Garden Doctors: Perk up plants, gardens in winter

Erica Poseley from Santa Rosa asks: What can I do for my houseplants to have them look their best?

Winter is a great time of year to pamper your houseplants that have been adding so much color and texture to the inside of your home.

While your potted plants do go through a winter dormancy and their growth slows down, they still need to be watered and dusted.

So when should you water?

Well, your finger knows best. Stick your finger down a few inches into the potting soil and move it around. If the soil’s moist, don’t water the plant. If it’s dry, water it. It’s as simple as that.

The plant-care part that’s not so simple is dusting.

Indoor potted plants seem to be dust magnets, attracting as much dust as they can, wherever they are in the house. As mundane as dusting can be, it has to be done.

Dust blocks the sunlight from getting to the plant leaves, decreasing the rate of photosynthesis and clogging stomata (openings in the leaf surface). Both of these can restrict the growth of the houseplant.

One way to remove the dust is to gently wipe each leaf with a damp cloth. But if you have a few houseplants and they’re large, just give them a rinse in the shower. And voilà, the dusting is done!

Let them sit in the shower for a while until they dry off. You could also take them outside on a sunny day and hose them off with a gentle spray and bring them back inside before it gets too cold.

Mary W. of Healdsburg asks: Can you give me a few plant recommendations that will brighten up my winter garden? Right now, everything goes dormant and there’s nothing to look at and it’s quite boring.

Here are some good plant choices for winter interest:

Chinese elm or lacebark elm (Ulmus parvifolia) – Beautiful, exfoliating, fine-textured bark.

Common sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) – Alligator-like texture at the base of the tree in varying shades of brown/gray; patches of white and cream/light brown/gray as you look up.

London planetree (Platanus x hispanica) – Similar to sycamore, except bark exfoliates down the tree; large patches of bleached-looking wood.

Heritage river birch (Betula nigra ‘Heritage’) – Bark that looks like tight and loose, curled, expensive party paper in creams and varying shades of light to medium browns.

Coral bark Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’) – Brilliant red; gorgeous!

Atlas blue cedar (Cedrus atlantica (Glauca Group)) – Blue/green to blue/gray foliage that provides a wonderful cooling effect in summer and a cool blue appearance in winter.

Dwarf Gracilis Hanoki falsecypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’) – Deep forest-green foliage that creates a cloud-like effect on the plant in horizontal planes.

Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) – Wonderful shiny, deep-green leaves sometimes with a rusty-colored underside.

Spurges (Euphorbia) – Vary in coloring, depending on cultivar.

Hellebores (Helleborus) – Wide range of flower colors from green, white and pink to burgundies and multi-tones.

Japanese pieris or lily-of-the-valley shrub (Pieris japonica) – Sweet fragrance; bring flowers indoors to enjoy their fragrance.

Sweetbox (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis) – Very intoxicating fragrance from tiny, cream-colored, petal-less flowers.

Dana Lozano and Gwen Kilchherr are garden consultants. Send your gardening questions to The Garden Doctors, at pdgardendoctor@gmail.com. The Garden Doctors can answer questions only through their column, which appears twice a month in the