Plants, People & Photography by Studio Wendel

Spring Cleaning: Don't forget your plants!

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:17:09 GMT

the importance of cleaning your plants

S pring has arrived and most of us get the cleaning jibbers. We defrost the freezer, clean the kitchen cabinets, and other neglected areas in our home now get our full attention. And as happy as we are the sun is shining more often, it also makes sure we clearly see all the dirty windows. Were all those fingerprints there all this time? Yikes!

But did you know it is even more important to clean your plants?

Plants are dust collectors

O ne of the reasons you need to clean the leaves of your plants, is a very apparent one: plants are real dust-collectors. After some time they don't look as fresh and shiny as they did when you just bought them, so a good rinse will make them look healthy and happy in no time. If the plants aren't too big you can place them in the shower (make sure the plant has a drainage pot), or you can even put them outside when it is raining! Easy does it. But if you have a huuuuge strelitzia or other big plant in a heavy pot looking all dusty, you need to get to work yourself. Use a wet cloth (with just water) and wipe the leaves one by one. And yes, that sounds like a boring chore, but the looks aren't the most important reason to dust off those leaves. Let me explain.

Y ou probably already know about the importance of photosynthesis, but let me give you a quick little refresher. Photosynthesis is the process plants use to grow. With the help of chlorophyll (the green pigment in leaves), plants use sunlight to turn water they absorbed fwith their roots and carbon dioxide they absorbed through the leaves into sugar for energy - and they release oxygen as a bonus. What a miracle! But you can imagine what happens when the plants are dusty and dull looking.

A MILLION LITTLE MOUTHS

W hen leaves are covered in dirt or dust, less sunlight can reach them. That means less energy, slower growth, and weaker plants. And not only does the dust block the sunlight, they also prevent the carbon dioxide from being absorbed properly. I always love a visualization with things like this, for moral support (because I grasp every reason not to clean my plants, or anything for that matter.. I am the queen of procrastination). If that sounds like you too, just picture the leaf with a million little mouths trying to breathe. Those little mouths are now suffocating under a layer of dust. And that's when you come in as the hero with the wet cloth! Save those cute little stuffy mouths and help your plant breathe again :)

 W ooohoooo we did it! Just look at the difference of these leaves! It even looks like the plant is smiling at us :) And a little tip, please don't fall for the trap of buying that make-your-plants-shine-hairspray-stuff, this seems an easy fix, but it will suffocate the leaves even more and will kill your plants eventually. Enjoy watching your shiny plants grow some new leaves soon!

Green greetings,

Studio Wendel

How to win the battle against thrips

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 13:11:34 GMT

Brown SHRIVELLED LEAVES? could be thrips!

A ll of a sudden your plants look really bad. They get crispy edges, have weird little marks on random places and just look really sad overall. You assume you forgot to water them. Or was it maybe too sunny? So you water them more, and maybe you even place them on a diffferent spot in your home (yikes!!). But it keeps getting worse, and now other plants begin to visibly struggle too. What is going on!?

Read this blog for all tips, tricks and troubleshoots, and your plants will thrive again. But you have to act fast!

FACT: THRIPS ARE THE WORST

B elieve me when i say, having a thrips infestation is the WORST for your plants . They do the most damage really quick, because they are tiny, clever as hell and can fly, so they easily spread to other plants nearby. And with clever I mean, EINSTEIN BOSS LEVEL clever. First of all, they hide on the bottom parts of your leaves, sometimes even only on the leaves near the soil at first, so when you spot the first damage from afar you already have a huge infestation going on. Secondly, they are in all parts of your plant, so getting rid of them is really really hard. Let me explain.

G rown up thrips are around 2-3 mm long and thin. They can be grey with a few tiny black stripes, or black with a white stripe in the middle. Pro tip ; use a lamp to spot them, or turn the leaf against the sunlight.

Thrips feed on the juices of your gorgeous plants, so when you look closely you will see light green or brown spots on your leaves. Also, you can often spot black little specs ( photo --> ), which are little thrip poopsies. They prefer thin leaves like calathea, pothos and monstera, because it is easier to suck the nutrition from the leaves. But you can find them anywhere, even on cacti and succulents. When the leaves are thicker it will take some time to notice damage, but you will see it clearly on the bottom of the leaves. So turn those leaves !

