We have literally not a single plant in our apartment, and I’m sick of it! We need some green! But I have no idea what to start with.
FWIW we’re in the far nordics near the arctic circle, so conditions in places like windows vary quite wildly throughout the year, from occasionaly hot and long summer days to cold and very short winter days.
Not really fuzzed about beautiful flowers, just leaves, vines, will keep us happy. Maybe succulents?
Would appreciate any advice :)
It sounds like you want a pothos! Golden pothos is the most easily available, but it also comes in other fun colors that are a bit rarer (like neon green or white/green variegated). It doesn’t need a lot of light or water and grows vigorously.
I’m not a fan of succulents as “beginner” plants, since they require SO much light. It’s a lot easier to give a plant more water than more light.
Other plants you might try are snake plant, ZZ plant, spider plant, or a hoya.
Be aware that many houseplants are mildly toxic to pets, so keep them out of reach.
Praise for the pothos! I love their cascade of green lushness. One of the only indoor plants I’ve had success with. Plus so easy to propagate.
I have a bioactive terrarium which houses isopods, springtails, pothos and some random trees the former mealworms spread about from a pod decoration I put in. The pothos grows so quickly that it needs frequent trimming. Fortunately, I stuff the trimnings under a log for the isopods to break down so it gets recycled eventually.
I placed one pothos in an herb sized pot. It’s completely root bound now but it’s anchored itself to the soil through the drainage hole in the pot, along with a few more anchor roots along the vine. It’s interesting to me to see how it’s able to spread and survive so well.
It can also survive in either full water or soil. It’s a very difficult plant to accidentally kill. Best of all, it was free. Just clipped a vine with a few leaves from a former housemate’s plant and stuck it in water until roots started growing. It’s just that simple to propagate it.
The grass growing in a pot on my window sill can definitely take notes from my pothos plant. It’s in a constant state of dying but refuses to give up.
Okay that’s amazing. I’m not sure how big your terrarium but with the mention of logs and trees I’m picturing it with a little bench you can sit on whilst feeding the inevitable birds that will be attached to it’s glory.
It’d only a 20 gallon terrarium. It was my initial enclosure for my leopard gecko. After I upgraded in size for my gecko, I was planning to make it a bioactive herb garden. The isopods ate all the herbs but somehow the trees started growing. I just threw in some pothos and now it’s more of a jungle. I created a stand to raise the top mesh and grow lights so that the trees have a bit more space to grow.
The trees are just about a foot tall and I keep them trimmed to that height now. The biggest tree is forming bark around the base now and is about 5cm thick now.
I do wish I had some birds nesting in there, a little more biodiversity is always welcomed hahaha
More pothos love. I have one that is well over 30 years old, and it’s easy to take cuttings to make more plants. I have a schefflera of the same vintage, also easy to take care of. Peace lilies are good air cleaners, and they visibly wilt when they need water. I water my plants once per week.
No pets, so that’s not an issue. Pothos look really great, and seems interesting that they can be grown in such a variety of ways, like in water. Thanks, good one!
I’d like to add here, since you appreciate the variety of growing mediums, check out growing your houseplants in LECA (kiln-fired clay balls).
An alternative to soil substrates, and I won’t claim to be an expert on it at all. We do have around 300 tropical houseplants, though. And I’d say a good 50% are in LECA only and thriving!
Best of luck with whichever route you try!
Came here to suggest that! I also just discovered, houseplants@mander.xyz when searching for a house plants sub
I agree with this post except for the succulent bit. Cheap LED lights can provide enough light to grow and prop succulents. They are hardy and withstand a fair amount of neglect. I live in zone 4-5. I setup my succulent collection in the garage over winter with 12/12 light. It was cold enough some froze completely and had bits die off. If the picture posts you can see they survived all that torture.
I would recommend spider plants! They are extremely easy to grow and care for, they tolerate many different soil types and moisture levels, and they spread quickly so you can get a whole bunch of baby ones to keep your collection growing. And an added bonus, they are one of the best plants for air purification!
This sounds awesome, thank you, I’ll have a look into them! Sounds more or less exactly like what I want, and they look great too.
Yes and if you know somebody who has one you can take a cutting and grow your own easily!
Really? I didn’t know that. I have a few of them. They are impossible to kill. I’m pretty good with plants but in the course of moving, one didn’t get watered as usual.
