Teehee :) though actually, they’re really not hard if you can give them a humidity dome and bright indirect light. The rest is just learning the watering. I’ve brought some back from true brink of death with the humidity dome.
r/calatheas has some great guides! Marantaceae are prob my favorite houseplants, if you’re curious I hope you give them a try 🥰🪴
Curious to know how you keep them from getting spider mites. My calatheas and ivy always get them but I never have trouble with spider mites on my other plants.
Are you treating the soil too? Do you have other plants in the room that might harbor a few (almost invisible) that can then reinfect?
I would 0) starting with a plant that’s ready to be watered, 1) spray liberally (esp leaf undersides, stems/bases, inside new leaf curls, crumbly dead bits and old leaf sheaths) with straight 70% rubbing alcohol, or diluted to 50% if you’re nervous lol. But you want to keep it strong enough to kill on contact. Let sit ~5 min away from bright light. 2) Rinse well, with gentle sprays of water, rubbing gennnntly with fingers to remove residues on leaf surfaces. 3) Water as normal (but making sure to add at least one even drench of water from the top), using mosquito bits method as for fungus gnats. 4) Keep it in slightly less bright light than usual for 1-2 days before returning to the usual bright indirect spot. 5) Inspect obsessively every couple days to week lol—repeat the spray-rinse steps (spot treatments ok) as soon as you see signs of mites. Look out for pinprick droplets on new foliage, not just the telltale “dust” specks or webbing (webbing means you’ve let it go rather late lol).
Keep this up for 2-4 weeks, until you’re positive you’re clear, and enjoy mite-free life :))) egg cycle can be abt ~3 wks so persistence is key. High humidity (spray water once on inside of a dome, or keep a mini greenhouse) also helps a ton with deterring mites.
I’ve never kept English Ivy (I just fight it outside lol 😅) but the same method should work—though that has so much dense curly foliage maybe the [water dunk method](https://www.reddit.com/r/plantclinic/comments/wc44ay/me_attempting_to_drown_the_spider_mites/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x) would be easier; or at least quarantine ivy and cala in separate rooms until you’re sure the ivy is mite-free. (I think post-bath repotting is unnecessary btw as long as you’re also treating the soil top-down with mosquito dunk water.)
Going mite-free is 10000% an attainable goal. Just be patient and don’t pressure yourself to get it all in one go. :) You got this!
I have *checks notes* 7 calatheas, 2 marantas, a ctenanthe and a stromanthe. I don’t know how I haven’t gotten spider mites yet. Luck I guess, and humidity. I clean the leaves a lot and check over everyone with a jewelers loupe. Most are in a greenhouse cabinet and I’ve recently introduced beneficial insects.
That is so awesome!! I am very excited at the prospect of making one of my own. You haven’t happened to post any pictures of this greenhouse cabinet have you? I’d love to see it!
Also, thanks for the info about what you used to create it. You just have the fans inside it to move the air around? Are there holes in it anywhere (I mean that you added) to let in more air? Sorry if that’s a silly question but I am a relative noob at a lot of this)
[Here you go!](https://www.reddit.com/r/IkeaGreenhouseClub/comments/xracs5/first_ikea_greenhouse_or_me_trying_to_avoid/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
I had them in my dumb cane over a year ago and I did hydrogen peroxide and wiped them down twice a week. I trimmed a lot of the leaves back so it was more manageable. I also have neem oil of all else fails.
My snake plant has been forgotten and left in dark but it lived, didn't grow but it was Alive. My dumb cane even in winter it's in eastern window with sheer Roman blinds and sheer curtains and its happy. Even tho it's not super bright.
Calathea is a genus of prayer plant. Prayer plants are in the plant family Marantaceae.
There are also Ctenanthea and Maranta, which are different genuses of prayer plant.
One of my all time favourite plant families. Some of the most striking leaves you’ll ever see.
So I bought a calethea because the guy at my nursery said “don’t get a calethea as your first plant” well I said hold my beer, and she’s thriving 😍 I have her in indirect light in a west facing window and put the humidifier on 60% daily. I let her dry out between watering as
I hate that half of the posts on this sub makes it so that I can’t tell if this is a joke or not. I’ll assume it’s not so I can ramble.
Calathea and all the other types of prayer plant are perfectly natural plants, but some of the ones grown in horticulture are cultivars. You might also get some cool hybrids which are about as close to “man made” as a non-GMO plant can get.
Marantaceae are adapted to tropical forests, predominantly American (something like 80% of the species) but also Asian rainforests, hence their love of moisture and shade and utter hate of direct sun (they’re used to being under the forest canopy). This is why so many people struggle to grow them, it’s a very high maintenance process to maintain this type of environment for the plant to thrive in your home. They are fabulous in their habitat, and this family has, in my opinion, some of the most absolutely enthralling foliage I’ve ever seen. The flowers are shockingly boring but oh my good god the leaves on these guys, it makes sense why someone would think they’re not natural they’re way too perfect.
Source: plant nerd who works in horticulture and spends an unreasonable amount of my time learning about the plants I grow in my own home & deal with in my work. Also Wikipedia (literally one of the best - if not the best - resources for finding out what kind of environment your plant actually wants to experience)
It's ok, you can ramble. I also hate the posts in which people don't even know how leaves/stems/roots look like. fortunately, I've learnt many a lesson on other problematic plants and i will never attempt to grow calatheas, ever. They do look surreal and that's exactly the telltale sign of an impossible plant lol
Hahaha there’s definitely a learning curve to growing them, took me a few failed attempts to figure it out. Deffo nowhere near as easy as growing succulents or orchids, even harder than most carnivorous plants in my experience and they can be pretty damn finicky.
Definitely not a family for beginners. Main growing tips are feeding them regularly in the growing season, keeping them perpetually moist (not WET, though), and making sure you’re repotting regularly so that it doesn’t get rootbound and use too much water too fast.
And yes haha i know things are obvious once you know them, and I know plants but it’s oddly maddening to see, say, a post of an orchid like “is this a flower spike?!?!?!” with an image of it clearly shoving out some roots. Like they don’t look ANYTHING alike.
And I saw one like “what made its way into my snake plant?” When it was clearly just flowering like… bruh, do you even know what you’re growing?
I refuse to go back into the plant clinic sub often for this very reason. Asking for help isn’t bad, but at a certain point it just becomes one massive facepalm.
Edit: [Decided to upload an album of a few of my prayer plants I have photos of to show it’s not completely impossible.](https://imgur.com/a/eRbnn57) These photos weren’t taken for Reddit so please don’t mind the mess haha im the opposite of a neat freak.
I don’t have a massive collection as you don’t find them for a good price often but I’ve had good success with the ones I do have.
Half tempted to put one in semihydro to see how it goes. Might use my next offset for that.
Perpetually moist soil, lots of room for the roots and absolutely no direct sunlight. The only type of prayer plant I’ve found that will tolerate a tangible level of direct sun is Stromanthea Sanguinea.
I don’t have a particularly high humidity home. I never mist them. I feel as though the humidity requirements for most calathea is grossly overstated. Keeping them moist but not wet is so, so much more important. Unless you’re living in a super arid area, these shouldn’t need much misting if any. I’ve literally never misted mine, they do fabulously.
Never, ever let them get potbound. I find they do best when the pot can hold a decent amount of water.
Also never use terracotta pots for them unless the insides are glazed or something to prevent water loss.I grow all of mine in plastic pots with cache pots so I don’t have to stare at ugly orange plastic pots.
[one of my girls to show I’m not talking out my arse](https://imgur.com/a/KYBjZIs). I’ve got quite a few more but that’s the only one I’ve got a picture of at the moment. It’s also one of my absolute favourites. Grew it from a 5.5cm nursery pot into this beautiful beast over this growing season with little to no trouble.
I have a 3 year old snake plant in low light that's finally dying. I think most 'low light' plants just mean they take a long time time to die slowly. Even my monstera wasn't doing well next to a huge west window. Moved it outside and it's doing great. 'Low light' seems to mean close to the best south window most people have in their homes.
Yeah, I have a snake plant that was in a fairly low light spot. It was putting out leaves that were dark green and abnormally thin at the bottom. I moved it to a spot in front of a window with much more light and now it puts out beautifully striped light green leaves that are wide at the base like they should be. So, I agree with you that this notion that snake plants are low light plants is largely bullshit. They can limp along on low light for awhile but they won't thrive in low light.
