I think I’d like to put a few plants in my apartment, but I’ve never had any before and I’m not sure what to get.
I thought that I’d like something long and sort of grassy-looking, but I haven’t been able to find anything like that online. Not to buy online - just to have an idea of what I’m looking for at a… plant store?
I think I’d have to find something that can survive without a ton of natural light, because I want to put them in the middle of my place, not too near any of the windows.
Then again, I do have space on the windowsills and thought some potted flowers would be cool, but I’d like to try keeping one kind of plant alive first. Unless, maybe, potted flowers would be easier. I don’t want to spend money on anything just to end up killing it. I believe murder should be free. It’s just my way.
So I would LOVE any advice about getting and having plants. Even if you think the advice is too basic… it’s probably not.
Oh! I don’t have any kids or pets to worry about, in case that matters. I’m probably not going to try eating any of the leaves and whatnot, either. I mean, not unless they look REALLY delicious.
I know a lot more about outdoor gardening but if you want something that will flower, both African Violets and some begonias do well in dim light. It’s almost impossible to kill any kind of philodendron as long as you water it and and spider plants are also very hardy. I can’t think of anything offhand that’s grassy. You can always go to your local garden center and ask them to recommend things based on how much light you have.
Spider plants are sorta grassy-looking and virtually indestructible.
Since you live in Chicago, it’s probably not a good idea to put potted flowers on your windowsills, unless you have really well-insulated windows. Exposure to cold is not a good thing for almost any plant that would bloom indoors in the winter.
Bolding mine. My first thought is that you should rethink this part. While overwatering is probably the reason most plants die in the short term, IMO lack of proper light is the reason they fail in the long term. Remember, light is how plants make their food (photosynthesis and all that); depriving them of the light they need is equivalent to starving them to death.
Let me think a bit, and I’ll be back if I can think of some good grassy-leaved plants for beginners.
Foliage plants are best to start with; most flowering plants are fussy in one way or another.
Thanks for the replies so far. I didn’t really think about the windowsills being cold. I do shrink-wrap my windows in the wintertime, but I don’t know if that’s enough to help.
Regarding the lighting issue - it’s just sunlight, right? Artificial light doesn’t do any good?
Ivy can be pretty hearty too. I have an Ivy plant on my counter which is on the other side of the room, and the plant will literally turn and face the window, turning its leaves to catch the light like sails. Its pretty cool
Most foliage plants that are suited to low-light conditions will do reasonably well under fluorescent light; typical office-type lighting is sufficient for many. But those foliage plants that require high light and flowering plants need to be a very short distance (six inches or so) from fluorescent tubes to thrive.
Regular household incandescents don’t put out enough light in the part of the spectrum most needed by plants.
I keep a lot of plants on chilly windowsills here north of Chicago, and I haven’t had a single one suffer from cold damage. It is important that they don’t touch the glass, however.
For low light, my favorites are:
Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata varieties) I love these and they come in lots of varieties; not many people realize that.
Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra elatior) Kind of hard to come by though.
ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) My plant
I am not personally fond of Dracaena marginata (just a personal taste thing), but they do have narrow grassy leaves, and will tolerate low light to a point. They were popular with the clients of the plant service I used to work for, but in my opinion, they started to look sort of scraggly pretty fast under office conditions. I’m pretty sure it was the light issue, as these are quite tolerant of things like underwatering.
Paging twickster, who told me to get a Coleus when I asked for houseplant suggestions.
It hasn’t only not died in the slightly over a year that I’ve had it, it’s huge, and very pretty. And this is in spite of my normal ability to kill plants merely by thinking about moving them into my home. She knows what she’s talking about.
I have 3 windows in my living room with a southern exposure, but I usually keep the blinds down so I can walk around naked and/or operate my meth lab. I’m starting to think that if I really want to have plants, I might have to work around that.
I think the Dracaena marginata look pretty cool - they definitely have that ‘grassy’ thing I was so vague about in the OP. Would it be OK to keep them where I want them most of the time, then just move them over to the windows every so often? You know, walk my plants so they can get some sunshine?
This might be a really stupid question, but I honestly don’t know - say I decide on the Dracaena marginata - will I be able to buy one that’s already tall, or do I have to get a baby one and wait for it to grow? I kind of want something that’s lower-maintenance than… a farm, I guess.
