Shift just one houseplant a few steps closer to the window and the light can be surprisingly different. A plant on a shelf next to the glass, one on the windowsill in full sun, and one on a table at the far side of the room may all seem as bright as each other to our eyes, but they can evoke different reactions in a plant. Leaves provide hints about what’s happening, so the best approach is to allow a certain spot sufficient time before relocating the plant again.
For the vast majority of plants, providing bright indirect light is usually your safest bet. Basically, it means a fairly bright room where the sunlight isn’t striking leaves for prolonged periods. While a plant by an eastern window could be in the more delicate, gentle morning sun, a plant in a southern or western window could be in hotter, strong sun that heats the leaf and pot. Thin leaves or pale leaves, or plants that have recently been brought down from a lower light area can be especially vulnerable to immediate direct sun.
Burned leaves can look like dry, brown patches or brown, crinkled leaf edges and patches that don’t turn green. Don’t try to repair the damage by adding extra water, as you can get into trouble by adding more water to a plant that is drying out, but also has soil that is already moist. Check how dry the topsoil is first, but the next issue to consider is light. If a plant was left in a position near the window in a strong sun, perhaps the solution is to move it further out of the window, or use a sheer curtain to diffuse the light.
You can try placing the plant in different locations nearby to determine if there is a suitable spot. If you are unable to move a plant into a well-lit spot without a blast of direct sunlight, take notice of how the leaves are oriented, how fast the topsoil is drying out, or if the leaves look yellowed or curling and wait a few days to see what develops. If you have a plant with the tips curling up and pointing toward the sun, that can mean the light it was getting was too little and it reached toward the source. If leaf tips look scorched or dried out and the plant is near the sun for several hours in a row, you have too much light. Write some notes so you can keep track of what was happening rather than forgetting later.
Don’t rotate and relocate frequently. It is very helpful to do some rotation as you can notice if one side is longer or growing toward the window but don’t move things constantly and expect to be able to determine the conditions that created any given response. Give the plant a quarter-turn rotation once in a while to promote even growth while leaving it in the same light situation. When transitioning from low light to brighter light, do so gradually; plants are sometimes shocked by sudden sunlight.
Window locations are a bit different because the glass not only creates bright light but could create some heat in addition to temperature swings. Your plants may get direct sun, but it could be a hot spot at noon. A plant might be in cold air in the early morning or in drafts from a window crack at night. Topsoil will likely dry out more quickly in a sunny window or a room that’s warmer, and your plant in a low light spot probably will stay moist longer. The watering schedule is likely to differ for all of the different plants in the same room, especially those that receive different light. Your placement in the room and the moisture level in soil need to match to keep the plant looking its best.
A good location for a plant is not necessarily the most desirable location for a beautiful plant. It is where a plant receives the light it requires with less or no risk of leaf burn, where the topsoil dries out at a decent rate, and where you can still access the plant in order to water, drain the saucer, wipe off the leaves, and track new growth. After a week or two, take another close look at the plant from the leaf tips all the way down to the topsoil; this will let you know if you need to shift it around to another spot.