Life
We are all told to mist our houseplants if we want them to thrive. But botanist James Wong failed to find a single study backing this up, so he did his own home-grown experiment
By James Wong
Christian Bridgwater/Alamy
MISTING the air around houseplants such as maidenhair ferns and pitcher plants has long been seen as essential to protect these species, which evolved in steamy rainforest understoreys, from the draughts and dry air of the average home. It is a practice that is so widespread, echoed in almost every indoor gardening book of the past century, it seems no one has stopped to ask: is there any evidence this actually works?
Standard advice is to give your plants a quick spritz between one and three times a week. However, given the average spray with a home mister contains …
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