Houseplants in autumn: getting ready for winter
The days get shorter and plants slow down. Autumn is the season for adjustments: a few steps now, and your plants will get through winter without trouble.
Updated on 6 October 2026
In short
- Bring balcony plants in before nights drop below 54 °F (12 °C), after checking them over.
- Space out waterings bit by bit, in October and November.
- Stop feeding: most plants don't take fertiliser after September.
- Move your plants closer to the windows to give them all the light you can.
- Prepare the winter flowers: Christmas cactus, poinsettia, kalanchoe.
Bringing balcony plants back in
Most houseplants come from the tropics: they don't like cool nights. Bring them in as soon as night temperatures drop below 54 °F (12 °C), often between late September and mid-October depending on where you live.
Before putting them back in the living room, check them carefully: under the leaves, along the stems, even under the pot. Mealybugs, aphids and spider mites often come along for the ride. A lukewarm shower on the foliage, then one or two weeks a little apart from your other plants, saves a lot of trouble.
Water less often
As the days get shorter, plants slow down and drink less. In our care guides, winter watering is on average almost twice as spaced out as summer watering. Make the change in October and November, waiting a day or two longer each time.
| Plant | Spring and summer | Autumn and winter |
|---|---|---|
| Monstera | every 7 days | every 2 weeks |
| Pothos | every 7 days | every 12 days |
| Fiddle-leaf fig | every 8 days | every 2 weeks |
| Calathea orbifolia | every 4 days | every 7 days |
| Snake plant | every 2 weeks | every 30 days |
This is when people overwater without realising: they keep their summer habits while the soil dries half as fast. Too much water is the main cause of root rot in autumn and winter. When in doubt, wait.
Stop feeding
A resting plant doesn't need feeding: the fertiliser would build up in the soil. 115 of our 121 care guides stop fertiliser at the end of summer and start it again in spring. The exceptions are plants that flower at this time of year, like the cyclamen, whose season it is, or the orchid, fed until October.
Find more light
Light drops quickly in autumn, and it's what plants miss most in winter. Move them closer to the windows: plants that feared the summer sun cope well with the gentler sun of this season. Turn the pots a quarter turn every week so they don't all grow leaning towards the glass. And why not clean the windows: clean glass lets in noticeably more light.
Preparing winter flowers
Some plants need the long autumn nights to flower at Christmas. The Christmas cactus sets its buds after a few weeks of cool, long nights: keep it in a barely heated room, with no lamp on in the evening. The kalanchoe and the poinsettia need about fourteen hours of complete darkness a night for six to eight weeks to flower or colour up again: a cardboard box placed over them in the evening does the job.
It's also the season to restart an amaryllis bulb: after its dry rest, repot it and water it again; it will flower a few weeks later.
Before you turn the heating on
Heating dries the air, and many tropical plants cope badly with it. Find spots away from radiators now, and plan for a little humidity: a tray of damp clay pebbles under the pots, or a humidifier for the most demanding. It's all in the winter guide.
This advice is for houseplants in a temperate climate. Every home is different: trust your plant too, and the soil under your finger.