A fter feeding on the juicy leaves, the thrips lay their eggs ín the leaves. And then the 'magic' happens; when the larvae (white, thin and a little smaller than the grown ups) come out they travel down to the soil to turn into grown ups, safe and snug, and away from sprays you might have used. And this is why it is so hard to break the cycle! Because when the spray is evaporated, the larvae in the soil will reappear and the whole process starts again. Ugh!

HOW TO BREAK THE CYCLE

L ike I said, thrips are found in three parts of your plant --> ón the leaves, ín the leaves, and in the soil. So to get rid of thrips it is important to treat ALL three aspects, and you need to repeat this process several times.

First step is to treat the leaves. There are several good sprays on the market, like this one . You can also choose to use natural enemies , which is my preference. They do the work for you for a whole month! You buy little bags which you then hang in your affected plant, and the ones around it, and the only thing you have to do is mist your plants every now and then.

F or the larvae in the soil you can use ' aaltjes '. You mix this 'powder' (a gazillion eggs of the nematode), with water and pour it on the soil. You then get a war at micro level, as the larvae of the nematodes attack and eat the thrips larvae. In combination with either a spray or the natural enemies this works wonders!

A final pro tip (don't shoot the messenger): when you are not really attached to the plant, and you see grown up thrips on every leaf, it might be best to throw it out to save your other plants. And I don't give this advice lightly. But I have lost half of my plant collection (over 65 plants) due to being too attached and trying to save them all for too long... You can also try to save a little cutting, or cut your plant shorter to increase the chance of getting rid of the thrips. Be sure not to walk trough your whole house with the infested plant, but cut it on the spot and put it in a garbage bag. Good luck!!

Green greetings,

Studio Wendel

The do's and don'ts of terraria

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 18:08:24 GMT

How to keep YOUR terrarium alive and HAPPY?

Y ou bought a lovely terrarium. The salesperson told you it was self sustaining, so you didn't have to do anything about it. Not even water the plants!

But after some time the terrarium is clearly not looking well. The moss starts to turn yellow, or maybe it is overgrowing the whole thing and you don't see all the other gorgeous plants anymore. What to do? Read this blog for all tips, tricks and troubleshoots, and your terrarium will thrive again!

Terrarium trouble-shooting tips and tricks:

F irst, check the placement. Was the spot very sunny and/or warm, you could have created a green house effect and the plants were growing out of control. A terrarium needs a spot in the shadow, preferably a north facing window, where there is no direct sunlight.

T urning your terrarium every now and then is a really good way to make the plants grow evenly, especially when the terrarium is standing in a corner. Some plants grow faster than others, so you can also do some maintenance by cutting some plants a bit shorter (maybe even making cuttings to put in another terrarium!). But please don't do that too often, the air pressure inside the terrarium is different from the 'outside world', and you can really mess the perfect balance that was created inside, or insert bacteria. Make sure your hands are washed and the instruments you work with are clean. It is always good to leave the terrarium open for 24h after you worked with it, to let it breathe a bit. Add another spray of water before closing, and let the balance settle again.

A nother important thing is th e moisture level. Sometimes the soil was too dry when you bought it, or the cork/lid wasn't fully sealing the terrarium and over time there has been some moisture loss through evaporation. You can easily tell if that is the problem when the soil is light brown, the plants stopped growing or are kind of droopy, or if there is no dew on the inside of the glass, ever. You can solve this by adding more moisture to the terrarium. Not by pouring in a full glass, but by spraying just a tiny bit of water in it. Preferably rain water, or water that has been cooked to remove the calcium. If you don't have a spray bottle, just dip your fingertips in the water and sprinkle some drops in the terrarium like that. When a terrarium looks more like a desert you probably need to spray around 4 sprays, but do it step by step. You can always add more, removing moisture is harder.

