How to give your houseplants a shower

Like anything around the house, your plants will need to get a good cleaning every now and then. Over time dust can collect on the leaves of your houseplants making it difficult for them to breathe properly, in extreme cases it dusty leaves can actually hinder the plants ability to properly photosynthesise — which we just shouldn’t let happen to our little leafy friends.

How to shower your houseplants

We recommend you give your plants a thorough cleaning around twice a year— the easiest and quickest way to do that is in the shower. To shower your houseplants simply place them into the shower and spray them down with lukewarm water, you don’t them to get chilly but you also aren’t looking to cook them. Make sure that you don’t have your shower on full pressure as this can damage the leaves and stems. After you’ve washed down all of the leaves (and the bottoms of the leaves too!) it’s best to give them a good amount of time to dry off — otherwise, you’ll be dealing with dirty drops of water all around the house too…

If you’ve not got a shower or you’ve just got far too many plants to fit in, you can always take them outside and wash them down with a hose — just make sure that you can control the flow as you don’t want to be blasting any gentle leaves too hard. If all else fails, or you just want to go for a more natural approach, you can just pop your houseplants outside in the rain. This likely won’t clean them off quite as well but it’ll definitely help out, just remember to bring them back inside if it starts to get too cold. Another thing to remember if you are placing your plants outside is the wind, try to place them in a slightly sheltered spot as their leaves and stems can be damaged if blown about a lot or if they fall over.

As you don’t need to wash your plants down so thoroughly that often — we’d recommend that you wipe down your large-leaved plants every couple of months. It prevents a build-up of dust and makes them look shinier. This means you might not have to give them a shower at all, and it gives you an opportunity to properly look at the new growth on your plants and how they’re developing over time. It also means you might spot any warning signs early if your plants are unhappy in their environment or spot any pests that might be starting to develop on the leaves.

Why should you give your houseplants a shower?

Other than the obvious cleaning advantages of washing away all of the collected dust, showering your houseplants can also reduce the risk or help remove any pests. It’s well known the pests such as Spider Mites hate the humidity brought around by showering your plants and will either be washed away by the water or die afterwards.

It’s can also be important if you have more tropical species and live in an area that often becomes cool and dry — it’s a great way for tropical plants to recover some moisture and also helps in keeping up the required humidity levels.