You can buy plant light bulbs if you’re concerned about your plants dying. I have a northern exposure, and my aloe plant seems to be status quo, but not thriving.
Re: size of plants – you get what you pay for. Big plants = big bucks.
“Walking” your plants – plants need light. They need a fair amount of light. They need a fair amount of light on a regular basis. This means more than an hour or two a couple of times a week when you remember. Either leave your windows uncovered (if you have enough plants, they’ll serve to block the sightlines of nosy neighbors) or provide fluorescent supplement.
Do the compact fluorescent provide the kind of light you all are speaking of? I ask because I’ve recently moved to a part of the North East US that is apparently completely clouded over for most of the winter and that, combined with the shorter days, has me concerned about my plants (mostly cacti).
I came in to recommend a Ponytail palm. Talk about indestructable. They do get pretty big, but you can buy a small tabletop model that’ll do you a year or so. Then transplant into a big pot and boom you’ve got a tree.
I move mine to the front porch every summer where it’s extremely happy. Then indoors for the winter, where it doesn’t mind the heat vent blowing on it all the time. It’s a good plant and won’t pout if you forget to water it.
Let’s not forget the Aspidistra. Cast iron plants are renowned for their ability to survive complete and utter neglect. Through the years I have come up with a large number of neglect resistant plants. Using large plants like philodendrons, anthuriums, monstera, and dracaenas with nice focal points of rex begonias and cactus, our home becomes a great jungle every year.
It is best to buy a variety of plants, pot them up in the best potting soil you can find (this does not mean those organic blends) and moving them about the place intil they are happy. You will then find yourself rearranging the rooms to accomodate the plants and this will work better.
Not all plants need be expensive. Start with a sweet potato. It should cover one of your windows by February and look great.
Don’t forget to water, either.
I’m quite fond of the peace lily, which actually abhors direct sunlight. I have one that started out as a little 4" potted plant from Fred Meyer that’s now in a 14" pot, is waist high and bushy as all get out. They like to be taken out and hosed down periodically–when it’s warm in spring yet raining I like to take them outside for a good soaking and they thank me for it. I have these weird pink tinged plexiglass windows on either side of my door and that’s where the lilies live–I have to keep the slats of the venetian blinds angled up during the summer to keep them from getting too much light, then angle them downward during the winter, but the blinds are always covering the windows, I never pull them up. I also have a coffee plant and a schefflerathat don’t mind those conditions either and are getting really huge since I repotted them in spring into 8" pots up from 6".
This is what that plant area looks like during high summer. The two smaller peace lilies on the second shelf are a little fussy at the time this pic was taken from getting a little too much light, but now they’re happier and getting greener and bushier. The plants in the glass containers are lucky bamboo, which isn’t a bamboo at all but is a member of the dracaena family and is pretty forgiving of almost everything. You grow them by sticking them into rocks or pretty marbles then filling it up with water–you can get really creative with them and they’re quite hard to kill. You can buy these already made into interesting shapes and whatnot, but it’s cheaper just to buy a couple of stalks and get your own potting materials from Dollar Tree.
So far, everything I’ve read online points to “plant lights” basically being overpriced and unnecessary. I have the idea that if I get a lamp in the right place, I can use compact fluorescent bulbs and be OK. I’m just not sure if I should have the lights over the plants or next to them - overhead seems like it makes the most sense, but I don’t want to just assume that’s the case.
I was in Home Depot last night & thought I’d see if they had any of the plants mentioned, but the only plants I saw at all were poinsettias.
There’ve been a lot of good suggestions here - so far, I think the Dracaena marginata looks the closest to what I had in mind originally. The peace lilies look kind of cool too, and the fact that they need less light is a point in their favor.
Kuboydal, do you mean that I can’t leave the plant in the soil that it’s already in?
The plants were profesionally grown in the containers you buy them in, requiring more frequent maintenance and care, to be brought to sale on a certain date. For ease and health, put 'em in a bigger pot and they will be happy.
I am a professional horticulturist and do not believe you will receive much benefit from a single plant light. A $300 400 watt high pressure sodium light will allow you to grow what you want wherever you. A bank of fluorescent lights within 10" of your plants will do the same.
Rotating plants within the room works rather well. If you would like one in a dark corner, buy two. Put one in the corner and one in the windoe and swap 'em every couple of weeks.
