How To Dispose Of Unwelcome Houseplants?

Unwanted houseplants can be a source of stress and frustration for homeowners. However, there are several ways to handle them: selling them, giving them as gifts, donating them to libraries, schools, hospitals, shops, and offices, moving some plants to your office, or recycling them.

If you haven’t been taking care of plants for a long time, it can be difficult to figure out what to do when you don’t want one anymore. With time and experience, you can learn more resources available to you and exposure to other plant lovers. The plant community offers a great resource for finding solutions to unwanted houseplants.

One of the best options is to check if the plant has enough light. Weak, spindly growth, pale leaves, and poor flowering are all signs of weak growth. To revive your houseplants, learn to tell if you’re underwatering, overwatering, or your plant isn’t getting enough light.

Unwanted houseplants can be treated differently depending on whether the plant has flowers or berries, has a seed in the middle, or roots. Some species of houseplants, such as mealy bugs, can be revived by looking for telltale signs of watering, lighting, nutrient, or infestation.

If you suspect your houseplant is dying, look out for telltale signs of watering, lighting, nutrient, or infestation. If rare, sell them or give them away. Facebook groups tend to snap them up quickly.

To get rid of a dead plant, bag it and bin it to quickly remove it from your house or garden, securing any pests and disease. Place the dead, infested plant in a trash bin or place it in your curbside yard waste pile.

In conclusion, there are various ways to handle unwanted houseplants, but one common solution is to dig them out. By following these steps, you can help save the environment while maintaining the beauty and health of your home.


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What to do with plants that are too long?

To reduce a plant’s size, prune it, lower light conditions, divide it, move it, and rehome it. Plants growing tall and bushy are often celebrated by their parents, but they can also be too big for their space or turn your home into a jungle. To keep your plants compact, consider the following tips:

  1. Cut back growth until it’s a size you’re happy with.
  2. Lower light conditions to encourage faster growth.
  3. Divide the plant, move it elsewhere, and rehome it when needed.
  4. Use containers to keep plants organized and separate them from other plants.
  5. Consider repotting the plant when it’s too large or if it’s causing issues in your home.

How do I get rid of a plant?

Mulching is a method to remove unwanted plants and weeds from garden beds. It involves cutting them to the ground and applying heavy mulching tactics to impede their growth. Alternative methods include straw, newspaper, leaves, cardboard, black weed tarp, or traditional mulch. It is crucial to block sunlight from reaching weeds. Planting flowers, crops, and ground cover plants on bare spots in garden beds helps compete with weeds for water, soil nutrients, and sunlight, while protecting the soil from stray weed seeds and invasive varieties. Covering bare spots helps maintain balanced moisture levels and combats erosion and nutrient depletion. Maintaining the garden is essential to prevent weeds from returning.

What can I do about overgrown houseplants?
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What can I do about overgrown houseplants?

To prune a too-large houseplant, use a sharp knife, rooting powder, a clean pot, and fresh potting mix. Many houseplants from tropical areas thrive in dappled sunlight, making them suitable for lower-light conditions in homes. However, over time, they can grow too big. To make the plant smaller, trim off the tops and root them, starting with a smaller, but younger plant.

If cutting a plant and rooting the top in summer, place the new plant in the shade outside and keep the soil moist while the plant is rooting. If cutting indoors, keep the rooting plant in a bright window but out of direct sun. This will help maintain the plant’s health and provide enough light for the growing part. It’s important to note that the best solution is to trim off the tops of the plant, ensuring the soil remains moist while the plant grows.

What is the most annoying pest in the world?

Mosquitoes cause itchy bites and buzzing sounds, carrying diseases. Fleas are tough to handle infestations and cause itchy bites on pets and people. Midge/Sand Fly bites are painful and attack in groups. Common House Flies are loud buzzing and carry disease. Earth Guard Pest Service finds these 9 insects most annoying and recommends calling them if you experience an infestation. They offer solutions for pests like these, ensuring a safe and healthy environment for pets and humans.

How do you get rid of potted plants?

Local yard waste programs often accept dead plants and garden waste, often composting it into soil or mulch for community use. It’s crucial to dispose of dead plants properly for environmental health and garden well-being. Each method has its benefits, and following these guidelines can help dispose of plants with ease. Trash Wizard offers trash removal services, and you can book an appointment for disposal. Additionally, the Ultimate Guide provides tips on disposing of lighters with fluid.

