Light & Shade

All plants don't like the same growing conditions. Some plants love a lot of water and sunlight, while others will die with too much water and/or light. Below are some definitions to help when placing your plants.

• Plants calling for shade should be well away from windows, but still have enough light to read by.
  
  
• Plants calling for semi-shade should be well away from a bright window or near a sunless window.
  
  
• Plants calling for sunny window should be set in south facing windows. Some shading might be needed to protect the plant during midsummer when the sun is the strongest.
  
  
• Plants needing some direct sunlight should be set close to east or west facing windows. Again some shading may be needed during midsummer.

If a plant is in a place that is too bright the leaves will become pale, thin leaves become shrivelled and dry, and leaves will wilt. Net curtains or moving the plant away from the window will solve this problem

If a plant is in a place that is too dark new leaves become smaller, and paler, lower leaves will yellow and eventually fall off, shoots become spindly with long spaces between leaf joints, flowers will cease to develop, variegated pants lose their right colouring and become green. About the only thing you can do is move the plant to a brighter spot, or to place lighting on the plant.

For those people who have few windows to place plants near, artificial lighting will be needed to suppliment natural lighting. Any type of light will do, light intensity counts more than the type of light used. The main thing to worry about is not to dry out the plants with heat from the light. You don't have to worry as much about this with florescent lights. But, if you are using incandescent lights you may need to water more frequently and/or mist the leaves and keep the humidity up.