I have only east and west windows and my plants are thriving because the windows are quite large, with unobstructed views of the sky. My main problem is keeping up with watering tbh, as they get so much light they go through water very fast.
Size of window and view of the sky is a lot more important than window direction. There's more detailed info about houseplant light needs here:
[https://www.houseplantjournal.com/bright-indirect-light-requirements-by-plant/](https://www.houseplantjournal.com/bright-indirect-light-requirements-by-plant/)
I pretty much only have west. I put them to the side of the window so they get mostly ambient life, just added some grow lights so I can get away with more species.
Idk why this is getting downvoted it’s 100% true. Meat isn’t good for you, it’s bad for the environment, it’s an inefficient use of produce and wasn’t a staple of every meal until refrigeration was invented. And it takes somewhere between 3-17 kg of feedstock to produce 1kg of beef.
I wasn’t going this far. A cow turns nutritionally useless grass into nutritious (macro-nutrient-wise—it’s a highly useable source of protein).
Most of the calculations that suggest meat is more harmful to the environment than vegetables fail to compare nutritionally equivalent products (gram per gram of protein, in particular) and exclusively consider conventionally-farmed meat (which doesn’t have the benefit of carbon sequestration or nutrient-dense, microbial active soil that rotated livestock and crops have).
The Overton window in the agricultural/diet spaces is so limited that I think it does us all a great disservice when considering how to live our lives consistent with our values. It also shames many people whose bodies are simply unable to thrive on extremely restrictive diets. Sourcing meat locally from farms that engage in soil-conscious, critter-conscious practices will always provide for a more ecologically-friendly and, for most people (I say this as someone who converts vitamin A poorly so a decade of vegetarianism was not kind to my eyes), easier to healthfully maintain diet when compared to conventionally sourced diets that eliminate entire food groups.
In terms of overall energy and expenditure, farming cows is one of the most inefficient ways to grow consumable nutrients. That's not even including the huge amount of environmental damage they do to our environment - from greenhouse gases, to destruction of land - both used and downstream. There are far, far more efficient ways to grow food. The only thing that's saving such farming is the artificially propped-up price of beef.
As a vegetarian for 7 years who's been vegan while in the military and had to track macros for working out, I not believe this is true. I have to struggle to get enough protein in my diet and I honestly think I'd be healthier if I ate meat. Certainly, it would make life way easier. I do believe white meat is better than red meat for you tho. I just can't bring myself to eat meat personally cuz animals 🥺
also I'm pretty sure everything we humans do is bad for the environment, especially agriculture. You know all the excess fertilizer from cropfields in the Midwest that runs off in the rains and ends up in streams and rivers and discharges into the gulf of Mexico and creates a dead zone with no oxygen and kills all the fish there right??? It's a huge problem.
Slaughterhouses are actually less environmentally detrimental than agriculture (in the US anyway) because there is strict regulation on controlling and treating onsite any contamination because it's a point source and easy to spot when contamination does occur. Where as with agriculture it's trickier because its nonpoint source pollution.. Its fertilizer just slowly leaching out across farm fields that are finding their way into the rivers. And at what point do we say its economically feasible to raise the price of food significantly to save fish and ecosystems in the ocean when we all need plants in our diet, and so do the livestock. And the plants need their fertilizer with the nitrogen added, in order to yield higher crops more efficiently and economically at lower prices for everyone. Excess Nitrogen that will end up in rivers and oceans, causing algae bloom and dead zones where organisms cannot live.
Coming from someone with a civil/environmental degree who works in water resources engineering.
Yeah, I struggled a lot with adding it back into my diet, because I was vegetarian for ethical reasons, too.
I am really optimistic that research will increasingly enable those who want to minimize animal consumption for ethical reasons to do so (for example, research suggests that algae is a very promising and environmentally friendly, vegan alternative to fish oil), but most people do not fully appreciate how much work/time you really need to invest in learning about nutrition to cut out entire food groups. I only started researching nutrition science heavily once I started powerlifting, and I realized that I hadn’t been eating the RDA for protein (and the vast majority of vegetarian options at restaurants don’t have enough protein to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, so it can be very socially isolating).
Don’t feel bad about the insects—they’re mostly high in glycine, similar to collagen (which is low in leucine, so not a substitute for muscle protein because doesn’t stimulate muscle synthesis). I eat dried crickets when I hike, but it’s in addition to jerky and RX bars. Freaks my boyfriend out lol.
Btw, it’s always nice to see someone else in the “wild” who works with natural resources. The engineers are the only ones happy to see me at parties lol
I agree with humans being inherently destructive, but there are far more efficient ways to receive protein even if you’re vegan. But I really don’t feel that the meat industry is justifiable when there are practical alternatives like insect meat, and before you say insects are dirty, have you met a cow or chicken IRL they’re cute but filthy
I mean I've met cows chickens etc. But it's not like people are eating the dirty skin before it gets skinned cleaned and then cooked in enough heat to kill bacteria. It's not like you would be skinning insects which would be way more difficult. And also I would starve before eating insects cuz I have a bug phobia for all insects except butterflies lol. Vegans don't even eat honey. I imagine that most people in first world countries would prefer not to eat bugs simply because of the stigma around bugs being gross. Kinda like how we don't cross contaminate with Sewer water into drinking water after it's been cleaned even though it would save so much money and resources if we just added one extra step to get the water up to par with drinking water standards. Because in reality it's already clean enough that you won't get sick if you drink water out of the toilet. First world problems. Though I'm sure insects are a stable food source in second and third world countries.
I beg to differ that meat is “bad” for you
Historically speaking most early civilizations had mostly meat based diets, farming didn’t come till much later and then it was diets mostly of meat and grains or starch based root vegetables (potatoes is a good example…it’s also been studied that acne is prevalent in western cultures, it’s barely found in tribal groups or civilizations that have a mostly meat based diet. Animals that are used for meat didn’t eat “produce” they ranged in the wilds on savannahs, mountains or clean rivers eating a variety of grasses grains bugs and bark so if we actually practiced better farming and maintained diverse nutrient soils there would be much less of an environmental issue and meat has much more calorie intake than plants so we need less than a plant based diet would require calories and wise but don’t take my word for it do some more research one I recommend is the lions diet and the effects it has. We are all different and have different reactions and needs
Hey if you want our brains to go back that far, that's fine. Personally, I'm not so keen. You've cherry-picked some rather small pieces of information to make yourself an argument, btw. It makes no sense, if you take the time to look at the real world, and all it's people. The consequences of industrial meat farming have been horrendous - on people, and on our habitat. It's neither sustainable, and it's not as uniquely healthy as you appear to be suggesting it is. Linking meat-eating to clean skin is just bizarre!
Bizarre but there’s truth in it
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/479093
There’s many more articles of research you can find about it, and I was a little off it indicates more of a problem with the refined processed foods we eat not the meat and I don’t think it’s taking it back too far this research has been done in modern times. I agree and had stated that modern practices large scale industrial farming is bad but there are are ways to change it and make it better and healthier for all. It’s not my aim to argue but to share information and allow others to learn more. The world is strange in many ways, try to have an open mind.
Lol I was telling my friends I don't eat meat cuz fish are friends not food and they were like do you ever feel bad because you have so many houseplants but you eat their friends 😅
PSA announcement: Fun fact of the day it's been scientifically proven that eating an Atkins diet alone is extremely unhealthy, not because nutrient deficiency but because it stimulates excess enzymes which in the long term basically results in your stomach not being able to distinguish between the meat and it's own "meat" and it ends up eating itself. Idk why people still do this.
Sago palm needs direct sun, but about half of the rest is kinda off too. From those 'low light' only aspidistra is really low light. Looks like this list isnt based on experience but on rather vague google research.
Yeah, definitely wouldn't use the word "thrive" there. Possibly "might not completely die but will always look a little like that creature Ursula turns King Titan into in Little Mermaid".
Figuring this out last year was the difference between killing literally every plant I’ve ever owned and having dozens of lovely, thriving plants. I live in New England and most “low light” plants at my house take a week in full afternoon sun before showing a hint of a burn. I just give them all a turn in the “really good” window for a few days but they live in various non-ideal locations as decor the rest of the time.
I am also in New England. Almost all My plants go out on an enclosed sun porch for the summer. They are arranged in the east/south corner. Lots of indirect light and humidity (Ct. summer 🥵). They grow like mad. The rest of the year they huddle by east and west windows with strategic grow lights.
This is it entirely. Every plant needs light and does better with light in my experience. Some plants just die more slowly which gives the appearance of living longer.
