The Austin plant guide, by Will Burke.
Austin is genuinely hard on houseplants. 100°F summers, AC stripping indoor humidity to 20%, limestone hard water, February freezes. Generic plant advice was not written for Central Texas.
Austin-specific. No generic advice.
The complete guide to Monstera in Austin
Austin’s most popular houseplant meets Austin’s most brutal climate. Every symptom diagnosed with Central Texas-specific fixes.
Read the Monstera guide →Best houseplants for Austin apartments
Light, heat & pet-safe options — by neighborhood
Read the guide →Austin hard water & your plants
Why your leaves spot and exactly how to fix it
Read the guide →Surviving Austin summer: plant edition
AC vents, humidity crashes, and July heat
Read the guide →Best plants for Austin beginners
Zero experience, maximum impact
Read the guide →Protecting plants during Austin freezes
What to do when a cold front hits
Read the guide →Snake plant care in Austin
The plant that actually survives our hard water and AC — done right
Read the guide →Brown tips on Austin houseplants
Four causes, one diagnostic — how to tell which one is yours
Read the guide →Repotting houseplants in Austin
When to do it, what soil to use, and the mistakes that kill plants weeks later
Read the guide →Fiddle leaf fig alternatives for Austin
Three plants that give you the drama without the heartbreak
Read the guide →“Generic plant care advice was not written for Austin. I’ve spent a decade figuring out what actually works here — and I wrote it all down so you don’t have to learn it the hard way.”
Book a free consult with Will.
Will comes to your Austin, Dripping Springs, or Lakeway space — looks at your light, your layout, and tells you exactly what your plants need. Free, no commitment.
More Austin plant guides
The guides above are the ones I get asked about most, but I keep adding to this library as the questions come in. A few more worth your time:
If your plants are struggling, start with why houseplants die in Austin and how to actually water houseplants here — between our hard water and bone-dry AC air, watering is where most people go wrong. One classic symptom gets its own guide: yellowing pothos leaves.
For homes with a lot of glass, see choosing plants for big windows; and if you are on a well out in the Hill Country, do not miss houseplants on Hill Country well water, which explains why the softener almost everyone installs is quietly killing their plants.
On specific plants, I have deep dives on the fiddle leaf fig and the nearly unkillable ZZ plant. And before you buy anything, read why so many big-box store plants die — then, when the weather warms up, which tropicals can actually live outdoors in Austin.
Bugs in the soil or webs on the leaves? My Austin houseplant pest guide covers every pest I actually run into here and how I treat each one. If you share the house with dogs or cats, start with pet-safe houseplants for Austin — and when you’re ready to buy something new, here are the Hill Country plant shops I actually send people to.
And if the plants you’re worried about are at your office or storefront rather than your living room, that’s its own thing. I’ve covered office plants that survive Austin buildings, what actually works in coffee shops, and how realtors stage Austin listings with plants — plus a look at a full styling project out in Spanish Oaks. For the service side, here’s how I handle plant care for Austin businesses.