The Sun Room

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Tired of watching your houseplants die? The Sun Room offers a selection of links to cultural fact sheets, databases, mailing lists for indoor gardeners, plus source lists for indoor and greenhouse plants and supplies.

Before we venture onto the Web for information, I would like to recommend the following two outstanding books to anyone interested in houseplants:

• The House Plant Expert by D. G. Hessayon. Many photos and illustrations. This is the book I buy for friends who want to stop killing their houseplants.

• Elvin McDonald's The New Houseplant : Bringing the Garden Indoors is now out of print, but is available second-hand through Amazon. McDonald is a true enthusiast, in addition to being a real pleasure to read.

Introductory Guides

• Houseplants An excerpt from the Texas Master Gardener Handbook.
• House Plants: Proper Care and Problem Solving. From NDSU Extension Service

Mailing Lists and Web Forums

• Houseplant Discussion Forum. At GardenWeb.
• Archives of the Indoor Gardening mailing list. The list itself is defunct but its archives live on.
• Bulbous Aroids
• Bonsai
• Cacti
• Carnivorous Plants
• Hobby Greenhouse
• Orchids. Take your pick of dozens of orchid-related listservs and Web forums. From the comprehensive Orchid Wire.

Factsheets

• Search for a fact sheet using OSU's Plantfacts Factsheet Search (thousands of factsheets from Extensions around the country).
• Detailed fact sheets for over 70 different flowering potted plants from the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
• Indoor Gardening Month-by-Month.

Online Catalogs

• Bob Smoley's GARDENWORLD. For cacti and succulents.
• Charley's Greenhouse & Garden. Hobby greenhouse and growing supplies. A great company to deal with. Highly-rated at Garden Watchdog. (part of Dave's Garden).
• Glasshouse Works. Plants Traditional and Unusual.
• Logees Greenhouses. Their fairly utilitarian Web site does not do full justice to the many beautiful flowering plants they offer. Their print catalog has a permanent place in my catalog pile.
• Stokes Tropicals. Over 200 exotic tropical plants.
• Greenhouses and Houseplants Yahoo listings.

Catalog Sources

• Cyndi's Catalog of Gardening Catalogs. Alphabetized by topic. An oldie but a goodie.

Image Galleries

• How to find pictures of a plant. A nifty trick if you are looking for images of a particular plant is to go to Google Images and enter either the common or botanical name. For instance, here's a search for Streptocarpus and one for spider plant.

• A delight for houseplant fans, Cal's Plant-of-the-Week features a new Plant-of-the-Week houseplant every week. Attractive photos, detailed cultural and propagation information. An index conveniently lists plant by botanical name, common name, and family. Join the listserv to receive weekly notice of new additions. Provided as a service by the Department of Botany and Microbiology, University of Oklahoma by Cal Lemke.

• Interiorscape Plants Picture Page. Another excellent offering from Aggie Horticulture, this browsable and searchable gallery of over 200 flowering and foliage houseplants also offers basic information and cultural information.

Plant Selection

Find the right houseplant for your growing conditions.

• House Plants - List of Species
• Poisonous Houseplants. Important information for household with children or pets.
• Guide to Selecting House Plants. Excellent basic guide to selecting the right plant for your growing conditions.
• Houseplant Selection. Tables of houseplants by light requirements, temperature preferences, and special uses. Excerpted from the Texas Master Gardener Handbook chapter on Houseplants

How Tos

• Airlayering. Discusses technique for woody plants but is applicable to many houseplants.
• Airlayering for Difficult-to-Root Plants. Illustrated step-by-step guide to airlayering.
• Propagating Houseplants. Good, concise guide with illustration and list of propagation methods for dozens of popular houseplants.

Common Houseplant Pests and Diseases

All pesticide recommendations give on Extension sites are state-specific by law. Please contact your local Extension office for pesticide information for your state.

• Houseplant Diseases and Disorders. A brief overview.
• Troubleshooting and Solving House Plant Problems. A good general overview from The Garden Helper.
• Plant Disease Facts. Scroll down for list of diseases affecting flowering and foliar houseplant.
• Insect Pests of Houseplants [PDF].
• House Plant Pests. Good overview with illustrations.

Specialty Pages

• Linda's Orchid Page. Linda offers up a well-organized collection of information, illustrations and photos as well as links.
• The Family 'Cactaceae'. A treasure trove of images and information for the cactus fancier.
• The Orchid House. Good collection of original material on orchid care.

Useful collection of links from the Gardener's Launching Pad.

• African Violets.
• Bromeliads.
• Bonsai.
• Cacti and Succulents.
• Carnivorous Plants.
• Gesneriad and Gloxinia.
• Orchids.
• Tropicals.
• Greenhouses.

Visit Houseplants at about.com for more houseplant articles and links.

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Copyright © 1994-2008 Karen Fletcher. All Rights Reserved.
Updated by Karen Fletcher. E-mail The Garden Gate

Last modified August 24, 2005.
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