How to Grow a Wintergreen Plant Indoors

Having houseplants brings a little bit of Mother Nature indoors and enhances your home's overall environment. Aside from offering beauty, indoor plants often come with numerous health benefits, too. Freshen the air in your home and connect with the outdoors by adding a unique and aromatic wintergreen plant to your interior landscaping!

What Is Wintergreen?

Wintergreen is a beautiful, fragrant plant with evergreen leaves. Depending on the time of year, the wintergreen plant is enhanced by either lovely, white bell-shaped flowers or vibrant, pinkish-red berries. Though it's usually used as ground cover outdoors, this plant also thrives indoors. It's a perfect addition to brighten up your home in the winter.

How to Grow Wintergreen Indoors

Although wintergreen loves the outdoors, the good news is that it's fairly simple to tend to as a houseplant. In nature, a wintergreen plant needs plenty of sunlight and water. The same goes for an indoor wintergreen. Although the plant doesn't need bright, direct sunlight, it still needs moderate light, according to The Garden Helper. As daylight naturally increases through the year, be sure to mimic that inside your home for the space where you set your wintergreen.

When the weather brings a chill, you'll likely want to heat your home, which often leads to dry air. It's important to consider this when growing wintergreen. However, be mindful of your wintergreen plant's needs. Since cool air is part of its natural habitat, you'll want to keep your wintergreen away from heat sources, in a cooler spot in the house.

Keeping your plant moist is key, too. Never transplant a wintergreen from nature in your house. Purchase a starter wintergreen from the nursery, using potting mix in a pot that allows for drainage. Your wintergreen can also be groomed to your liking and size as it grows.

Wintergreen Oil Uses

Perhaps a more well-known aspect of the wintergreen plant is the aromatic oil its leaves and berries produce. Wintergreen essential oil has been used for centuries for its healing properties, and nowadays, it's often used as a flavor ingredient in personal care products such as toothpaste.

According to the School for Aromatic Studies, other uses for wintergreen oil include:

• Relief of muscular aches and pains
• Reduction of pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis
• Reduction of inflammation
• Spasm relief

When applying any essential oil to the skin, always mix it with a carrier oil, such as almond, coconut or jojoba. As with all essential oils, use in moderation and with caution, and consult your healthcare provider before use.

Discover more benefits of naturally derived ingredients on the Ingredients from Nature board by @tomsofmaine on Pinterest!

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