On Feb 18, 7:20*pm, Anne Jackson wrote:
The message from "Cat(h)" contains these words:

What amazes me is the fact that some people don't bother to find
out what a plant's requirements are, _before_ problems arise!

I'm afraid one of the problems - especially for beginners - is that
they see a lovely plant, want to own it but all too often, can't find
a member of staff to tell them how to look after it. *Too many garden
centres are just plant supermarkets and you probably wouldn't ask the
girl at the Tesco checkout how to cook your monkfish - or not with any
expectation of expert help!

That is true, but with access to the Internet, all the necessary advice
on the care of house plants is there at your fingertips, as it were...

Well, this guy tried to do just that - ask a question on an internet
forum and obtain advice - and got his nose cut off...

Why is it considered easier to ask in a forum that to use a search engine
to find the answer oneself, though? *Laziness?


Judging from the rows I have seen develop in this forum over good/bad
advice given, I would have thought that the very purpose of this type
of forum was to exchange ideas, experience and provide advice. I have
often asked pretty silly questions here, and been very glad of the
sometimes basic, but to me useful answers I have got.
There is a big difference between being too lazy to google, and simply
not knowing enough to google intelligently. Not to mention the need
to know enough to separate the wheat from the chaff in an internet
search.
I have often googled *after* enquiring here.

Many people buy a plant, or are presented with a plant, and rely on
the advice on the label, and why wouldn't they?
Trouble is, I have often seen very different house plants in stores
(not necessarily garden centres, who seem a little better) bearing
exactly the same label with the same generic advice.

My 'generic' advice would be to let the compost dry out, before giving
the plant any more water. *More houseplants are killed by over-watering
than by any other method...

Some of us are still feeling our way around gardening, you know ;-)

Whilst conditions for garden plants can vary widely, depending on a
on a variety of circumstances, soil conditions, temperature, etc. the
same is not necessarily true of houseplants. * *

Not true. An overly sunny windowsill will bake a plant which would
thrive on a shadier and more humid bathroom sill. I used to have lots
of houseplants, once, and have experienced the differences location
can make by trial and error, involving much killing of lots of
different plants (due to a variety of problems, not all identified).

Anyway, surely, it is no harm to treat the innocent poster with a
little kindness? A good dead rarely goes unpunished ;-)

Cat(h)