Give some thought to the plant life in your house when it comes time to sell, and make sure your Ficus and your flowers match your motif.

Sitting where you are now, take a look around and see what kind of score you’d give yourself on the pleasant plant scale.

For instance, if you have a beautiful blooming orchid with shiny green leaves and perfectly formed white flowers dripping from a gracefully arched stem in a tasteful white ceramic pot, give yourself at 10. If, on the other hand, you can see a dozen drooping roses in a cracked vase with murky, dirty water, you might warrant a negative two or three. You see where this is headed.

If you have a hodge-podge of potted plants in your kitchen window, especially one in a Santa Claus-head pottery vase, and the tendrils are traversing your adjacent counter, you might want to do a little pruning and packing. Especially if the tendrils are any color other than some variety of green. Yellow, brown, or black leaves need to be pinched or cut off and deposited in the trash or the compost bin.

Got any greenery growing across the top of your cabinets, door jambs, or windows?  Cut it back, Jack.

Buyers want to see the features of your house, not the results of your green (or perhaps not-so-green) thumb. Give the cuttings away to your friends and family to propagate the species and promote your green legacy. Or compost them. Just cut it all back if you’re planning to sell.

Let’s move on to the dead plants you may have in your house. Is your bridal bouquet, dried and hanging upside down, held together with a faded blue ribbon, proudly displayed in your hallway? Pack it up before you invite buyers over. It’s a little too much Miss Havisham, for goodness’ sake.

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As far as fake plants go, green is good. Dirty, dusty green is not so good. If you can spruce up your silk or plastic plants, give it a go.  If you’re going to keep them on display while your house is on the market, just make sure there’s no dust in sight.

Once you have your plants sorted out, turn your attention to their containers. Is the basket that ivy (that is now green, clean, and shiny) is growing in falling apart?  Is the woven, wood-decaying and discolored? If yes, then ditch it put your shiny ivy in a new pot – one that matches the color palette of your staging.

Rinse and repeat for all of your plants and you’ll be good to go.

And if you must keep the ceramic Santa head, at least turn his face toward the window.  Which is what I do with mine right after Christmas.

Leslie Sargent Eskildsen is an agent with RealtyOne Group West and a member of the California Association of Realtors’ board of directors.  She can be reached at 949-678-3373 or [email protected].