How to get your holiday cactus to bloom this year
The secret is darkness: long, cool nights for about six weeks, starting in early fall.
Season watch
Nights dropping below 50°F (10°C)? Time to bring porch plants inside.
Start here: the basics
Painters and plants want the same light
Artists have loved north-facing windows for centuries. Many houseplants feel the same way.
Five plants that can handle a dim corner
A dim corner isn't a dead end. But "low light" never means "no light."
The chopstick trick that stops overwatering
More houseplants are lost to overwatering than to neglect. A wooden chopstick tells you when to water.
What a yellow leaf is telling you
A yellow leaf is a message. Five common causes, and how to tell them apart.
Light
Painters and plants want the same light
Artists have loved north-facing windows for centuries. Many houseplants feel the same way.
Care
The chopstick trick that stops overwatering
More houseplants are lost to overwatering than to neglect. A wooden chopstick tells you when to water.
Seasonal
Nights below 50°F? Time to bring porch plants inside
Once nights drop below about 50°F (10°C), summer porch plants need to come in. Five steps first.
Pets
Eight houseplants on the ASPCA’s non-toxic list
Pets and plants can share a home peacefully. Eight plants on the ASPCA's non-toxic list.
Plant Doctor
What a yellow leaf is telling you
A yellow leaf is a message. Five common causes, and how to tell them apart.
Curiosities
The prayer plant moves every evening. Here’s how
The prayer plant lays its leaves flat by day and folds them up at night. Here's how it does it.
From the editor
Hi, I’m Claire.
I’m a painter based in Asheville, North Carolina. I work in watercolor and oil, and most of my landscapes start with the Blue Ridge Mountains: the layered ridges, the morning fog in the valleys, the way the light changes hour by hour. Every painter learns early that light is everything. Plants taught me the same lesson.
The Kind Window is a small newsroom for simple, honest plant care: what works, what doesn’t, and a few myths worth letting go of.
About the images: the photographs on this site are AI-generated illustrations made for these articles. They are not photos of my home, my studio or my paintings.
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