Care, without the lecture

Stick a finger in the compost. If it is wet, don't water it, however long it has been. Weight tells you more than a schedule: learn what the pot feels like just after a drink, and what it feels like when it is ready.

Empty cover pots. A plant can drown in a beautiful ceramic bowl with nowhere for the water to go. Succulents want a full dry-out. Ferns and calatheas don't.

Low light is a few metres from a window, or a north room. Medium is a bright room without a hot beam for hours. Bright is close to a sunny window. "Indirect" just means the sun isn't scorching the leaf at noon.

A plant leaning, or stretching with long gaps between leaves, wants more light. Feed will not fix that.

If roots are circling the bottom, or water runs straight through, go one pot size up in spring. A pot that is much too big stays wet and causes more trouble than a snug one.

Don't repot a plant the week it comes home, and don't repot in a heatwave or in the darkest part of winter unless the roots are genuinely in trouble. Our repotting workshop is the long version.

One yellow leaf at the bottom of a growing plant is often just an old leaf. Yellow all over, with wet compost, is usually too much water. Yellow with a feather-light pot is thirst. The plant doctor walks through the common patterns. It is guidance, not a guarantee.