This guide is designed to help you understand the ways in which you can alter the temperature surrounding your plants, whether it’s too hot or too cold, to keep your plants comfortable.

Increasing Temperature

Established larger plants around your home will take the winter months as a time to chill out, reserving energy for the warmer seasons. Smaller plants, seedlings and some tropical species such as Alocasia around your home take dormancy a little harder; with the entire plant dying back and producing very little growth.

Colder temps (below 15°C or 59°F) can only make things worse and unless you’re living in a tropical climate, it’s going to get cold during Winter. To keep your green babies comfortable:

• For smaller plants, you can create a mini microclimate using see-through plastic bags. Simply wrap a bag around the plant and pot or better yet, use the bag like a tent around your plants foliage and peg it down into the soil. The increased humidity will raise the temperature slightly. Bubble wrap works really well for this as a cheap insulator, although aesthetically it’s a bit of a downer.

• Heat mats can be a wonderful asset. They are flat and will lay unnoticed beneath your pots at home. They're relatively cheap and won’t interrupt your aesthetic too much. These mats keep the plants soil warm which is the most important part of growth. Meaning their roots are protected.

Decreasing Temperature

Overall, plants prefer it on the warmer side. A lot of them can handle temperatures up to around 35°C or 95°F, but will often show signs of stress around the 30°C (86°F) point. 

Luckily most of our homes are designed to naturally stay cool during summer or have airconditioning running. Just be sure to keep a nice balance between humidity and temperature, moving your plants away from any direct freezing breeze created by evaporative air conditioning.

There’s a few changes you can make if your plants are showing signs of struggle from the heat:

• Firstly make sure that you’ve repotted any of your rootbound plants in spring. If plants don’t have access to soil moisture when it’s really hot they will struggle. Once plant roots have taken up all of the pot space, there’s no longer any soil to hold moisture and you’ll have to water increasingly frequently. Be sure to give your plants room to grow and space to store moisture.
• Try moving your plants a little further away from any windows or direct lighting, as during summer these beams are extra hot. If you can avoid your plants being blasted with UV rays, it will help keep them cool.

One of the best options for you if you want plants that will stay happy throughout the whole year is to find plants which are either native to your climate or better suited for your environment.

A great way to do that is through our plant care guides, just remember to check them out next time you’re plant shopping. Before you pick up a plant because it looks pretty, give it a scan or look it up within our app and make sure it can handle what you plan to throw at it.