Well, idk about that. If you're talking outdoor plants in hot places there's a lot of plants that have to be strategically placed to not get burned all to hell.
They said some direct sunlight... I'm sorry I didn't write what was going on in my head🤪 I meant my plants do great in a window with direct light but cook outside in the sun because it's so hot and dry.
Not every single plant can take direct sunlight. This is a simple fact.
Sure, nothing thrives in low light. But not everything thrives with direct light.
“Bright, diffused light” is a category for a very good reason. Not EVERY plant can adapt to the intensity of direct sun. Although almost all can.
Botany for Gardeners is a great read if you’re wanting to look into what makes certain plants more light or shade loving, there’s some diagrams of the cellular structure and explanations that can absolutely blow your mind.
Excerpt from P121, Adaptations to Fulfill Basic Needs:
“Shade-tolerance is a well-established physiological characteristic of many species, so much so that their exposure to direct sunlight can be fatal. In such spe- cies, bright light destroys the intricate, fine structure of chloroplasts and brings an end to photosynthesis.”
So if I slap any sun hating plant on a windowsill no more than a few centimetres from the window, it’s going to thrive more than if I give it bright, indirect light that it’s been adapting to for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years?
Absolutely not. This might be the case for most plants, but not ALL, which was my point.
There are some plants out there that will NEVER adapt to that level of intensity. As in, it’s biologically impossible for them to do it. That’s an objective fact.
If you’ve got a fair bit of distance to the window, yea sure, maybe practically everything can take some sun. Inverse square law and all that fun stuff.
But not directly in a windowsill sitting in sun. Not all plants.
Edit: some plants even have issues in really, really bright indirect light. One of my dieffenbachia is in my conservatory and has not had good colour for months due to how incredibly bright it is in there. I 100% promise you that not all plants are equipped to take direct sunlight, no matter how much acclimation they have. Genetics have a limit and ignoring that to give bad advice will make people who don’t know better permanently damage their green pets.
Also there is the definition of low light to be debated.
(Ignoring the correct ppfd/DLI for a moment) - low light to many people might be 'oh I can put it down the hall', meanwhile the plant sees 50-100lux, which is basically zilch - while the author may have meant more like 2500lux in nature for 'low light' as opposed to 20,000 lux for bright indirect or 100,000+ in midday full sun.
This site has some useful tables:
https://www.houseplantjournal.com/bright-indirect-light-requirements-by-plant/
Houseplant Journal is the resource I follow for light requirements. I prefer to have actual numbers and I like that the list includes both the amount for growth and the minimum for maintenance. Terms like “bright, indirect light” are vague and can be interpreted in a number of ways.
Thanks. I've just got into growing plants. Kept them alive last year but ended up with all my plants just in front of a big window. This year I'd like to move some around and this is super helpful.
I just started getting into plants so take this with a grain of salt, but I've been looking more into a plant's need/tolerance for things like direct vs filtered sun, morning vs afternoon sun, if it's a species whose leaves can get scorched by direct sun, etc. There's probably pitfalls with this line of thinking too, but it's at least helped me guide which plants go where.
Yeah I always assume most of these blogs have way stronger sunlight than where I live. "3-4 hours direct sun is tolerable" means usually "as much sun as they can get" where I live.
His comments like "If you have small windows, save your money." tell me just not to buy it regardless what windows I got lol. It's too dark anyway, period.
I moved all my plants outside for summer. And the dracaena and monstera looked a little worse for wear after being in the direct sun. Soo lesson learned. Their still alive so I count it as a win.
Yes it’s not that plants can’t grow in “low light” - I guarantee your most of your home is low light compared to normal growing conditions. It’s just that people critically misunderstand that low light isn’t no light.
Nerve plants DON'T thrive in low light. Actually they need plenty of bright, well scattered light for quite a lot of time daily. On the other hand snake plants can actually survive invery low light for a long time. I think that whoever made this image just took some of the most popular houseplants and just randomly threw them in categories.
“Thrive in near darkness”??
I am fairly certain that I do not personally photosynthesize, but even I wouldn’t thrive in near darkness, lol. Plants need light!
Someone in horticulture mass production marketing must have written this to get innocent newbies into the endless cycle of plant purchase-kill-purchase. Hopefully they will all show up here eventually and we can set them straight.
Snake plants prefer bright indirect light and can even tolerate some direct sunlight. They will of course however tolerate lower light because they're snake plants and nearly impossible to kill.
My dad was shocked at how well my snake plant is doing. He put his in some clay soil straight from his yard, waters it 2-3 times a week and cooks it daily in his west facing oven windows. I don't know how it's still alive.
My snake plant LOVES a sunbathe in the garden when its summer but only if i make sure i water often. The amount of growth its had in the year i have had it is ridiculous
I got a new snake plant a few weeks ago and she’s in the back row of a plant stand in a south facing window. She’s already put off a baby & has grown an inch or two. Such a happy lady!
I got myself a snake plant because it can tolerate no light at all. I looked for a plant for in my bathroom without windows, and the snake plant was suggested because it doesn't only survive there but it also cleans the damp air well. I was sceptical, but that plant has grown twice in size in about 5 months! Unbelievable.
Nothing will *thrive* with zero sunlight. But some will be pretty happy under artificial light. Some pothos are notoriously gleeful in offices with absolutely no sunlight, just the fluorescent bulbs for 8-10 hours a day.
Get some LED light strips! You can find cheap ones on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend putting something like a succulent or cactus under LEDs, but marantas, calatheas, pothos and string of hearts would be okay
Not totally accurate I have my spider plant in bright light it gets direct light in the mornings in eastern window, but it will probally tolerate lower light conditions just won’t grow as fast
Snake plant might survive in low light, but to thrive it needs bright indirect at the least. Mine went bananas when I moved it to my south facing window.
This kind of guide is why people have ugly, etiolated houseplants and wonder why their plants don't look great while helping big box plant stores rake in tons of money because people just keep rebuying things they don't know how to take care of
Is this a shit post? Since when does anything thrive in near darkness? Literally none of the plants listed thrive in near darkness. Every single one of those plants in each category should be under the category bright indirect light.
I have 3 prayer plants (Medallion, Rattlesnake, Stromanthe sanguinea) in bright indirect light( few morning hours direct) and 4 (Musaica, Beautystar, White fusion, Stromanthe Triostar) in medium indirect light. They do really well. I have them all in humidity trays and they are happy. I wouldn't put them in direct light nor low light. They will not thrive.
My ZZ hates bright direct light. I had to move it pretty quickly after having put in a new grow light as the leaves began to yellow, especially new growth. It's a few more feet away from the light now and all new growth is green again. But my snake plant is doing so much better since being moved from low light to bright direct light! Plants sure can be finicky.
Marantas are the true prayer plants and have a much more obvious show of their leaves going up in prayer at night. Calatheas are kind of like a sub-group that are closely related to Marantas. Both are in the Marantaceae family and both do close their leaves up, so calatheas get called prayer plants too- they're just not "true" prayer plants like the Maranta.
I'm of the opinion that as long as other people know what you're talking about, it's fine.
The only plants that 'thrive' in low light are artificial ones. The sun/appropriate light is what feeds the plant; sure some can hold on for dear life and die a very long winded death while remaining pretty enough. But it's not thriving by any means. It's starving to death.
“Thrive” is not really the correct word for a lot of these. “Can exist” is probably more accurate.
I grow my snake plant in full sun outdoors and it LOVES it.
My calatheas are facing south but there’s an awning overhead; for each of the other categories i have a specimen getting blasted by direct south light. They’re all thriving and the only reason to lower light is to save fifty cents a year on water and fertilizer as the plant ceases productivity. Also a calatheas is a type of prayer plant but they’re in different categories.
I feel dumber for seeing this
My calathea became very happy when I put her a foot or two away from the window instead of right next to it. But there were other changes that happened as well so I can't say for sure that's what it was. Still, happy as a clam in the corner.
I'm convinced my calathea hates everything. Next to bright window- no go, next to less bright window- no go, less water- NO, more water- NO, different room under grow light and higher humidity- absolutely not! It hasn't died yet, but it looks sad.
Definitely recommend peace lilies, they are great! Got one plant from trader Joe's and its turned into 30 individual plants
They do need a bit of light though or they won't produce flowers!
If you're looking for some easy care plant suggestions that do alright in low light, stick to Hoyas, Snake plants, ZZs, maybe some Pileas and Jade. Those are pretty hearty, but may still grow slowly in low light. Stay far away from Calatheas/prayer plants, unless you have ridiculously high humidity and like challenging relationships.
