i don't "fertilize" my plants but about 2 times a year, if that. some of the blooming plants will suffer, but the green foliage plants seem to be just fine.

Hi Robert, when you pot your plants, do you use a good quality potting medium or do you make up your own. Quality commercial mixes usually have an amount of fert in them and depending on the other factors of growth, light, temperature, water etc, there may be enough to last many months. Just having a mulch is introducing nutrient organically. Anyway, glad your plants are doin fine. You must be doing something Wright:)

Fertilizer is over promoted and oversold thanks to the heavy advertising by Miracle Gro and other manufacturers. In fact, plants do use nutrients, but in very minute quantities. Have you ever noticed how long cuttings, such as lucky bamboo, can live in plain water before they start to deteriorate? That demonstrates how little nutrients are needed by most plants. In fact, good quality potting mixes have plenty of nutrients to last for several years or more. There is a far greater risk of damaging a plant by over fertilizing than by not fertilizing at all.

Although plants do remove certain air pollutants, none of these pollutants contain the nutrients that plants use. The pollutants may not harm plants that absorb them, but the pollutants are not a source of nutrition for plants.