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House Plant Health And Light

Lighting for indoor houseplant, what does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that good light - and enough of it - is an important consideration in your plans for lasting effects with indoor plants. If you want to use vines for example on inside walls, away from windows, choose foliage varieties that will tolerate semishade. Or use the vines for temporary rather than permanent or lasting effect.

Sunlight

Daylight is necessary to all plants. Sunlight is another matter. The effect of sunlight - actually falling on a plant, not just near it; in varying strength and of varying durations according to plant varieties - is to stimulate formation of buds and flowers. If you want to decorate with a flowering vine, you can be fairly sure that it should grow where it will receive more than just a touch of sunlight. It can, of course, be grown in any sunny place until it flowers, then brought in for colorful display in any spot.

Some vines and flowering houseplants will flower with less sunlight than others. Duration and intensity of sunlight also varies with the seasons and geographical areas. In a Northern winter, for example, the sun shines weakly and for a short time. At noon in August it is burning hot almost anywhere.

For most of the year the Southern sun is too intense for many plants. This may explain the origin of the popular term "shade plants," applied to begonias, fuchsias, gesneriads, and some similar plants. In Florida, Texas and California they require protection against hot sun almost all year - but only in summer in cooler sections. They will not flower without some sunlight, and would be more accurately described as "semisun" plants. If you interpret "shade" as "dark" or "absence or weakness of light," even foliage vines like philodendrons are not really "shade plants" - they do need light.

Except in tropical climates, most flowering plants like the flowering peace lily and vines happily accept all the sun they can get in winter. In summer they need at least early morning or late afternoon sun (and preferably both) or the sun that seeps through the light shade of a lath house or high-branched tree.

To summarize, all plants need light; vines grown for their foliage effect are usually content with good daylight or artificial light; flowering vines need proper artificial light or sunlight. And in each case, intensity and duration of light are important; but requirements vary for different types of plants.