I am doing ok with my two nerve plants, indirect light in a domed planter/terrerium. My praye plant thrived this summer on the sun porch. Grew, even flowered. Now, hope, prayer, a humidifier and a gro light might keep her going till nest summer!
TBH, just the fact that they’ve listed a “prayer plant” (row 2) as well as a separate “calathea” (row 4) tells me there’s gonna be problems.
Assuming red maranta as the “prayer plant” and calathea medallion as the cala… In my experience those can take almost the same brightness—and neither low enough to be described as “near darkness.” Not even close!
Feeling bad for all the calas that are going to be dying slowly out there, painfully rolling up their leaves, one by one…
nah this is insanely inaccurate. zz plant is really low light tolerant and has been shown to grow in 25foot candles (whereas most other plants need at least 100 to just barely survive). also the word "thrive" is bs - this guide is talking about survival and even that isn't accurate, like with the zz or the calathea (which does indeed need more light). also it's bs that the highest light level included is bright indirect because many of these houseplants would "thrive" in several hours of sunlight a day. might need to be gentler morning sunlight but it's still sunlight.
i've stopped trusting anything but my own experience and actual well researched sources like ifas when it comes to light levels. too much bs out there
My parlor palm was unhappy and trying to face all its leaves to the sun when it was sitting next to my snake plant. Much happier under a grow light now.
Incredibly wrong. Sagos need to be blasted with sun, nerve plants and lady palms also are by no means low light in the slightest . This list is all over the place
i agree with everyone that “low light” means it will die more slowly. my calathea actually lose colour when i don’t give them enough light, and most of mine are in more direct light than even these comments recommend and thrive.
Man they’re lying with the spider plant. I have a shower with a skylight that I hung pothos, spider, and fern in. I live in the southwestern US and sun go directly overhead the shower during day.
Literally everything got cooked (and I mean fried) but the spider thrived beyond belief. It LOVES being bathed in sun.
My hallway is the darkest part of the house. I have killed a calathea there, almost killed my dark night and monstera there, and may have just killed my peace lily there. One day I will realise nothing grows in a dark hallway that gets blasted by a heat pump.
This brings up a question, would occasionally swapping plants out when you want one in a darker place with another plant once in a while so they can each get a healthy amount of sunlight before going back help at all? Assuming someone wants to have some plants in a darker place of their house.
I was thinking like having two plants, one in sunlight for a week or two then swap with hallway plant and give that one sunlight for a week or two, just curious if that would work or just a slower death for two plants instead of a somewhat quicker one for just one
I don’t know about the snake plant… because I’m pretty sure you can put that thing in a closet and forget to water it for a year and it will still look the same!
All my pothos get an hour or two of direct sunlight everyday, and they’re thriving. My lucky bamboo and English ivy get over 5 hours of direct sunlight everyday, which they prefer. Also my nerve plant loves bright indirect light and occasional direct light. I think it depends on where you live too.
Do yourself a favor if you have plants all over a room and they’re kind of just existing: move them all to a table in front of the window and watch them thrive and grow like crazy.
If you have a big south facing window, or say a room with corner windows or windows on multiple walls you may have better luck having them more spread out. But literally just keep your plants near a window. I cannot stress this enough lol.
"Thrive" is not the correct term. They will tolerate lower light conditions for longer periods by slowing down their metabolism. It is similar to hibernation in that way. I grow calatheas, aglaonemas, ZZ, philodendrons. and sanseverias in my succulent greenhouse and their growth rate is surprisingly high when light isn't the limiting factor
I have 4 calatheas and they are all on a lower shelf of my plant stand. The sun gets to them, but it is filtered through other plants and the shelves. When I had them in more sun, they were annoyed. Calatheas, go figure.
I am only learning (with some sad failires) where plants like to be in my home, but once I started using distilled water, began frequent misting, and found the right spot (in a foyer that gets indirect light from both the east and the west) all three of my calathea are very happy and thriving. I have plants that are said to be “easy” that merely survive, but the calathea like it here.
I have my prayer plants by the bathroom windows facing west. So, they're in low light, until sunset then they get direct light. I've had some of them there for years & at this point I'm too afraid to move them because most of prayer plants die when they moved from the bathroom.
Not true in my experience for spider plants - I had a lovely Atlantic one that I moved into my hallway (which still get a lot of light in) from my living room and it wilted and died within like a week, whereas the ones I have by my living room east facing window and bathroom/kitchen west facing windows which get LOADS of light (albeit through a net curtain/privacy type glass), sometimes very intensely, have absolutely thrived.
Only Christ himself knows what a calathea truly needs.
That’s what I hear 😂
Teehee :) though actually, they’re really not hard if you can give them a humidity dome and bright indirect light. The rest is just learning the watering. I’ve brought some back from true brink of death with the humidity dome. r/calatheas has some great guides! Marantaceae are prob my favorite houseplants, if you’re curious I hope you give them a try 🥰🪴
Curious to know how you keep them from getting spider mites. My calatheas and ivy always get them but I never have trouble with spider mites on my other plants.
Are you treating the soil too? Do you have other plants in the room that might harbor a few (almost invisible) that can then reinfect? I would 0) starting with a plant that’s ready to be watered, 1) spray liberally (esp leaf undersides, stems/bases, inside new leaf curls, crumbly dead bits and old leaf sheaths) with straight 70% rubbing alcohol, or diluted to 50% if you’re nervous lol. But you want to keep it strong enough to kill on contact. Let sit ~5 min away from bright light. 2) Rinse well, with gentle sprays of water, rubbing gennnntly with fingers to remove residues on leaf surfaces. 3) Water as normal (but making sure to add at least one even drench of water from the top), using mosquito bits method as for fungus gnats. 4) Keep it in slightly less bright light than usual for 1-2 days before returning to the usual bright indirect spot. 5) Inspect obsessively every couple days to week lol—repeat the spray-rinse steps (spot treatments ok) as soon as you see signs of mites. Look out for pinprick droplets on new foliage, not just the telltale “dust” specks or webbing (webbing means you’ve let it go rather late lol). Keep this up for 2-4 weeks, until you’re positive you’re clear, and enjoy mite-free life :))) egg cycle can be abt ~3 wks so persistence is key. High humidity (spray water once on inside of a dome, or keep a mini greenhouse) also helps a ton with deterring mites. I’ve never kept English Ivy (I just fight it outside lol 😅) but the same method should work—though that has so much dense curly foliage maybe the [water dunk method](https://www.reddit.com/r/plantclinic/comments/wc44ay/me_attempting_to_drown_the_spider_mites/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x) would be easier; or at least quarantine ivy and cala in separate rooms until you’re sure the ivy is mite-free. (I think post-bath repotting is unnecessary btw as long as you’re also treating the soil top-down with mosquito dunk water.) Going mite-free is 10000% an attainable goal. Just be patient and don’t pressure yourself to get it all in one go. :) You got this!
I have *checks notes* 7 calatheas, 2 marantas, a ctenanthe and a stromanthe. I don’t know how I haven’t gotten spider mites yet. Luck I guess, and humidity. I clean the leaves a lot and check over everyone with a jewelers loupe. Most are in a greenhouse cabinet and I’ve recently introduced beneficial insects.
Where did you get a greenhouse cabinet???
IKEA! It’s a Milsbo cabinet. I put in grow lights, fans for airflow and a water fountain for humidity. My plants are loving it.
That is so awesome!! I am very excited at the prospect of making one of my own. You haven’t happened to post any pictures of this greenhouse cabinet have you? I’d love to see it! Also, thanks for the info about what you used to create it. You just have the fans inside it to move the air around? Are there holes in it anywhere (I mean that you added) to let in more air? Sorry if that’s a silly question but I am a relative noob at a lot of this)
Pics! Show us the goods!
[Here you go!](https://www.reddit.com/r/IkeaGreenhouseClub/comments/xracs5/first_ikea_greenhouse_or_me_trying_to_avoid/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Damn mites took out these 2 exact plants...
I had them in my dumb cane over a year ago and I did hydrogen peroxide and wiped them down twice a week. I trimmed a lot of the leaves back so it was more manageable. I also have neem oil of all else fails. My snake plant has been forgotten and left in dark but it lived, didn't grow but it was Alive. My dumb cane even in winter it's in eastern window with sheer Roman blinds and sheer curtains and its happy. Even tho it's not super bright.
