in with soil until all roots are covered. Firm soil gently to ensure there are zero air pockets, but be careful not to crush the roots. It is important to re-plant the plant at about the same height as before. Keep a 1-2 cm brim for watering purposes.

11.) Wait about a week before you water. This allows roots that got damaged during the repotting process time to heal. Put your feet up. Have a bowl of ice cream. You are done! 

WARNING! 
*Don’t fret if plants look wilted, weary and wimpy in the next few weeks. Plant shock is real! During this recovery phase, try to keep a newly repotted plant out of full sunlight for a week or so, then introduce the newly potted plant to its new home. Since most potting soils contain fertilizer, hold off fertilizing for about 6 weeks after repotting. Over-fertilizing damages plants.

​And I just learned that this monstera likes a standard potting soil that contains peat. Peat helps it trap moisture without becoming waterlogged as the friedrichsthelii likes moist soil but doesn’t want to be soggy.

Since it’s plant love will I get some peat for my plant? Yep. And you will too. Repotting is a great time to do a little research and find out what your favorite plants like and don’t like.

If you didn’t get it right last time. Bah. You’ve got a second chance here!

This Glasshouse Works monstera shown in the above photo looks lovely in this Scheurich Corteza sky trailing pot! 

Ken knows plants. Enough said! And he quickly caught on to my appetite for rare plants. A true collector at heart, I like the unusual!

Luckily, Glasshouse Works greenhouses is a mail order nursery that specializes in rare and exotic tropical plants from around the world.

​What impressed me most? Their selection! Astounding. Plants delivered right to your door. Does life get better than this?

Dotted plants. Spiked. Spotted. Striped. Splotched. Fuzzy. Prickly. Talk about variegated foliage! Plants in every size and shape. You want it. They’ll have it.

My two-toned and dotted ‘Rattlesnake Calathea’ will be pampered all it days with indirect light, good humidity and perfect drainage.

You could spend all day learning about new plants on their website. Kind of like an online plant museum. The pictures are addicting! 

The plants arrived in AMAZING condition. I immediately started to size up plants to find a new pot home for them. 

If you’ve never ordered plants online, I highly suggest you take the plunge with Glasshouse Works who will whet your plant appetite. You will not be disappointed in the caliber or selection of plants!