How to give life to a dying potted plant

Houseplants and potted plants suffer during holidays. Your plants can easily die from neglect during the December to January period when you are most likely to be away.

If you came back home from a vacation or a visit to the grandparents to some dead plants, worry not. They can be brought back to life!

Just because your plant is shriveled and limp doesn’t mean that you give up on it. If the plant still has life in the roots, you can bring it back from its near-death experience. This will take a lot of tender love and care but you will have your plant blooming once more. Here’s how to get to the bloom:

Trimming

The first step to resuscitating your plants is to trim away the dead leaves and parts of the stem. Using a pair of garden shears or scissors, trim all the dead flowers, browned leaves and rotten stalks. You might have to cut off part of the stem as well.

Plants sense lack of water and then they shed their leaves to adapt to living without water. If this is the case, trim a big chunk of the remaining stem. Leave a few inches above the soil.

Water

Water, water and more water. A dying plant will not get an overdose from water. Regular watering will bring your plant back to life in a few weeks. Ensure that you have good drainage otherwise your plant will be drowning in it’s own bath. If after watering for weeks you do not see new sprouts growing, check the roots. If the roots are dead, you might have to give up the fight.

The soaked beans trick

Water from beans soaked overnight works like magic on dead plants. Soak any type of dry beans, use the water you soaked in to water your plants. If possible, use this soaked beans remedy once every week for four weeks.

Sunlight

Recovering plants need about half the amount of sunlight they normally would need when healthy. Move your plants to an area with more shade.