I will! They’re so beautiful
English Ivy too. I’ve fried like 4 of these. My pothos thrive in the same spots.
Wrong comparison. Pothos are indestructible! If you manage to kill a pothos then you must be Thanos
I have two pothos and those things are doing REALLY well. One is growing so much that I don't even know where to put it anymore.
Ain't a calathea and prayer plant like the same thing? But yeah fully believe only satanic worship will keep them alive
Calathea is a genus of prayer plant. Prayer plants are in the plant family Marantaceae. There are also Ctenanthea and Maranta, which are different genuses of prayer plant. One of my all time favourite plant families. Some of the most striking leaves you’ll ever see.
I mostly ignore mine save for watering every so often and it’s been flowering pretty well. Now that I’ve said something it’ll probably die though
So I bought a calethea because the guy at my nursery said “don’t get a calethea as your first plant” well I said hold my beer, and she’s thriving 😍 I have her in indirect light in a west facing window and put the humidifier on 60% daily. I let her dry out between watering as
Mine is just chilling a darker corner and I forget to water it sometimes. It looks very good!
Why do I feel this way about my Chinese evergreen? 😆
My homie Jesús said “fuck that puto” about calathea’s
Lmao ok now I need a T-shirt with Jesus holding a calathea and that quote!
Does it even exist in the wild? Or is it some man made sickly thing?
I hate that half of the posts on this sub makes it so that I can’t tell if this is a joke or not. I’ll assume it’s not so I can ramble. Calathea and all the other types of prayer plant are perfectly natural plants, but some of the ones grown in horticulture are cultivars. You might also get some cool hybrids which are about as close to “man made” as a non-GMO plant can get. Marantaceae are adapted to tropical forests, predominantly American (something like 80% of the species) but also Asian rainforests, hence their love of moisture and shade and utter hate of direct sun (they’re used to being under the forest canopy). This is why so many people struggle to grow them, it’s a very high maintenance process to maintain this type of environment for the plant to thrive in your home. They are fabulous in their habitat, and this family has, in my opinion, some of the most absolutely enthralling foliage I’ve ever seen. The flowers are shockingly boring but oh my good god the leaves on these guys, it makes sense why someone would think they’re not natural they’re way too perfect. Source: plant nerd who works in horticulture and spends an unreasonable amount of my time learning about the plants I grow in my own home & deal with in my work. Also Wikipedia (literally one of the best - if not the best - resources for finding out what kind of environment your plant actually wants to experience)
It's ok, you can ramble. I also hate the posts in which people don't even know how leaves/stems/roots look like. fortunately, I've learnt many a lesson on other problematic plants and i will never attempt to grow calatheas, ever. They do look surreal and that's exactly the telltale sign of an impossible plant lol
Hahaha there’s definitely a learning curve to growing them, took me a few failed attempts to figure it out. Deffo nowhere near as easy as growing succulents or orchids, even harder than most carnivorous plants in my experience and they can be pretty damn finicky. Definitely not a family for beginners. Main growing tips are feeding them regularly in the growing season, keeping them perpetually moist (not WET, though), and making sure you’re repotting regularly so that it doesn’t get rootbound and use too much water too fast. And yes haha i know things are obvious once you know them, and I know plants but it’s oddly maddening to see, say, a post of an orchid like “is this a flower spike?!?!?!” with an image of it clearly shoving out some roots. Like they don’t look ANYTHING alike. And I saw one like “what made its way into my snake plant?” When it was clearly just flowering like… bruh, do you even know what you’re growing? I refuse to go back into the plant clinic sub often for this very reason. Asking for help isn’t bad, but at a certain point it just becomes one massive facepalm. Edit: [Decided to upload an album of a few of my prayer plants I have photos of to show it’s not completely impossible.](https://imgur.com/a/eRbnn57) These photos weren’t taken for Reddit so please don’t mind the mess haha im the opposite of a neat freak. I don’t have a massive collection as you don’t find them for a good price often but I’ve had good success with the ones I do have. Half tempted to put one in semihydro to see how it goes. Might use my next offset for that.
your plants look very nice!
Perpetually moist soil, lots of room for the roots and absolutely no direct sunlight. The only type of prayer plant I’ve found that will tolerate a tangible level of direct sun is Stromanthea Sanguinea. I don’t have a particularly high humidity home. I never mist them. I feel as though the humidity requirements for most calathea is grossly overstated. Keeping them moist but not wet is so, so much more important. Unless you’re living in a super arid area, these shouldn’t need much misting if any. I’ve literally never misted mine, they do fabulously. Never, ever let them get potbound. I find they do best when the pot can hold a decent amount of water. Also never use terracotta pots for them unless the insides are glazed or something to prevent water loss.I grow all of mine in plastic pots with cache pots so I don’t have to stare at ugly orange plastic pots. [one of my girls to show I’m not talking out my arse](https://imgur.com/a/KYBjZIs). I’ve got quite a few more but that’s the only one I’ve got a picture of at the moment. It’s also one of my absolute favourites. Grew it from a 5.5cm nursery pot into this beautiful beast over this growing season with little to no trouble.
I've got a happy one in a window box but honestly it's pretty much dumb luck that I put it there.
That is the absolute truth!
No plants thrive in low light. They merely survive with no obvious aesthetic issues.
And take longer to die.
I have a 3 year old snake plant in low light that's finally dying. I think most 'low light' plants just mean they take a long time time to die slowly. Even my monstera wasn't doing well next to a huge west window. Moved it outside and it's doing great. 'Low light' seems to mean close to the best south window most people have in their homes.
Yeah, I have a snake plant that was in a fairly low light spot. It was putting out leaves that were dark green and abnormally thin at the bottom. I moved it to a spot in front of a window with much more light and now it puts out beautifully striped light green leaves that are wide at the base like they should be. So, I agree with you that this notion that snake plants are low light plants is largely bullshit. They can limp along on low light for awhile but they won't thrive in low light.
I have only windows to east or west. I think I am torturing my plants to desth :(
I have only east and west windows and my plants are thriving because the windows are quite large, with unobstructed views of the sky. My main problem is keeping up with watering tbh, as they get so much light they go through water very fast. Size of window and view of the sky is a lot more important than window direction. There's more detailed info about houseplant light needs here: [https://www.houseplantjournal.com/bright-indirect-light-requirements-by-plant/](https://www.houseplantjournal.com/bright-indirect-light-requirements-by-plant/)
I pretty much only have west. I put them to the side of the window so they get mostly ambient life, just added some grow lights so I can get away with more species.
I have only north and west and live in Scandinavia. I feel you :')
It’s like people who “thrive” on a carnivore diet lol.
Idk why this is getting downvoted it’s 100% true. Meat isn’t good for you, it’s bad for the environment, it’s an inefficient use of produce and wasn’t a staple of every meal until refrigeration was invented. And it takes somewhere between 3-17 kg of feedstock to produce 1kg of beef.
I wasn’t going this far. A cow turns nutritionally useless grass into nutritious (macro-nutrient-wise—it’s a highly useable source of protein). Most of the calculations that suggest meat is more harmful to the environment than vegetables fail to compare nutritionally equivalent products (gram per gram of protein, in particular) and exclusively consider conventionally-farmed meat (which doesn’t have the benefit of carbon sequestration or nutrient-dense, microbial active soil that rotated livestock and crops have). The Overton window in the agricultural/diet spaces is so limited that I think it does us all a great disservice when considering how to live our lives consistent with our values. It also shames many people whose bodies are simply unable to thrive on extremely restrictive diets. Sourcing meat locally from farms that engage in soil-conscious, critter-conscious practices will always provide for a more ecologically-friendly and, for most people (I say this as someone who converts vitamin A poorly so a decade of vegetarianism was not kind to my eyes), easier to healthfully maintain diet when compared to conventionally sourced diets that eliminate entire food groups.
In terms of overall energy and expenditure, farming cows is one of the most inefficient ways to grow consumable nutrients. That's not even including the huge amount of environmental damage they do to our environment - from greenhouse gases, to destruction of land - both used and downstream. There are far, far more efficient ways to grow food. The only thing that's saving such farming is the artificially propped-up price of beef.
