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 :)
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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.
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 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.
- ‘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.
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.
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 🙃
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
Aloe. The easiest. Can forget to water it for weeks. Doesn’t need a large amount of light. And it is a useful crop.
Dependes 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.
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.
Bromeliads are another easy suggestion!
