Many novice houseplant aficionados wonder why their lovely miniature roses, azaleas, and other showy floral plants never seem to last more than a few weeks before becoming a bundle of dead twigs. Well, they’re not supposed to. There are many beautiful plants that are sold to brighten our homes but, for many, aren’t worth the effort to keep alive past the blooming season. Most of these can be considered “houseplants” because it is possible to keep them alive and bring them into bloom again. But unless you’re dedicated to providing them with just the right environment (usually more light and humidity than found in the average home) they should either be discarded or planted outside in the garden. The advantage of a potted plant, even if it won’t live long, is that it will outlast cut flowers. This means that if you’re particularly fond of an outdoor bedding plant, don’t be afraid to try it inside for a few weeks. Just don’t expect it to be happy there for long.

Some houseplants can live quite long indoors, but after a few years, lose their attractiveness. This may be due to improper culture – dropping lower leaves, creating an unsightly bare stem – or simply due to the plant’s growth habit. Others simply grow too large for their environment, needing to be placed in larger and larger containers until it’s simply impractical to keep doing so. There are a few solutions to this problem besides just giving up and hauling it to the compost heap.

Prevention is the best cure. Don’t re-pot that plant unless absolutely necessary – sometimes keeping a plant rootbound will keep a tall specimen from reaching the ceiling (and most prefer it, anyway.) Pruning is often necessary, a task that makes many indoor growers nervous. But without an occasional snip, many plants grow long and gangly. Pothos, for example, is a very easy plant to grow. But left to its own devices, it will grow one long vine – reaching perhaps twenty feet or more. If that’s the effect you want, great. But most folks prefer a bushier plant, so don’t be afraid to cut a few feet off now and then. What to do with the cutting? Root it and start another plant. Pruning will encourage almost any houseplant to become bushier and more attractive.

Sometimes the best tactic is to follow nature’s cycle and encourage reproduction. If you have a big crowded pot of Peace lily or Boston Fern, take it out of the pot and mercilessly hack it into thirds. Re-pot the pieces and enjoy three for the price of one. Is your dracaena looking a bit bare and scraggly? Try air layering – create a new set of roots along the stem, cut the stem just below the new roots, and pot it up. Discard the old stem. The polka-dot plant is notorious for looking gangly and scruffy after a couple of years, no matter how well cared for. It’s easy to root the cuttings, though; keep the new plants and toss the old one.

If your plant has lost its vigor due to insect infestation or disease, however, it’s probably best to toss it unless the problem can be solved easily. Keeping these infected plants around the house puts the rest of your houseplant population at risk. If you do decide to keep it, at least isolate it from the rest of the plants while it’s being treated. By the same token, resist the temptation to rescue half-dead scraps of plants from the nursery no matter how low the price. Unless you’re an expert and can tell exactly what’s wrong with the plant, it’s usually not worth the effort to nurse the plant back to health.

Nothing lives forever, even a treasured houseplant. Though some varieties will easily outlive their owners, most have a much shorter life span and despite our best efforts will eventually have to depart. Have a short funeral service for “Ivy” if you like, but don’t be afraid to toss her on the compost heap when she reaches the end of her rope. If you’re lucky, you can save a cutting or two and her “children” will live to decorate your home for years to come.