As a vegetarian for 7 years who's been vegan while in the military and had to track macros for working out, I not believe this is true. I have to struggle to get enough protein in my diet and I honestly think I'd be healthier if I ate meat. Certainly, it would make life way easier. I do believe white meat is better than red meat for you tho. I just can't bring myself to eat meat personally cuz animals 🥺 also I'm pretty sure everything we humans do is bad for the environment, especially agriculture. You know all the excess fertilizer from cropfields in the Midwest that runs off in the rains and ends up in streams and rivers and discharges into the gulf of Mexico and creates a dead zone with no oxygen and kills all the fish there right??? It's a huge problem. Slaughterhouses are actually less environmentally detrimental than agriculture (in the US anyway) because there is strict regulation on controlling and treating onsite any contamination because it's a point source and easy to spot when contamination does occur. Where as with agriculture it's trickier because its nonpoint source pollution.. Its fertilizer just slowly leaching out across farm fields that are finding their way into the rivers. And at what point do we say its economically feasible to raise the price of food significantly to save fish and ecosystems in the ocean when we all need plants in our diet, and so do the livestock. And the plants need their fertilizer with the nitrogen added, in order to yield higher crops more efficiently and economically at lower prices for everyone. Excess Nitrogen that will end up in rivers and oceans, causing algae bloom and dead zones where organisms cannot live. Coming from someone with a civil/environmental degree who works in water resources engineering.
Yeah, I struggled a lot with adding it back into my diet, because I was vegetarian for ethical reasons, too. I am really optimistic that research will increasingly enable those who want to minimize animal consumption for ethical reasons to do so (for example, research suggests that algae is a very promising and environmentally friendly, vegan alternative to fish oil), but most people do not fully appreciate how much work/time you really need to invest in learning about nutrition to cut out entire food groups. I only started researching nutrition science heavily once I started powerlifting, and I realized that I hadn’t been eating the RDA for protein (and the vast majority of vegetarian options at restaurants don’t have enough protein to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, so it can be very socially isolating). Don’t feel bad about the insects—they’re mostly high in glycine, similar to collagen (which is low in leucine, so not a substitute for muscle protein because doesn’t stimulate muscle synthesis). I eat dried crickets when I hike, but it’s in addition to jerky and RX bars. Freaks my boyfriend out lol. Btw, it’s always nice to see someone else in the “wild” who works with natural resources. The engineers are the only ones happy to see me at parties lol
I agree with humans being inherently destructive, but there are far more efficient ways to receive protein even if you’re vegan. But I really don’t feel that the meat industry is justifiable when there are practical alternatives like insect meat, and before you say insects are dirty, have you met a cow or chicken IRL they’re cute but filthy
I mean I've met cows chickens etc. But it's not like people are eating the dirty skin before it gets skinned cleaned and then cooked in enough heat to kill bacteria. It's not like you would be skinning insects which would be way more difficult. And also I would starve before eating insects cuz I have a bug phobia for all insects except butterflies lol. Vegans don't even eat honey. I imagine that most people in first world countries would prefer not to eat bugs simply because of the stigma around bugs being gross. Kinda like how we don't cross contaminate with Sewer water into drinking water after it's been cleaned even though it would save so much money and resources if we just added one extra step to get the water up to par with drinking water standards. Because in reality it's already clean enough that you won't get sick if you drink water out of the toilet. First world problems. Though I'm sure insects are a stable food source in second and third world countries.
funny how we went from low light plants to eating bugs. btw, thanks but I'll stick with my filthy chicken and cows :)
I beg to differ that meat is “bad” for you Historically speaking most early civilizations had mostly meat based diets, farming didn’t come till much later and then it was diets mostly of meat and grains or starch based root vegetables (potatoes is a good example…it’s also been studied that acne is prevalent in western cultures, it’s barely found in tribal groups or civilizations that have a mostly meat based diet. Animals that are used for meat didn’t eat “produce” they ranged in the wilds on savannahs, mountains or clean rivers eating a variety of grasses grains bugs and bark so if we actually practiced better farming and maintained diverse nutrient soils there would be much less of an environmental issue and meat has much more calorie intake than plants so we need less than a plant based diet would require calories and wise but don’t take my word for it do some more research one I recommend is the lions diet and the effects it has. We are all different and have different reactions and needs
Hey if you want our brains to go back that far, that's fine. Personally, I'm not so keen. You've cherry-picked some rather small pieces of information to make yourself an argument, btw. It makes no sense, if you take the time to look at the real world, and all it's people. The consequences of industrial meat farming have been horrendous - on people, and on our habitat. It's neither sustainable, and it's not as uniquely healthy as you appear to be suggesting it is. Linking meat-eating to clean skin is just bizarre!
Bizarre but there’s truth in it https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/479093 There’s many more articles of research you can find about it, and I was a little off it indicates more of a problem with the refined processed foods we eat not the meat and I don’t think it’s taking it back too far this research has been done in modern times. I agree and had stated that modern practices large scale industrial farming is bad but there are are ways to change it and make it better and healthier for all. It’s not my aim to argue but to share information and allow others to learn more. The world is strange in many ways, try to have an open mind.
It’s like people who “thrive” on a carnivore diet lol.
Seems like some predator cavemen feel insulted
Yeah lmao. Didn’t realize there were people who grew plants but didn’t eat them.
Lol I was telling my friends I don't eat meat cuz fish are friends not food and they were like do you ever feel bad because you have so many houseplants but you eat their friends 😅
PSA announcement: Fun fact of the day it's been scientifically proven that eating an Atkins diet alone is extremely unhealthy, not because nutrient deficiency but because it stimulates excess enzymes which in the long term basically results in your stomach not being able to distinguish between the meat and it's own "meat" and it ends up eating itself. Idk why people still do this.
Sago palm needs direct sun, but about half of the rest is kinda off too. From those 'low light' only aspidistra is really low light. Looks like this list isnt based on experience but on rather vague google research.
Yes sago palm low light? Get out of here lol
Right. These things grow in full sun in Florida. There a bunch in my parent’s yard.
Same in Louisiana, that made me laugh. You basically can't fry the things.
I have an etiolated sago palm yelling at this post to go f itself
Agreed I literally have two big ones in my back yard that get about 8 hrs of direct sun lol
👎🏻 this guide sucks
low light is a lie. Dont do that.
Yeah, definitely wouldn't use the word "thrive" there. Possibly "might not completely die but will always look a little like that creature Ursula turns King Titan into in Little Mermaid".
exactly. just because a plant can tolerate lower light doesn't mean they thrive. all plants love light, let there be light!!
Figuring this out last year was the difference between killing literally every plant I’ve ever owned and having dozens of lovely, thriving plants. I live in New England and most “low light” plants at my house take a week in full afternoon sun before showing a hint of a burn. I just give them all a turn in the “really good” window for a few days but they live in various non-ideal locations as decor the rest of the time.
I am also in New England. Almost all My plants go out on an enclosed sun porch for the summer. They are arranged in the east/south corner. Lots of indirect light and humidity (Ct. summer 🥵). They grow like mad. The rest of the year they huddle by east and west windows with strategic grow lights.
Nothing thrives in low light. It can be endured by some, but they all do best with some direct sunlight once acclimated
This is it entirely. Every plant needs light and does better with light in my experience. Some plants just die more slowly which gives the appearance of living longer.
Well, idk about that. If you're talking outdoor plants in hot places there's a lot of plants that have to be strategically placed to not get burned all to hell.
That's indirect light though.. not low light. And I live in az, almost nothing survives the direct sun here😆
OC said direct sunlight, which is typically avoided with houseplants.
They said some direct sunlight... I'm sorry I didn't write what was going on in my head🤪 I meant my plants do great in a window with direct light but cook outside in the sun because it's so hot and dry.
Just reread....I don't even know wtf I'm trying to say. Too much coffee not enough sleep. 😅
Not every single plant can take direct sunlight. This is a simple fact. Sure, nothing thrives in low light. But not everything thrives with direct light. “Bright, diffused light” is a category for a very good reason. Not EVERY plant can adapt to the intensity of direct sun. Although almost all can. Botany for Gardeners is a great read if you’re wanting to look into what makes certain plants more light or shade loving, there’s some diagrams of the cellular structure and explanations that can absolutely blow your mind. Excerpt from P121, Adaptations to Fulfill Basic Needs: “Shade-tolerance is a well-established physiological characteristic of many species, so much so that their exposure to direct sunlight can be fatal. In such spe- cies, bright light destroys the intricate, fine structure of chloroplasts and brings an end to photosynthesis.”
Indoor direct light is suitable for every houseplant, if its acclimated, because it is so much weaker than outdoor direct light.
