Just when you thought it was safe to come indoors, houseplants beckon for care this time of year.

Here are some suggestions for keeping houseplants healthy, but with a disclaimer – I can count the number of houseplants I grow on the fingers of one hand.

To keep the flowers on your holiday gift plants lasting longer, keep the plants cool and moist, but not soaking wet. Water when the top inch of the pot of soil becomes dry. Irrigating from the bottom is very effective, but every third watering should be from the top to flush excess fertilizer salts out of the soil.

Many potted flowering houseplants (except cactus and other desert plants) prefer a higher humidity than most heated houses supply. Help your plant adjust to conditions in your home by misting the foliage periodically, or by setting the pot on a tray of pebbles and water. Keep plants away from furnace vents, appliances, wood stoves and cold windows.

Keep the leaves clean by bathing or spraying them with lukewarm water. If the plant is too large to move, wipe each leaf clean with a soft, damp cloth.

Make sure that the plant is in a pot that can drain away excess water. Too much water kills many a houseplant by smothering the roots. It is better to err on the dry side.

Most houseplants need to be potted into a light soil mixture that supplies adequate air and water to plant roots and that anchors the plant firmly. Plants sold in stores are often already rootbound – the roots have already filled the pot and may be growing out the drainage holes before you get it home. No doubt they have been raised in a heated greenhouse or grown somewhere warm. Repotting may be necessary if the soil does not drain well or if the pot is too small to allow a plant to grow. But remember that some plants, including Christmas cactus or amaryllis, prefer to be rootbound.

If your plant is looking anemic, you might want to consider moving it under a grow light.

Fertilize only when the plant is actively growing. Many indoor plants will grow vigorously for a while, then go into a resting period when their fertilizer requirements are very low. Do not over-fertilize.

Houseplants can fall prey to tiny, soft-bodied pests including mites, thrips, mealybugs, scales, whiteflies and aphids. Watch your houseplants for tiny, white flying insects to alight when you give the plant a gentle shake. A whitefly infestation leaves your houseplants looking wilted and faded. You may also see a honeydew secretion on the leaves. Look on the underside of leaves for oval-shaped, minute, somewhat transparent and flat, legless immature whiteflies. They are similar to scale insects but they do not move.

To treat infestations of these soft-bodied pests and similar insects, remove and destroy plant parts that are totally infested, if you can’t or don’t want to remove pests in any other way. Clean, and then repot your plant in new soil. Discard infested soil.

You can also spray plants with insecticidal soap if you find juvenile whiteflies. This may hurt some plants, so test first. Also, this approach is not as effective on winged adults, because they can leave and come back later. Read the label carefully for where and how to use insecticides. In the future, you might consider using yellow sticky traps to prevent infestations. Or vacuum them off with a shop vacuum. Isolate infested plants from others so they don’t spread from plant to plant.

A note: Do not use pesticides such as malathion indoors. It is not safe. Plus, very few pesticides are registered for use on houseplants.

Cathy Peterson belongs to the Clatsop County Master Gardener Association. “In the Garden” runs weekly in Coast Weekend. Please send comments and gardening news to “In the Garden,” The Daily Astorian, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 or online to peterson@pacifier.com