If your houseplants sailed through summer and then started sulking around November — dropping leaves, going crispy at the edges, sitting in soil that never seems to dry — you haven't done anything wrong. British winters are genuinely hard on indoor plants, and for two reasons that pull in opposite directions: there's suddenly very little daylight, and the moment the heating goes on, the air indoors turns as dry as a desert.
The good news is that winter care is mostly about doing less, not more. Here's what actually matters.
01What changes when the clocks go back
- Give them your brightest windows. Light is the big one. Daylight collapses through autumn — by midwinter, much of the UK gets under eight hours of weak, low sun. Move plants to your brightest spots (south- and west-facing windows earn their keep now), wipe dust off the leaves with a damp cloth so they can use what light there is, and turn the pots a quarter every week or two so they don't grow lopsided towards the glass.
- Water much, much less. Cool rooms and low light mean plants barely grow, so they barely drink. Many houseplants are happy left a week or two between waterings in winter. Push a finger into the compost first — if the top couple of centimetres are still damp, leave it. Overwatering kills far more houseplants over winter than cold ever does.
- Ease right off feeding. Put the fertiliser away until spring. Most plants aren't actively growing, so they can't use it, and unused feed just builds up in the compost. (The RHS allows the occasional feed for anything you're genuinely keeping in growth in a warm, bright spot — but for the average windowsill, hold off.)
- Mind the two enemies at the window. A windowsill in winter is a battleground. On one side, cold draughts and icy glass — which cause yellowing, dry edges and, in a real cold snap, collapse. On the other, the radiator underneath, blasting hot dry air that scorches leaves brown at the tips. Neither is good. Pull plants back from freezing glass on frosty nights, and shift anything that's cooking directly above a radiator.
- Leave them be. Winter is a rest period. Don't repot, don't prune hard, don't fuss — save all of that for spring when the plant can actually recover and grow into fresh compost.
- Keep an eye out for pests. Warm, dry rooms are a holiday resort for spider mites and the like. Check the undersides of leaves now and then; catching an infestation early makes it far easier to deal with.
02The dry-air problem
Central heating is brutal on humidity, and the plants that mind most — anything with thin, tropical leaves — show it with crispy brown tips and edges. Two things genuinely help: group plants together so they share the moisture they release, and stand them on a tray of damp pebbles (pot base above the waterline, not sitting in it) so there's a little evaporation rising around them.
Here's where we'll be honest with you: misting does very little. A spritz raises the humidity around a leaf for a few minutes before it evaporates, and you'd have to stand there misting all day to change anything — meanwhile the damp sitting on leaves overnight can actually encourage disease. It feels productive; it mostly isn't. Skip the fancy misters. Grouping plants and a pebble tray do more, for free. If you have one genuinely fussy tropical, a cheap room humidifier beats every gadget marketed at plant owners — but most collections never need one.
How we checked this
Every care and safety claim on this page is verified against horticultural and veterinary sources.
Sources: RHS — How to grow houseplants · RHS — How to help a poorly houseplant · RHS — Houseplants for humidity
Checked 29 July 2026. If our advice ever conflicts with the RHS, believe them and tell us.