How to Prevent Yellow Leaves and Pests After Bringing Flowers Indoors

1. Moderate watering: After moving indoors, since the space is not as open as outdoors, the amount of water transpired from the flower pots and plant surfaces decreases. If you still water as before, the overly wet potting soil will cause root rot, and the leaves on the aboveground part of the plant will turn yellow.

2. Reduce fertilisation: In autumn, most flowers shift from vigorous growth to slow growth. After flowers are brought indoors, the rise in temperature will push them into a stage of rapid growth. But their nutrient uptake is still not as great as in summer, so topdressing should be reduced or stopped to avoid yellow leaves on the plants.

3. Adjust lighting: Some flowers that love strong light, such as Chinese roses and hibiscus, will mostly develop yellow leaves after being brought indoors if they are placed in a shaded spot, because of insufficient light. Conversely, placing shade-loving bird's-nest ferns and Monstera deliciosa in a place with too much light will also cause the leaves to lose their green colour and turn yellow. The placement of indoor flowers should also be adjusted reasonably.

4. Ventilate the environment: A closed-in environment will cause the ethylene gas that ages flowers to gradually increase in concentration in the air, and at this time many flowers that are relatively sensitive to ethylene are especially prone to yellow leaves. Therefore, frequently maintaining good ventilation is one of the effective ways to prevent yellow leaves on indoor flowers.

5. Maintain a suitable temperature: Because of unsuitable ambient temperature, many flowers will also develop yellow leaves, especially when the temperature difference before and after moving the flowers indoors is relatively large. For example, if the outdoor minimum temperature is around 5°C when Milan and azaleas are moved into a greenhouse, and because no attention is paid to cooling them down, the ambient temperature is raised to around 25°C during the day, then the plants will soon develop yellow leaves. This situation must also be guarded against.