I f there was too much water in the terrarium, the plants start to rot. A little bit of rot is not a problem, sometimes leaves stick to a dewy spot on the glass and start to rot, but when the soil is too wet the whole terrarium starts rotting. I had this problem once when a dear neighbour watered my plants ánd terrarium when we were on a holiday.. Oops! When this is the case (you can tell by sticking your nose in and smell...) you can help let the sun evaporate the water bit by bit, by removing the lid for 24 hours and putting it on a warm/sunny spot. You can repeat that process for a few days. But if that doesn't work enough, you can try if you can buy little critters from a specialized pet store or website, called ' springtails' . They love rotting material and start cleaning your terrarium for you!

R emember, a terrarium that is in perfect balance, has condensation on one side of the glass (mostly on the coldest side, for example the side next to a wall), on the warmest part of the day. That is a good indication the moisture level is perfect! When the whole terrarium is kind of foggy all over, leave the terrarium open for 24h.

B ut sometimes all criteria are perfect and still a plant inside your terrarium dies. This is also a part of nature, and just happens. You don't necesarily have to do anything, it will only add to the nutrition of the soil over time. But you can also remove the plant and add a new one! Use plants that are suitable for terraria, like asparagus, calathea, moss, chlorophytum, chamaedorea elegans, cryptanthus or ficus pumila to name a few. Make sure your hands/instruments are clean, remove the soil that came with the new plant, and add a little bit of moisture (one spray).

T here is one problem that is really hard to overcome. That is when the soil gets little white grains in them (some sort of fungus). You can try to help remove that with the bugs i mentioned earlier ( springtails ), or even adding a few isopods might do the trick. But this one is tricky.

I hope this blog will help you save your beloved terrarium, because when it is happy and healthy, it is a lovely and aesthetically pleasing green artpiece to have in your home!

And when nothing seems to work, you can always reach out to me to let me try and revive it, or I can make a competely new one when absolutely necessary! Good luck!

Green greetings,

Studio Wendel

My Favorite Plant and I – Euphorbia Leuconeura

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 17:36:27 GMT

My FAVORITE Plant: The Euphorbia Leuconeura

T his is me, Wendel, with my favorite plant. I live with my husband and three children, and we’ve been in our beautiful Gein3dorp home for 15 years, with a three-year break in between in Berlin. We love living here, especially because it’s so green.

P lants are my passion, and I’ve even made it my profession. Maybe you’ve seen me ride by on my cargo bike filled with cuttings or half-dead plants. I constantly propagate new plants, and when my house gets too full, I donate them to the Regenboog Montessori school in the neighborhood.

Through these donations, I came across this beautiful plant. Or rather, I think it’s beautiful—most people find it ugly, with its dark green leaves and square stem. It’s an Euphorbia Leuconeura, also known as the Madagascar Jewel. In German, it’s called a "Spuckpalme" (Spit Palm), because, as the name suggests, it shoots out its seeds into the air. The school principal at the time, Rob Schimmel, offered me one in exchange (he also found it quite creepy, apparently). He thought it would yield the same results as an avocado pit—but little did he know what was coming!

O ne evening, I was reading a book on the couch when I suddenly heard a strange noise. As if something had cracked. Then, I heard tiny objects bouncing around. Earlier that month, I had found adorable little baby plants popping up near my other plants. After some research, I discovered tiny black seed pods on the ground. That’s when I realized—this is how this plant spreads! Magic! After some Googling, I found its name.

I started collecting the seeds (though vacuuming is a bit risky—you don’t want to accidentally suck one up!), and I’ve since given away a lot of baby plants. They’re beautiful, with fresh green leaves and delicate white veins. If you’d like a seedling, let me know!

Additionally, I think it would be fun to make this a recurring feature. And since I’m also a photographer, I’d love to take a portrait of you with your favorite plant. A cherished item in your home, as long as it has a great story. That way, we can get to know the residents of our community a little better!

Just email me at contact@studiowendel.com or via my contact page here on my website.

Whether you want to pick up a seedling or need advice on a struggling plant, let’s make the homes in Gein a little greener!

Green greetings,

Studio Wendel