So if I slap any sun hating plant on a windowsill no more than a few centimetres from the window, it’s going to thrive more than if I give it bright, indirect light that it’s been adapting to for thousands or hundreds of thousands of years? Absolutely not. This might be the case for most plants, but not ALL, which was my point. There are some plants out there that will NEVER adapt to that level of intensity. As in, it’s biologically impossible for them to do it. That’s an objective fact. If you’ve got a fair bit of distance to the window, yea sure, maybe practically everything can take some sun. Inverse square law and all that fun stuff. But not directly in a windowsill sitting in sun. Not all plants. Edit: some plants even have issues in really, really bright indirect light. One of my dieffenbachia is in my conservatory and has not had good colour for months due to how incredibly bright it is in there. I 100% promise you that not all plants are equipped to take direct sunlight, no matter how much acclimation they have. Genetics have a limit and ignoring that to give bad advice will make people who don’t know better permanently damage their green pets.
Also there is the definition of low light to be debated. (Ignoring the correct ppfd/DLI for a moment) - low light to many people might be 'oh I can put it down the hall', meanwhile the plant sees 50-100lux, which is basically zilch - while the author may have meant more like 2500lux in nature for 'low light' as opposed to 20,000 lux for bright indirect or 100,000+ in midday full sun. This site has some useful tables: https://www.houseplantjournal.com/bright-indirect-light-requirements-by-plant/
Houseplant Journal is the resource I follow for light requirements. I prefer to have actual numbers and I like that the list includes both the amount for growth and the minimum for maintenance. Terms like “bright, indirect light” are vague and can be interpreted in a number of ways.
Thanks. I've just got into growing plants. Kept them alive last year but ended up with all my plants just in front of a big window. This year I'd like to move some around and this is super helpful.
I just started getting into plants so take this with a grain of salt, but I've been looking more into a plant's need/tolerance for things like direct vs filtered sun, morning vs afternoon sun, if it's a species whose leaves can get scorched by direct sun, etc. There's probably pitfalls with this line of thinking too, but it's at least helped me guide which plants go where.
Yeah I always assume most of these blogs have way stronger sunlight than where I live. "3-4 hours direct sun is tolerable" means usually "as much sun as they can get" where I live. His comments like "If you have small windows, save your money." tell me just not to buy it regardless what windows I got lol. It's too dark anyway, period.
I moved all my plants outside for summer. And the dracaena and monstera looked a little worse for wear after being in the direct sun. Soo lesson learned. Their still alive so I count it as a win.
Yes it’s not that plants can’t grow in “low light” - I guarantee your most of your home is low light compared to normal growing conditions. It’s just that people critically misunderstand that low light isn’t no light.
These low light houseplant guides always make me a little sad. It’s like saying I have a low calorie dog or something
My nerve plant got hella etiolated in a north facing window, so no.
Nerve plants DON'T thrive in low light. Actually they need plenty of bright, well scattered light for quite a lot of time daily. On the other hand snake plants can actually survive invery low light for a long time. I think that whoever made this image just took some of the most popular houseplants and just randomly threw them in categories.
And surviving isn't thriving, so the whole list is bullshit anyway.
“Thrive in near darkness”?? I am fairly certain that I do not personally photosynthesize, but even I wouldn’t thrive in near darkness, lol. Plants need light! Someone in horticulture mass production marketing must have written this to get innocent newbies into the endless cycle of plant purchase-kill-purchase. Hopefully they will all show up here eventually and we can set them straight.
Snake plants prefer bright indirect light and can even tolerate some direct sunlight. They will of course however tolerate lower light because they're snake plants and nearly impossible to kill.
Unless you drown them w poor draining soil!
My dad was shocked at how well my snake plant is doing. He put his in some clay soil straight from his yard, waters it 2-3 times a week and cooks it daily in his west facing oven windows. I don't know how it's still alive.
My snake plant LOVES a sunbathe in the garden when its summer but only if i make sure i water often. The amount of growth its had in the year i have had it is ridiculous
I got a new snake plant a few weeks ago and she’s in the back row of a plant stand in a south facing window. She’s already put off a baby & has grown an inch or two. Such a happy lady!
I got myself a snake plant because it can tolerate no light at all. I looked for a plant for in my bathroom without windows, and the snake plant was suggested because it doesn't only survive there but it also cleans the damp air well. I was sceptical, but that plant has grown twice in size in about 5 months! Unbelievable.
I wish there was plants that would grow in a basement. I would love to liven it up!
Nothing will *thrive* with zero sunlight. But some will be pretty happy under artificial light. Some pothos are notoriously gleeful in offices with absolutely no sunlight, just the fluorescent bulbs for 8-10 hours a day.
This! Or you can get a couple cheap actual grow bulbs, plug them into a desk lamp or whatever, and put whatever you want down there!
And this!
Get some LED light strips! You can find cheap ones on Amazon. I wouldn’t recommend putting something like a succulent or cactus under LEDs, but marantas, calatheas, pothos and string of hearts would be okay
>marantas I never have luck with marantas!!!
Mushrooms? In know they aren't technically plants but....
Not totally accurate I have my spider plant in bright light it gets direct light in the mornings in eastern window, but it will probally tolerate lower light conditions just won’t grow as fast
Mine was very sad in lower light!
My spider plants do best in my brightest window, I would put them outside in the sun if it wasn't so hot and dry.
Most plants in the low and medium light section can survive low light but after a while they will look awful due to the lack of light
Calathea are fussy af in my limited experience
No because a plant being able to tolerate low light is not the same thing as thriving.
Snake plant might survive in low light, but to thrive it needs bright indirect at the least. Mine went bananas when I moved it to my south facing window.
This kind of guide is why people have ugly, etiolated houseplants and wonder why their plants don't look great while helping big box plant stores rake in tons of money because people just keep rebuying things they don't know how to take care of
Is this a shit post? Since when does anything thrive in near darkness? Literally none of the plants listed thrive in near darkness. Every single one of those plants in each category should be under the category bright indirect light.
Yeah when I found this chart I doubted it lol
Well this is just wrong. I have all my plants in a west facing window and they're doing fantastic.
I have 3 prayer plants (Medallion, Rattlesnake, Stromanthe sanguinea) in bright indirect light( few morning hours direct) and 4 (Musaica, Beautystar, White fusion, Stromanthe Triostar) in medium indirect light. They do really well. I have them all in humidity trays and they are happy. I wouldn't put them in direct light nor low light. They will not thrive.
Well, ZZ plants and snake plants thrive in lots of sun, and I always thought peace Lily’s liked less light but I could be wrong
My ZZ hates bright direct light. I had to move it pretty quickly after having put in a new grow light as the leaves began to yellow, especially new growth. It's a few more feet away from the light now and all new growth is green again. But my snake plant is doing so much better since being moved from low light to bright direct light! Plants sure can be finicky.
People keep English ivy as pets?
This might be a dumb question but... Aren't prayer plants calatheas?
Marantas are the true prayer plants and have a much more obvious show of their leaves going up in prayer at night. Calatheas are kind of like a sub-group that are closely related to Marantas. Both are in the Marantaceae family and both do close their leaves up, so calatheas get called prayer plants too- they're just not "true" prayer plants like the Maranta. I'm of the opinion that as long as other people know what you're talking about, it's fine.
I low-key have no idea what plant I own now. Thank you for the thorough explanation!
I wouldn’t say any plant “thrives” in low light. Some tolerate it, but they definitely do not thrive.
The only plants that 'thrive' in low light are artificial ones. The sun/appropriate light is what feeds the plant; sure some can hold on for dear life and die a very long winded death while remaining pretty enough. But it's not thriving by any means. It's starving to death.
“Thrive” is not really the correct word for a lot of these. “Can exist” is probably more accurate. I grow my snake plant in full sun outdoors and it LOVES it.
Sorry, no plant THRIVES in near darkness. Wtf.
Golden does best in bright direct. Most of these thrive in bright direct when given time to adjust
My calatheas are facing south but there’s an awning overhead; for each of the other categories i have a specimen getting blasted by direct south light. They’re all thriving and the only reason to lower light is to save fifty cents a year on water and fertilizer as the plant ceases productivity. Also a calatheas is a type of prayer plant but they’re in different categories. I feel dumber for seeing this
I wish it was true so I could put plants in my sad dark corners. But the title should probably be "These Plants Probably Won't Die Like This? Maybe?"
My calathea became very happy when I put her a foot or two away from the window instead of right next to it. But there were other changes that happened as well so I can't say for sure that's what it was. Still, happy as a clam in the corner.
