We will be away for a couple of weeks and for the first time I won’t have anyone available to water my pot plants. The orchids will survive nicely but my three peace lilies might not. If I put the pots in the bath, should I put the plug in, draw a little water and set the pots on some old wet towels? I certainly don’t want to drown the plants. Any ideas what to do?

Chris, that is exactly what I do and, as they will only take up as much water as they need, they survive perfectly.

The fact that bathrooms are normally on the cool side of a house also helps.

Regards,

Barbara Anne

Thank you Marnie. I do hope they will survive. I have had them for years and they are a good size. The bathroom is on the shady side of the house and that should help.

Here's what I do when I go away. I put a few inches of water in the bath (or a bucket if there's only 1 potplant), stand an upturned empty pot, or something equally suitable, in the water and sit the pot plant on top of the upturned one. Poke 2 narrow strips of material (old torn sheet, towel, medical gauze, etc) down two sides of the plant and let it dangle to the bottom of the water in the bath. Just use your imagination to utilise whatever you have to create the same set-up.

When I had a long haired dog, I often wanted to conserve water by giving him a bath, instead of using the hose. I just happened to have a few fish bins on hand (my son was a commercial fisherman), and I also had some long candles. I melted a candle and filled the drain holes in the corners of the fish bins and hey presto! A dog bath!

So now you ask: How did I fill the holes with liquid wax? I live at the beach and while it's illegal to remove sand from the beach, I didn't think a kiddies beach bucketful would be missed. I tipped it into a slightly bigger box and got my son to hold the fish bin upright with one corner pressed hard into the sand. Poured in the liquid wax and it was only minutes before it dried enough to remove and let harden completely. Repeated 3 more times to treat each drain hole. Needless to say, the dog always had a cold bath.

Well, we are in the North Island now. I will let you know how my plants survived. They got the bath treatment. A huge gardenia got watered really well on the morning we left and shifted away from the sunny spot it sat on. My husband drilled a hole into the screw top of a lsrge water bottle and inserted a bit of tubing, filled the bottle with water and upended it on the pot. Water should dribble out slowly. It will be a miracle if that plant survives.

Happy to report that all plants survived really well. The old towels started to get a bit smelly but no real problem.