Question
I'm relatively new at house plants. I received a beautiful Ming aralia and I've read about putting them in a tray of pebbles and water. Can you further explain that?

Answer
Vera,

These plants need high humidity. Therefore unless you have 200 plants in your home that keep the humidity around 50% your new plant will benefit from a humidity tray. The plant itself cannot stand to sit constantly in a drain tray full of water, it is not a swamp plant. You should water the plant and an hour later you should empty the drain tray under the plant so the plant is not sitting in water constantly. Then you should not water your Ming aralia again until the soil is dry half way down. You can judge this by inserting a bamboo skewer into the soil and if the bamboo skewer is dry half way down it is time to water. If not leave it go a few more days.

Now for the humidity tray. Under the drain tray there should be a 2nd larger tray, at least twice as big. You can put decorative pebbles in this tray of just leave it empty and set the drain tray inside it. If you keep that tray full of water but the drain tray dry the water in the humidity tray will evaporate around your plant all day every day and keep the air humid like the plant likes it to be. It will help keep your Ming aralia happy and healthy. A lot of other tropical plants benefit from humidity trays especially during the winter when the air is sooooo dry. You would benefi from it too! Good luck.

Darlene