All this time and I’ve never had any houseplants. At the beginning of the year, while redoing ‘the room that started the blog’ (post coming up soon) I bought a majesty palm from Ikea. It was cheap and tall, pretty, and green. It was my very first houseplant. Well, technically, it was my second houseplant because I had an orchid someone gave to me before that. But the majesty palm was the first plant i purchased all by myself for a space.
It lasted in the living room for a few months, but once it warmed up, I moved the plant to the screened porch. The frond tips had started to brown. It seems to need a higher level of humidity and sun than the living room can provide.
I never paid attention to this before I needed a plant to live off the sunlight in the room, but I learned my east facing windows allow for very little light in the living room. Really, I only have one room that receives a lot of natural light – the kitchen. Such a shame because i also became obsessed with succulents and wanted to place them all over the living room.
So I moved that majesty palm out and moved in a dracaena plant.
The research said they could withstand low light situations. I don’t know what happened there but it started off so well, and then leaves started falling. Turning brown and falling. I read that they are sensitive to fluoride so I started watering with distilled water. This is too fussy for me. I need low maintenance, low light tolerant, inexpensive plants. I can’t spend much on them in case they don’t make it. So what have I found success with?
1) Sansevieria aka snake plant aka Mother in Law’s tongue. This plant is satisfying because I water it once a week and leave it in room that doesn’t get a lot of light, but it is placed close to the (east facing) window, and it grows! I have new growth. It’s filled out the pot. When I got it, I replanted it into a ceramic pot that was 2 inches bigger than the pot it came in. I also cut one of the tubers off and planted it in it’s own small pot and it’s sprouting new growth too. It was $4.
2) zz plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia). I love this plant b/c it’s leaves are so shiny! It’s just a little more unusual than the typical house plant. I just water this one once a week too. It’s a slow grower. I only have one and it lives in the dining room in the center of the table. I’d love to have another, larger plant. This one i found at Home Depot for $8.99. I replanted this one too: a clay pot 1 inch larger than the one it came in.
3) Ficus Elastica aka rubber plant. The jury is still out on this one because I haven’t had it that long. I have it near an east facing window but it doesn’t get direct streaming sunlight. It lost some of the bottom leaves but i think that may be normal for rubber plants when they are moved. $8.99 from the grocery store! I haven’t replanted yet its still in the same pot.
4) Pothos. I didn’t get this at first because it’s so common. But, I wanted pretty greenery for my night table, which is several feet away from the window in a room that doesn’t get alot of light (basically the entire house), so I went ahead and got a pothos from Home Depot for $5.99. I replanted it into the same sized clay pot.
5) Succulents. (jade, echeveria, burro tail) These are just soooo cute. I love them. They need sun though. I have them sitting in the kitchen window sill and the burro tail I moved outside because I think I was killing it indoors. I had a small jade plant in the living room but the leaves started to shrivel so i moved it to the sunlight too. They were all under $3.
If the zz plant in the dining room continues to do well, I will be sold and be more willing to purchase a larger (and therefore more expensive) zz for the living room. Until then, a fern resides in the space the palm used to live. They were on sale at Kroger one day and I’ve read that ferns can deal with low light situations.
Another thing I’ve found is that it’s helpful to keep all your plant pots the same neutral color if possible. This way they can fit in anywhere if you want to move them to different spots in the house. I bought most of mine from Goodwill and Marshall’s on clearance and then spray painted them white.
Anyone else have some good low maintenance, low-light plant recommendations? Any info to share on taking care of ferns? Is my rubber plant ok even though it’s dropping the lower leaves? By the way, I still have the orchid but it hasn’t bloomed since 2009. What to do?
-J