- ‘ZZ’ plant
- Snake Plant / mother-in-law-tongue plant
- Dracaena(sp?)
I have had these growing indoors in poor light conditions, rarely watered, for YEARS and they do well.
Ah, I actually think I’ve seen Dracaena in my parents house, and I do like them quite a bit. Thanks, these are good looking suggestions!
Seconding pothos and snake plants. I started with a single 4" pot of pothos a few years ago and through sticking cuttings in dirt I’ve got about 10 or 12 pots now. One of them extends across the windows in 3 rooms and is threatening to eat the entire downstairs.
Snake plants are apparently impossible to kill, even if you forget to water them for weeks.
If you eat avocados you can just start burying all the pits in a pot of dirt, keep it watered, and some of them will sprout. Or the next time you have a carrot or potato or onion start to sprout, bury is and you will have free greenery for a while.
Snake plants are apparently impossible to kill, even if you forget to water them for weeks.
Can confirm. I’ve seen them in overcrowded pots in a hallway, away from all but fluorescent lighting, not watered for months and months. I’ve also visited the tropics, where people stick them in beach sand in full sun to part shade, and they thrive!
Oof, not quite impossible to kill… I put mine on the balcony as it’s getting nice here, but after a couple 90 degree days noticed the leaves were getting a rough texture, not the normal smooth shiny texture. I brought it back indoors and it’s been a couple weeks but the texture hasn’t been restored. :S
In my experience you can kill snake plants by over watering them
Yup, been there, done that. They thrive on neglect. Better not show them you love them, they’ll throw a hissy fit.
I’m seconding the snake plant and spider plant recommendation! There’s lots of snake plant varieties, so try getting the ones that catch your eye :D As for succulents, you’ll have to research depending on the type of succulent. I know that popular social media has put out this misconception that succulents are set and forget plants but anyone who has tried to raise any amount of them would be able to tell you otherwise! Underwatering, overwatering, sunlight exposure amount (especially going to be a problem depending on how much light your apartment gets), etc, there’s a lot to mess up and different varieties are more demanding. Succs can be really fussy sometimes.
Adding to many other great suggestions already, but check out the Syngonium family. They’ll often be referred to as an Arrowhead Plant. They are very forgiving, can be found in a TON of gorgeous varieties, and are often pretty inexpensive.
Succulents are a great choice, very much a "less is more’’ kind of plant in terms of effort. Also anything bamboo-adjacent, like money trees (I actually have no idea if they’re related or not). They do very well in low-light situations, so you could place them opposite a window year-round. Hell, they don’t even need soil.
Money trees look like they could be fun. Maybe one day they’ll actually grow money, too, that would be very helpful 🙃
Aloe. The easiest. Can forget to water it for weeks. Doesn’t need a large amount of light. And it is a useful crop.
Depends what do you mean by “doesn’t need a large amount of light”. It does need light. It can survive with little light but it will be feeble, light in colour, streched and generally weak looking. It will survive, yes, but it will love lots of light though.
I love peperomia. There are 1000s of species/varieties with different growth habits and so far all the ones I’ve brought home are doing well. Most are succulents or succulent-like.
This one is a Happy Bean Peperomia (Peperomia ferreyrae)
___Whatever plants you end up going with, I’d heartily recommend getting some LED grow lights for supplemental light! I live in an apartment that gets trash window light, but all my houseplants are looking vibrant and healthy (my spider plant bloomed for the first time!) Since getting them. From research I landed on basically anything with a full spectrum white Samsung LED panel, they’re reliable and efficient without being too expensive. As far as plants go, I currently have 2 ZZ plants, a couple of pothos, a spider plant, a peace lilly, a Christmas cactus, and a ponytail palm that are all thriving, so I agree with what a lot of others are saying in terms of plant selection. Best of luck with everything!
Bromeliads are another easy suggestion!
In addition to already excellent suggestions I’d throw in Ficus benjamina as well. Not the variegated type, the regular one because the variegated one needs tad more light. Once it gets growing it’s fairly tough and forgiving. Easy to propagate from branches too.
orchids thrive on neglect
+1 for Bromeliads; Tillandsia has some very nice individuals that have low light requirements for those of us with highly variable sun due to northern climates. If your indoors stays relatively warm in the winter I’d expect they would do well for you.
My first were, golden pothos, spider plant, and snake plant. All very easy low maintenance. All bright indirect light, water when the top inch or two of soil is dry.