January hit and so did the single digit temps. Yaaaaay. 
I have had to move the plants further away from the windows and have the shades down to keep some of that cold from seeping in. I don’t think it really does much, but makes me feel better thinking I’m doing something to save some money, ahaha.

When I got into plants I was already using Reddit and I jumped into the houseplants and succulent subreddit head first and within the first week I learned:

• Only fertilize during the growing season (spring to early fall)
• Repot during spring and summer
• Fertilize only during the growing season

That advice was just constantly repeated on social media help areas and in articles I read. They’re not at all wrong. To give credit to the plant community, it looks like this opinion is changing to do what is necessary for the individual plant rather than a blank statement overall.
But as I’ve grown in my knowledge of plants and their care, the rules aren’t rules anymore – just good guidelines to follow in general.

Houseplants are in the house (obviously) and they don’t following the outside schedule as closely or at all because of that – I’m sure there are plant types that follow it better but overall that isn’t the case for me. Plants do slow down and potting substrate don’t dry out as quickly, taking note of subtle changes with each plant is important to figure out if repotting is necessary. If there isn’t any active growth its probably best to wait until warmer weather to repot.

So I will repot during the winter if I have too. I am of the thinking that plants generally like to be cuddled in their pots rather than floating in them, ahaha.

That being said, I noticed my dracaena marginata magenta is needing to be watered more often in the last couple of month. I watered it on Sunday and noticed a big healthy root growing out of the drainage hole, so I might have to upgrade the pot in February. Not to mention my raven ZZ plant is in need of a bigger pot but it’s still pushing out new growth and I don’t want to disrupt potential the growth just yet….That one I’ll probably change pots closer to April if I don’t see signs it needs it sooner.

I gotta go with my gut when it comes to my plants – asking for advice on plants is good and healthy, but people can’t know it like I do from pictures they see. I need to trial and error and succeed to learn more, ahaha. I guess that’s one reason why I love plants is it’s okay to fail and I learn something new every week!