Bloom Get Bloom

What your plant is telling you

Most houseplant problems come down to a handful of symptoms, and most of those have several causes that look alike. Each page below separates the lookalikes by something you can actually observe.

  1. Yellow leaves

    Usually watering, and more often too much than too little.

    Check the soil two inches down before anything else.

  2. Brown, crispy tips and edges

    Dry air, erratic watering, or salt build-up from tap water.

    Judge it on the newest leaves: brown tissue never turns green again.

  3. Drooping or wilting

    Thirsty or drowning, and the two look identical from above.

    Do not water until you have felt the soil. Half the time water is the cause.

  4. White spots or powder

    Powdery mildew, mealybugs, or harmless limescale.

    Wipe a patch. What happens next tells you which of the three it is.

  5. Brown or black spots

    Fungal or bacterial infection, sunburn, or the roots failing.

    Look at the edge of one spot. A yellow halo means infection.

Why the lookalikes matter

Overwatering and underwatering both cause yellow leaves and both cause drooping, and they want opposite treatments. Powdery mildew and limescale both look like white dust, and raising humidity fixes one while feeding the other. Getting the direction wrong costs weeks, and weeks is often what the plant has.

These pages are general guidance, written to narrow the field. They cannot tell you which cause is yours, because that depends on what your plant actually looks like. Bloom does that part from a photo: the species, a health score out of 100, and each problem it finds paired with the treatment for it.

Download on the App Store