What is the hardest pest to get rid of in houseplants?
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What is the hardest pest to get rid of in houseplants?

Spider mites are small indoor plant mites that produce silky webs and suck plant sap, damaging houseplants. They are particularly difficult to get rid of and can be introduced into homes or naturally attract them. To catch houseplant pests before they become a problem, it is essential to know the early warning signs. Here are five common indoor plant bugs to be on the lookout for:

  1. Spider mites can be found in crevices and nest in plants without being noticed.
  2. Spider mites can be found in the soil, causing a nutrient imbalance.
  3. Spider mites can also be found in the air, causing a sour taste in food.
  4. Spider mites can be difficult to remove, so it is essential to address the issue early to prevent further damage.

Can indoor plants survive without sunlight?

The maidenhair, a shade-loving green plant, typically grows under trees in its natural habitat. Therefore, when cultivated indoors, it is essential to provide conditions that closely resemble those of its natural environment. This may include the use of button fern, rabbit’s foot, and autumn fern, which are not dependent on sunlight for optimal growth.

What is the biggest killer of houseplants?
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What is the biggest killer of houseplants?

Overwatering is a common mistake made by plant parents, leading to root rot that can kill the plant. Root rot is caused by a pathogen that thrives in a consistently moist environment. Signs of overwatering include yellowing or drooping leaves, heavy pots, and smelling soil. To counter root rot, reduce watering frequency and move plants to areas with more direct sunlight. If the planter lacks a drainage hole, repot it with one. Ensure the soil is completely dry before watering again.

To prevent overwatering, don’t standardize a watering schedule for all plants. Pay attention to the individual needs of each variety, such as drought-tolerant snake plants and ZZ plants, which should dry out completely between waterings. Use a finger to gauge the top two inches of dirt to determine if it’s dry, wet, or moist.

Can I reuse soil from a dead plant?

Reusing soil is generally not recommended due to the presence of soilborne pathogens, especially if plants have died from bacterial, fungal, or viral diseases. However, if the plants were healthy, it is generally acceptable to reuse the potting soil. To ensure soil cleanliness, sterilize it through solarization in the sun or heating it in an oven or microwave. Remove dead plants and dump the used soil into a bin to remove large roots and insects. If sterilized with the sun, place the soil in strong, black plastic bags or containers and leave them in the sun for four to six weeks.

What to do when an indoor plant gets too big?

Large houseplants are capable of making a striking visual impact, enhancing the ambience of any room. To maintain optimal growth, it is necessary to prune the foliage and take cuttings for propagation. In order to facilitate continued growth, it is necessary to repot the plant. For further insight, please direct your attention to the following list of the top 14 large indoor houseplants, which may serve as a source of inspiration. It is important to remember to prune and take new cuttings for propagation in order to maintain the desired size of the plant.

How do you get rid of indoor plants?
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How do you get rid of indoor plants?

While plants are capable of absorbing light, the light emitted by standard light bulbs may prove inadequate for their needs. LED grow lights can be utilized to cultivate plants in environments with minimal or no sunlight. They provide robust illumination, which is conducive to plant wellbeing. In order to ascertain the quantity of light that a given room receives, it is necessary to consider the orientation of the room in question. For example, a room that faces east will receive sunlight in the morning.


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How To Dispose Of Unwelcome Houseplants
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21 comments

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  • The absolute must and trick to get your Christmas / Easter / Thanksgiving cactus to bloom is this. That plant needs absolute darkness at night like if had outside. So you need to either put it in a room no one enters at night or puts a light on. Or what I do is get a paper bag or a large black garbage bag and cover the plant after 6pm at night and remove it in the morning every day. This was you are mimicking what the plant gets outside so it starts producing it’s flowers to bloom. Like I have 3 of these in my office for each holiday season at work that is huge but after I leave work and the blinds are closed its in absolute darkness for a span of night time hours then I have one blooming at all times of year. The key to them blooming for you is place them in a space in your house is in a room with like zero traffic at night. I researched these a lot of youtube and once I gave them what they needed I had huge success.

