[johnoconnell]

Hi Folks,

I've been filling out the inside of my place with some soft houseplants like a maidenhair and a ficus kinky since I prefer non flowering green architectural looking plants but it seems nearly everything hates being on a windowsill inside - they all get scorched by the sun in the morning at the north east facing wall and southwest by the setting sun / light bouncing off next door into the window - can anyone recommend anything even a nice soft trailing plant that I could pop up on the sills that won't hate it? Cheers for the info, it's great being able to read up on things here and fix issues with sick plants!

John

[Liparis]

That's a mighty powerful bit of sunlight blazing through a window, especially at this time of year. A lot of foliage plants sold as house plants usually originate in rainforest, not all though, but most, so they need the sunlight shaded from them, with dappled sunlight at best. It's probably best to use an east or north facing window where possible. Your northeast facing window should be ideal for most, but at this time of year the sun could be to strong for the first couple of hours. If they are suffering scorch, then moving them back from the window a foot or two to get the direct sun off could make a big difference.
Another thing may well be too dry an atmosphere. A lot of these plants get around 65% humidity in the dry season and up to 90% during the wet season. Try standing them on trays of wet gravel to combat dry air and give them a spray as often as you can with fresh water. When you can, open a window on warm/hot days, it's amazing how often people don't think about giving their pot plants fresh air, just make sure no chilly breeze is going to blow directly onto them. Rainforest plants are actually subjected to quite strong air movent caused by warm air rising from the forest floor and cooler air dropping down from the tree tops. Air is rarely, if ever stagnant and still.
Bill.

[cooler]

Have you tried Coleus the flame nettle or Ananas the wild pineapple. Both take heaps of sun.

[johnoconnell]

The ananas is along the lines alright - cheers for that one!