All right, I think my subject summarises it pretty well. I want a plant in my room because I think it would add a pleasant touch. I have a few specifications, as should be obvious.
Non-allergenic: essentially, this means “no flowers.” People in my house are allergic to pollen, so I don’t want to antagonise them.
Long-lived: I don’t want to buy a new one every six months.
Smallish: height isn’t as big an issue as spread is. I don’t have enough room for it to take up much more than, say, two feet horizontally. A little more might be okay, but I can’t grow an apple tree or anything.
Indoor: specifically, indoor in a typical Canadian climate. I can make sure it’ll get sunlight (it’ll be sitting right under my window, after all) and the temperature changes won’t be too extreme, but it also must be hardy enough not to wilt if the ambient humidity changes half a percentage point.
Aloe, good plant, easy to take care of and excellent to have around if you get a burn. Never any dead leaves to pick up either and you don’t need to water it too often.
Sansevieria trifasciata (Mother-in-law tongue) or one of the smaller dieffenbachiavarieties would work and are darn near indestructable, as is pothos. The latter two are easily propogated if you want to increase the number of plants in your home. Don’t let mention of flowers for the sansevieria and dieffenbachia put you off. I’ve seen flowering of a sansevieria just once and never for the dieffenbachia. (Had one for many years.)
Spider plants are really easy and fun to grow and propagate (just cut off a clump, drop it on a glass of water for a week, and plant, or leave it in the water), and absorb toxic chemicals like benzene. They do well with full sun at least part of the day and like moist, sandy soil, but let the top dry out between waterings. (If the leaves start browning from the tips, it’s getting too much water.) They can also suffer leaf burn against a hot window in the summer, but that’s not likely to be a problem in Canada. They do sprout the tiniest, most delicate of flowers when they flourish, but I’ve never had a problem with them, and I’m allergic to everything.
What the hell kind of plants do they have in Canada, anyway?! :eek:
I’d recommend dumbcane, but the ingestion of their leaves is poisonous and you seem to be frightful of the possibility that they’ll somehow plot to murder you…so that’s out.
Try Kentia Palms - those are popular. Spider plants were mentioned; those are good too.
Try a cactus!
I have a definite “brown thumb.” Virtually every houseplant that has been in my living room has died. The only exceptions are the rosemary (and I haven’t a clue why the two bushes I have are still alive!) and the shamrock. I have owned my shamrock plant for nearly 20 years now, and despite my many attempts to dessicate it (by forgetting to water it) and my cats’ attempts to kill it off (by eating it), it continues to thrive. Granted, I do have to water it when I notice that it is starting to get sickly, and it dies off almost completely every winter, but when it’s flourishing, it’s a beautiful plant to see.
It does have small white flowers. However, I have severe pollen allergies. These flowers have no smell, and I’ve never had any reaction to them at all.
I second the Sanevieria recommendation. My husband and I bought one for the “thrives on neglect” label, and it’s been good to its word. It grows tall, not wide, so you can put it in a pretty narrow pot. Als, these plants also have a good rep for cleaning the air, so maybe you’ll actually breathe easier with one around.
Thank you all for your suggestions. While the Snake Plant sounds appealing, I’m partial towards more stemmy plants. Cacti’s lack of leaves is what puts me off of them. I mean, I’ll definitely be in my room often enough to remember to water and whatever, so I don’t need a total bad-parent plant. Just one that’s not too finicky. You’re all very helpful :).
I recommend silk–seems that there might be one too many requirements for a real living thing in your list.
If not, try goldfish plant–sorry, but that’s the only name I know it by.
A spider plant can take a beating and still live on. It doesn’t have a stinky smell like a couple named plants do. They are not toxic and they have leaves like you asked for. Budgies like to eat them as a snack, so they make a great green for the birds in northern climbs in winter. You experiment on pets at your own risk. I found the bird liked it one day when the cage was placed by the plant, and it ate some of the babies. It didn’t get sick or die, so I feed it spider plant for years as a dietary green. Too much information, I knew someone would call me bird killer without the information.
I also recommend the hardy spider plant. I don’t know from allergenicity, but I and several people I know have had spider plants they have engaged in active neglect of and they still lived for years. As in, you do think to water it once in awhile but choose not to , just to see how much it can take. And it takes it.
I have a lipstick plant, which is closely related to the goldfish plant. It puts out lots of leafy vines but only a few flowers and is super easy to care for. This winter, I’m only watering it (and my other plants) once a month and when it gets warmer, I’ll increase that to two or three weeks. I just use a little Shultz’s liquid fertilizer in its water and its happy as a clam.
The flowers grow inside of a tubular maroon-colored calyx and it takes a long time for them to get around to blooming, plenty of time to get a look at what it’s doing before you need to pull them off if you really don’t want them.
Look at the middle of this page for a bunch of varieties of lipstick/goldfish plants.
The plant ate the babies?
Do you mean to say that the budgie ate the spider plant leaves, then turned around and ate its babies? Why would you think the plant had anything to do with the bird eating its young? If you did, why would you then continue to feed it spider plants?
I second the spider plant. Nothing grows in my house, but I seem to do ok with these. Plus, they multiply rapidly, so if you’re diggin’ the plant, just clip and plant the babies and you’ve got more plants!
This spider-plant is looking appealing as a first option. Can I find breeds (what’s the plant version of a breed?) with non-variegated leaves? I prefer pure green, but it’s not a dealbreaker.
Maybe he meant that the bird ate some of the offshoots (plant babies) and was fine, so he continued to give it the plants as a snack. It was a gamble but the bird turned out fine. I think.
I was going to say pothos too since it is so satisfying to see it grow so quickly, but it does rapidly take over any real estate it is given.