  • My Thanksgiving cactus stays under grow lights, I do sun stress it, lots of pink, and I am a big under waterer, but mine blooms at least 3 to 4 times a year, I never move it from the lights, or make it cooler? Mine had beautiful bright white and pink flowers, mine I’d blooming now and it’ll bloom many times in the year, it grows alot ad well, and the sun stressing is so pretty! But I don’t take any of those tips of moving it around or anything, but it does get water stressed quite often, and most plants bloom when they believe they r dying so they can seed and keep their babies living, so I think that’s why mine blooms alot, lots of light, little water at times lol, and lots of blooms! Try that!! 🙂

  • My unloved p.birkin. It was reverted in one plant (there’s two in the pot) the other had small almost round leaves with some variegation. I gave it to my roommates girlfriend. She’s getting into plants. I’ve given her three other. One was a calathea that had spider mites that I had treated several times to get rid of those nuggets but I finally did it. She said it came back and is beautiful. One of them did die but she knew it was ailing. So right now I gave her my birkin.

  • I have combined a lot of plants that look much better in a grouping situation…they benefit from the humidity, much less trouble in a big planter and are much more attractive as a whole..in fact small containers of plants are much more work, period. You just go through of periods of not liking some plants..and getting tired of certain plants that have not thrived as expected, but there are some learning curves with many plants that you eventually will master, if you have the drive to learn their mysterious needs. And then, there are the ones you are JUST OVER..like the flowering cacti during the various holidays…

  • Good article. I especially use combining plants, summering outdoors and even repotting into more interesting pottery or updating the presentation of the plant to revive or test my love it. I also agree with your set and forget choice for your Thanksgiving cactus. I bought a small teensy one many years ago for like a dollar after the holidays. It took me quite a while for me to figure out it’s care requirements in the first place to really get some growth, but when I had that down it still wouldn’t flower. They really like regular water in summer kept in a relatively shady spot outdoors, then I kinda withhold water into late autumn, then thoroughly hydrate and keep near a window indoors in a cooler room where they get roughly 12 hrs daylight and 12 hrs of darker conditions. It has finally come together in my having buds about to bloom. But the hardiness and learning journey make this particular plant special to me. But yes, often it has just been a fairly neglected little spot of green tucked in a less desirable position during the winter, but I am so glad I persisted. I have a little one gifted to me that has bloomed yearly and looks cute in an elephant planter so it gave me hope and the extra oomph to stick it out with a plant I often found boring. It gives me a sense of achievement and satisfaction. I guess it’s all about whether the space a plant takes up in your home and lifestyle is supported enough by the space it takes up in your heart.

  • I love this article. I think the plants that you’re hiding know you dont like them 😂 so they are sulking even more LOL 🤣 In regards to the TG Cactus, she wont flower now, all the flowers come from the tips. If you put it dappled light outside you should find it becomes much more loveable and will flower but next year…can you wait?!!! My Micans has been on my “dislike” list, I gave one rot, bought another, got pests I think and poor growth, I was so over it but she is finally acting in a way I hoped. Well it is growing now. Wish me luck.

  • I’d be willing to take some of your ever wanting to give them away unfortunately I love saving sick and dying plants or plants people don’t want anymore, I can buy or drive but I can grow and thrive haha get it😅 anyways just let me know I’d love to give you my address to ship anyways if not it’s totally fine I really enjoy perusal your articles and hope you keep up the hard work I myself love house plants and have quite a few

  • Interesting article . I prefer to gift a plant that I am not able to give it what it needs. If I can find the plants’ sweet spot in my home, great! If not, I am more than open to someone else seeing if.they can get it to thrive. 🥰. I find that some plants just take longer to bounce back. When they do bounce back and begin to thrive, it’s so rewarding! Thank you for sharing this topic. It’s something everyone experiences in their plant journey. 👌🪴🥰

  • OhhhhMG! I’m SOOOOO glad I stumbled across this. I received a Chinese Evergreen – Silver Bay as a gift about a month ago & found the bottom two leaves beginning to yellow this morning. Hurt my feelings lol BUT the plant is growing super fast (3 new leaves unfurlng in the past 2 weeks 🤗🤍) & the root system is beautiful!!

  • THANK YOU! Such a simple explanation, I feel silly for not realizing it sooner. Of course the old leaves will hello and fall off during growth. My Dieffenbachia is pushing out so much NG right now and all of the bottom leaves are yellowing. I thought it was dying so I turned to YouTube and watched s o many articles not getting the answer I needed. Then I found your article!! Yay!! My plant is growing and happy, you’ve given my peace of mind & I found a new favorite plant website 💙🙏🏻✌🏻

  • Thanks for the great article! 🙂 Question: Oftentimes my plants will have super green and healthy-looking leaves at the top, but the lower parts of the stem will seem to be drying up. This often happens with my herbs such as thyme and rosemary. Have you ever had this problem and perhaps knows a way to help them with this? They are currently at large pots with lots of sunlight and are watered regularly.

