Yes, you can have too many plants...

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I have been thinking about how I change my houseplant habits in 2023. Two things happened over the festive break to bring my musings into sharp focus. 

First, I lost a few succulents in the extreme cold snap the UK experienced last month, and it really smarted. A couple were cacti species I would have expected to be unaffected, including my large variegated Opuntia monacantha, but the most painful casualty was a plant that inevitably wouldn't make it - my largish Crassula ovata 'Hummel's Sunset' which I simply forgot to bring inside (shoutout to anyone also going through perimenopausal brain fog). It has dissolved to mush and is, I think, very unlikely to recover. Fortunately I have a tiny cutting, so the plant will live on, but it's hard to face losing a big, fairly old succulent specimen.

Then just before Christmas I had to move all my plants out of my kitchen and sun room while we had new patio doors fitted. I had expected the plant count to be around 60 - it turned out there were about 140 in these two rooms (my husband and children delighted in counting them all). Carrying them all to a temporary home in my office, then moving them back a couple of days later, gave me a chance to scrutinise every one, make a list of every maintenance task that needed doing, and decide which ones I no longer wanted. Some have already found new homes: a couple are on the compost heap. 

It reminded me of the plants I absolutely adore, and the ones I can easily live without. I probably have about a couple of dozen more plants than I can cope with, given my space and my other commitments. I need to do more winnowing of the remaining plants, and happily wave them off to new homes. This is ok. I have realised I need to be a plant grower, not a plant collector. 

All this reminded me that, contrary to many a social media post, you absolutely CAN have too many plants: your ideal number may be one, one hundred or one thousand, depending on your situation and skills. And this number will change over time. Each plant we add to your homes should be a carefully considered purchase, or swap: that way, each plant will give long-term rewards rather than a quick dopamine hit of ticking a plant off your wishlist. If you have to sell, give away or compost plants, you haven't failed, you are doing the best for you at that moment. Of course, we'll all occasionally fall off the wagon, but I'm starting 2023 on a mission to really enjoy the plants I already have. I hope you can do the same.

This blogpost was taken from The Plant Ledger, my twice monthly email newsletter about the UK houseplant scene. Subscribe here and get my free in-depth guide to fungus gnats.