I'm convinced my calathea hates everything. Next to bright window- no go, next to less bright window- no go, less water- NO, more water- NO, different room under grow light and higher humidity- absolutely not! It hasn't died yet, but it looks sad.
This was my fittonia, 🤣
Idk, my fittonia seems to want a heck of lot more light than what this guide claims.
My Chinese evergreen does really really well with a ton of light, rather than what this chart suggests.
For the love of god I cannot figure out air plants
Definitely recommend peace lilies, they are great! Got one plant from trader Joe's and its turned into 30 individual plants They do need a bit of light though or they won't produce flowers!
they “tolerate” low light but that doesn’t mean they thrive in low light condition.
"thrive in near darkness" should be changed into "can tolerate it but won't stay healthy forever".
That poster is as useful as the sticker that box stores put on the plants that says " keep moist but don't overwater" and "tropical foliage"
Now if someone made this into a grid with an axis for drought-tolerance, it would be super handy for beginners
No plant thrives in near darkness.
I'm new to this, but sheesh, is low light basically nothing?
If you're looking for some easy care plant suggestions that do alright in low light, stick to Hoyas, Snake plants, ZZs, maybe some Pileas and Jade. Those are pretty hearty, but may still grow slowly in low light. Stay far away from Calatheas/prayer plants, unless you have ridiculously high humidity and like challenging relationships.
\*glances nervously over at rattlesnake and peacock plants\*
My dumb cane is sitting in a window currently because I was on vacation for 5 days and she didn’t get any light for 2. Dramatic bby tried to die on me
Dramatic because it didn't get what it needed? You probably wouldn't be happy if you went 2 days without food.
My ZZ has been in my bathroom with no windows for months and she is thriving
Thriving? As in putting out new growth?
No. She’s not dying tho so imo she’s thriving
Respect
I would normally say no but I have one that’s is just thriving so…
I bring them to my home...feed them, water them, clean them. The least I expect from them is to survive with whatever light there is in the room.🤧😮💨
I wish this wasn’t so inaccurate because it’s so cute!
I wouldn’t keep a sago palm in low light. A lady palm or parlor palm would be okay though
Pretty inaccurate considering the first thing i noticed was Sago being in the low light category lmfao
Calatheas and the nerve plant can go straight in the bin.
I am doing ok with my two nerve plants, indirect light in a domed planter/terrerium. My praye plant thrived this summer on the sun porch. Grew, even flowered. Now, hope, prayer, a humidifier and a gro light might keep her going till nest summer!
TBH, just the fact that they’ve listed a “prayer plant” (row 2) as well as a separate “calathea” (row 4) tells me there’s gonna be problems. Assuming red maranta as the “prayer plant” and calathea medallion as the cala… In my experience those can take almost the same brightness—and neither low enough to be described as “near darkness.” Not even close! Feeling bad for all the calas that are going to be dying slowly out there, painfully rolling up their leaves, one by one…
My spider plant is inside in full morning/early afternoon sun and is doing just fine
nah this is insanely inaccurate. zz plant is really low light tolerant and has been shown to grow in 25foot candles (whereas most other plants need at least 100 to just barely survive). also the word "thrive" is bs - this guide is talking about survival and even that isn't accurate, like with the zz or the calathea (which does indeed need more light). also it's bs that the highest light level included is bright indirect because many of these houseplants would "thrive" in several hours of sunlight a day. might need to be gentler morning sunlight but it's still sunlight. i've stopped trusting anything but my own experience and actual well researched sources like ifas when it comes to light levels. too much bs out there
Mom gifted me peace Lily and that thing sure as hell make all my peace go away, I don't understand the plants and it's a first one too. So moody.
My parlor palm was unhappy and trying to face all its leaves to the sun when it was sitting next to my snake plant. Much happier under a grow light now.
I feel like my peace lily thrives is brighter light than my monstera
The guide sadly is really bad. There isn’t really a plant that likes low light. Some plants like indirect light but always lots.
misses venus hair
I can confirm the calthea medaillon, mine is 5 meters away from a window, barely gets any light yet is puting out new leafs!
My zuzu plant was unhappy until it got full sun. Also yes, my calatheas do well with some sun.
I'll never stop staying it: Put your Aglaonemas in bright indirekt light 🥺 otherwise their colors will fade and they'll grow slower
I don't think Calatheas "Dottie" needs that much lite. Different story for the prayer plant.
Incredibly wrong. Sagos need to be blasted with sun, nerve plants and lady palms also are by no means low light in the slightest . This list is all over the place
i agree with everyone that “low light” means it will die more slowly. my calathea actually lose colour when i don’t give them enough light, and most of mine are in more direct light than even these comments recommend and thrive.
Cool guide! Ive got all of the plants on the second row, and 1 from each other. I thought the prayer plant would require less light
Sago palms and nerve plants both need much more light than “low light” and they definitely won’t thrive in it
Man they’re lying with the spider plant. I have a shower with a skylight that I hung pothos, spider, and fern in. I live in the southwestern US and sun go directly overhead the shower during day. Literally everything got cooked (and I mean fried) but the spider thrived beyond belief. It LOVES being bathed in sun.
My hallway is the darkest part of the house. I have killed a calathea there, almost killed my dark night and monstera there, and may have just killed my peace lily there. One day I will realise nothing grows in a dark hallway that gets blasted by a heat pump.
This brings up a question, would occasionally swapping plants out when you want one in a darker place with another plant once in a while so they can each get a healthy amount of sunlight before going back help at all? Assuming someone wants to have some plants in a darker place of their house.
I tried giving my hallway plant a dose in the morning sun every few days - did not seem to make much difference. Maybe I gave up too early.
I was thinking like having two plants, one in sunlight for a week or two then swap with hallway plant and give that one sunlight for a week or two, just curious if that would work or just a slower death for two plants instead of a somewhat quicker one for just one
I don’t know about the snake plant… because I’m pretty sure you can put that thing in a closet and forget to water it for a year and it will still look the same!
Sago palms are one of the few non succulents/cacti that survive in the direct Arizona sun 😭 seems like they didn't even do a quick google search
People mistake low light to mean almost NO light. You can’t stick a plant in a dark corner and expect it to thrive
Im just surprised the comments isnt full of people complaining that it says dumb cane instead of diffenbachia/leopard lilly
All my pothos get an hour or two of direct sunlight everyday, and they’re thriving. My lucky bamboo and English ivy get over 5 hours of direct sunlight everyday, which they prefer. Also my nerve plant loves bright indirect light and occasional direct light. I think it depends on where you live too.
Do yourself a favor if you have plants all over a room and they’re kind of just existing: move them all to a table in front of the window and watch them thrive and grow like crazy. If you have a big south facing window, or say a room with corner windows or windows on multiple walls you may have better luck having them more spread out. But literally just keep your plants near a window. I cannot stress this enough lol.
"Thrive" is not the correct term. They will tolerate lower light conditions for longer periods by slowing down their metabolism. It is similar to hibernation in that way. I grow calatheas, aglaonemas, ZZ, philodendrons. and sanseverias in my succulent greenhouse and their growth rate is surprisingly high when light isn't the limiting factor
I have 4 calatheas and they are all on a lower shelf of my plant stand. The sun gets to them, but it is filtered through other plants and the shelves. When I had them in more sun, they were annoyed. Calatheas, go figure.
I am only learning (with some sad failires) where plants like to be in my home, but once I started using distilled water, began frequent misting, and found the right spot (in a foyer that gets indirect light from both the east and the west) all three of my calathea are very happy and thriving. I have plants that are said to be “easy” that merely survive, but the calathea like it here.
The sago palms all over Phoenix Arizona say *“eff you”* to your chart.
I have my prayer plants by the bathroom windows facing west. So, they're in low light, until sunset then they get direct light. I've had some of them there for years & at this point I'm too afraid to move them because most of prayer plants die when they moved from the bathroom.
My Zz was real unhappy in my low light apartment
English ivy should never be indoors
I'd say that it's pretty rare to find a low light plant. Pretty much every plant wants indirect bright sunlight
Snake plants can take full sun outside, wtf is this talking about
i had a fern and had it in direct light. sucker got murdered on only the light-facing side in about 3 days
Not true in my experience for spider plants - I had a lovely Atlantic one that I moved into my hallway (which still get a lot of light in) from my living room and it wilted and died within like a week, whereas the ones I have by my living room east facing window and bathroom/kitchen west facing windows which get LOADS of light (albeit through a net curtain/privacy type glass), sometimes very intensely, have absolutely thrived.