  • I bought a leaf cutting recently and it came packaged really badly. No airflow and it was too moist. I thought the cutting was dead when I got it. The leaf was decaying and floppy. I salvaged what I could by cutting off all the dead bits and I dunked the entire cutting in hydrogen peroxide and water. I let the end of the cutting sit in hydrogen peroxide and water mix for a few weeks and it’s actually showing signs of a new leaf and the roots are just now touching the bottom of the jar. I just used the hydrogen peroxide to save another plant. It recovered in 3 days! No discolouration. My lucky bamboo was dying. I had to cut the top of it off but the remaining yellow stem is now green.

  • What about when they all turn yellow? Lol then what? If I remove all the dead leaves will it push out new growth? Idk what is wrong with my plant. It did have spider mites but I quickly took care of the issue..got rid of the mites. My plant seemed to be recovering..then one day it took a turn and within like a weeks time EVERY leaf turned yellow. So much confusion. I have the proper soil. I only water it when it needs to be water..its not root bound. What’s happening?! Someone…hellppppp!!

  • My plants die really easily, I haven’t figured out how and why, just really sudden, I almost never notice the change. No matter how I watter my plants they are never happy. Just noticed that one of my plant had suddenly died. And today I also got four plants from my great grandmother who went to heaven earlier this week and now I’m really stressed, I don’t want to kill those plants

  • I just bought a dieffenbachia and its kinda welting on different leaves and I’ve been watering it but it seems like each day there’s more. I don’t want to move the plant but I guess i might have to. I don’t know if the welting is from a lack of watering vs. Overwatering or if its just a lack of sunlight. I don’t even know how much water they’re supposed to get.

  • Lol, that’s good to know about the leaves turning yellow, and it makes perfect sense. I find that when a leaf turns yellow and it’s on the bottom part of the plant I have always just plucked it off, and not really given it much more thought, because the plant just keeps pushing out new growth. Fittonias are funny plants when they do that wilting thing, I have one that does it all the time, I just water it and it perks right back up, Lol. Thanks for the tips, have fun and see you in the next article, Bye for now

  • Thank you for what you do. I regrew two organic celery roots and they were thriving for the first couple of months. I forgot to water all my indoor plants one day and since then I notice the leaves are getting yellow. They were sooooooo healthy. Would it be a good idea to just not water them for a couple of days? I have a sneaky suspicion that I watered them too much. I usually water them every day. Love the red beret!

  • I’m so glad I found this article! I was looking for syngonium care, but found this which seems to solve another problem I have. I have what I thought was a peace lilly. But now I think it’s a Chinese evergreen. The canes are super tall and the new growth looks really healthy but it hasnt bloomed in years. I’m not sure how to proceed with it, but it’s not ready to die yet, lol. But now, I at least know what it is, so thank you! Lol

  • Could someone help me? I have a red tropical hibiscus and he was allways well and green. But sudenly became yellow and the leafs are falling, he lost more than 80% of this leafs now, form day to night. I dose the sunlight as recomended, it is fertilized, there is no sigh of cochonillas nor any other visible plagues, watering it as allways, trying to mantain an equilibrium between wet and dry soil and sparyed it with plagues repelent. But still it is yellowing and dying. How can i save it? I really like it a lot, have it from more than 7 years now and really dont want to loose it… Is there a recipe of some plant tonic, or some plague repelent that could help me?

  • SOOOOO placed my pink Chinese evergreen(my baby) in the bathroom where it has little light and high humidity. It is a younger plant and has 1-2 yellow leaves which I have plucked. The plant (Lola is her name) seems a bit droopy… I am new to agloanemas and am at a loss of what to do. Should I take her out of the dark bathroom with high humidity and place her back on the SE facing windows near my humidifier? How often do I water her? thank you for the helpful article btw!!!

  • Ok so I have an elephant ears plant, very new and love them. One leave is yellowish on the rim. Should I worry? I just bought this and I did notice it when I got it. I assumed it was not being well maintained. It was in direct sunlight. As I’ve educated myself I see they need bright light but not direct sunlight. When I got them they were in the sun. This plant have 4 leaves. One has a little hole in the center and i assume it was maybe an ant. Can I cut that off? The one that is yellowish on the trim. And how do I cut it without killing it