My plant room is probably my favorite space in my home. It’s full of sunlight and lush with more than 30 plants, from a baby crown of thorns to a towering bird of paradise whose leaves threaten to touch the ceiling.

Maintaining a large collection of plants can take a lot of time and energy, but I figured out how to simplify the care of so many specimens and make sure the plants get what they need. Here are my tips for managing a room full of lush, leafy houseplants.

Selection of plants

One big reason I chose the house I live in is this room’s large bay window and southern exposure, ideal for light-hungry houseplants. But it took a while to figure out exactly which ones would work in this bright, sunny space.

Quite a few varieties that prefer cooler conditions struggled, even when I placed them at the opposite end of the room from that big, bright window. Some adapted, but I ended up leaving others to fellow gardeners.

Also consider the temperature as you populate your plant room. I’m happy to have the extra space, but since I have a separate bedroom and home office, it’s not cost-effective to heat and cool my plant room to ideal levels year-round. My plants must be able to handle temperatures of 90°F in the summer and 60°F in the winter.

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Arranging plants

Shelves are your friend! Two vertical shelves flank the window of my plant room, holding sun-loving plants like African milkweed and fig leaf props. Lower shelves are ideal for plants that thrive in strong indirect light.

In the back of the room, more than 10 feet from the window, I have a corner shelf for plants that prefer medium indirect light, like philodendrons, satin pothos, orchids, and bird’s nest ferns.

Larger specimens such as monstera, rubber plant and bird of paradise sit in pots directly on the floor or on low plant stands around the perimeter of the room according to their light needs. I keep ceiling hooks in a sunny window for light loving plants like succulents.

Plant Room Gear

I’m not the kind of indoor gardener who relies on fancy gadgets like moisture meters or hygrometers. I use plastic takeout containers and watering cans (more on that in a minute), basic grow bulbs screwed into a vintage floor lamp for my calamansi tree in the winter, and repurposed takeout container lids as saucers. You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to help your plants thrive!

Watering, fertilizing and transplanting

Watering a large collection of plants takes a lot of effort. I laid a small tarp in the middle of the room to protect my wood floors. I fill a 30 gallon storage bucket about a quarter full with water and place it on the tarp with another empty bucket. During the spring and summer, once a month I will add half the recommended amount of liquid fertilizer to the water.

I place each plant in a bucket of water, using a combination of top and bottom watering, pouring water over each pot with a quart container. When the soil is saturated, each is moved to an empty bucket to drain before returning to its pot or saucer.

When I’m done, I only have a little water left, which I throw out. This process takes a little over an hour, but minimizes the amount of water I need and the distance from each plant to the water source. I water once a week in the summer, and closer to every two weeks in the winter.

Transplantation happens in a similar way. The tarp comes down to minimize the mess. I use buckets to transport multiple plants at once, or I keep discarded potting mix, which I will reuse to build up soil in outdoor ornamentals.

Pest Management

My biggest pest problem in my current plant room is powdery mildew, which I was dealing with before using Bti. This bacteria is safe for your plants, but it kills fungus gnat larvae in the soil before they hatch.

This is usually a problem after I bring plants in from my porch in the fall, as I’ve learned to quarantine and carefully inspect new plants to catch any pest problems before they can affect the rest of my collection. I use sticky traps to monitor progress after treating the soil for pests.