Indoor Plants

When living with plants, the most important consideration is what species will thrive in your indoor space, and the most important element of that is the availability and quality of light. Even through the sunniest window, sunlight disperses within about six inches of the indoor side of the glass. The angle of light entering the home is important, and that angle changes both throughout the day and seasonally. Additionally, many window glasses are treated with coatings or made with additives that block the spectra that plants need. Such auxiliaries as grow lights or skylights help, but for healthy and attractive indoor foliage, there is no workaround to assessing the light quality in your home and then choosing plants based on that as the primary, though not the only, consideration.

It's not that difficult to evaluate the light conditions in your home. Connect online or in person with a local garden club or plant nursery, who will not only know the typical conditions in your area but can walk you through the process of evaluating available light. You can try it yourself with a lightmeter and a pad and pencil, but consider bringing in an experienced local gardener. The local garden club, nursery, or USDA extension office can recommend skilled, experienced individuals to evaluate grow conditions in your home, including available light, at reasonable cost. Reasonable costs for an evaluation typically include a minimum purchase from a nursery, a membership or other financial consideration for a garden club, or an honorarium for the evaluator if you are not paying them as a contractor. 

Additional grow conditions include indoor / outdoor humidity; members of the household including the aged, children, and animals; air quality including airborne travelers from HVAC systems; and the condition and quality of household water. As water especially affects the health of plant life, it may be recommended to water plants with filtered or distilled water. Whatever the findings, the local garden club or nursery (they are often concurrent) can help you evaluate your grow conditions, recommend plants for your indoor environment and suggest placement for them, and provide care training and ongoing support as you welcome your new green family members into your home. 

The best placement for plants is within the scope of a light source that the plant can use to sustain and to grow. Many plants will do just fine if they are in the window, and many can thrive farther into the rooms. It is a sliding scale, and it always refers back to how the plant evolved, grows and thrives in the wild, and how the species has been conditioned during domestication. This is where indoor gardening is a valuable skill, for an indoor gardener regards themselves as a caretaker. We take the time to learn about the grow conditions each plant needs, and we utilize that knowledge practically to provide care for plants. That includes includes placing houseplants appropriately in the home. Some plants suitable for placement indoors with healthy grow conditions include many varieties of palm and fern, some succulents, some tropicals, aquatic plants, air plants, some flowering plants and some carnivorous plants.

The waiting room stalwart snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) is a good starter plant for indoor gardeners, as its care requirements train the indoor gardener to attentiveness. Though the snake plants we get at the garden center are succulents or tropicals cultivated for home gardeners, in the wild, snake plants crowd the ground under heavy jungle canopies. Accordingly, they can tolerate low light as long as they get some bright light, so be prepared to augment their light intake, especially during grow season, with a grow light or being moved outside for a few hours a day. Snake plants require moderate warmth and humidity, and they are susceptible to a condition gardeners refer to as "wet feet," meaning that the roots can get waterlogged. Water your snake plant only when the soil is dry. Snake plant's leaves should always appear strong and upright with a slight waxy coating. If your snake plant appears droopy, check the soil to ensure it's not getting waterlogged. Repot immediately if so. 

Many a bathroom counter or console table is incomplete absent the soaring arc of an orchid. Despite the array of colors and sizes, those orchids that beckon you from the nursery displays at the garden center are likely of a single species: moth orchid (Phalaenopis). These domesticated orchids can grow in the filtered- or low light conditions of many rooms, but they will not do well in chilly conditions whether HVAC or Yankee winter. Orchids respirate through their roots, so the distinctive orchid pot that allows the roots exposure to air is essential. Rather than soil, an orchid is likely grown in a planting medium mixed or topped with bark or moss. Water orchids sparingly only when the planting medium feels dry -- orchids are easy to harm by overwatering and difficult to harm by underwatering. Once you learn how to care for your moth orchid, add additional home cultivars such as Lady's Slipper, Cymbidium, and Dendrobium to your indoor gardening specialty. 

Like orchids, bromeliads (Aechmea, Neoregelia, Guzmania) are tropicals, many of which are cultivated for indoor conditions and the care of which becomes a specialty. Bromeliads require a few hours of steady light a day, so keep them within reach of a window or other dependable full-spectrum source, but overall they are tolerant of filtered light. Bromeliads originated in rain forest conditions, and the care of the indoor cultivars reflects their origin. Bromeliads require humidity, so mist bromeliads daily working from the outside leaves to the central cup of the plant, and they are thirsty, so water in a thin stream through that central cup without ever letting the soil dry out. Use rich, well-drained soil, fertilized at 1/4 strength during growing season to enhance the humidity in your bromeliad's biosphere, place your bromeliad in a pot with a drain hole positioned on a saucer filled with gardening pebbles. Upon establishing good care conditions, your bromeliad should be so healthy and happy that it changes color or sends out fruit, flowers, or the baby bromeliads known as pups. Upon the appearance of pups, healthy plants can be cut, dusted, and propagated.

Palms are a widely varied species with ambassadors that soar to the sky and those that snuggle in a planter. Many of the latter will continue to grow in size until they must be moved outdoors, but that process may take decades. Place indoor palms where they can receive steady indirect light while accenting a room with the calming rustle of their fronds. Palms are heavy so place the planter on a wheeled plant stand to allow for ease of care, which aside from clipping spent fronds includes checking soil condition and monitoring for pestilence. Parlor Palm (Chamaedorea elegans) grows to a height of about five feet. Additional indoor palms include ponytail, lady, and majesty. Water your palm when the soil is dry to the touch; dust and mist the fronds between waterings. 

Boston ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata) have stood sentinel atop pedestals in entrances, hallways, and dining rooms since becoming available to the home gardener in the Victorian Era. Ferns are especially decorative due to the plush foliage that is the sign of a healthy plant, and because they reproduce via spores that then develop through distinctive phases of male, female and asexual reproduction, the slightly specialized care they require is a learning experience in botany. Boston ferns require partial shade, which is why they can live further into the home than many other plants. Additional, and fancifully named, indoor ferns include lemon button, maidenhair, and staghorn. Place your fern away from extremes of draft or heat, but it will not mind humidity. Water when the soil feels dry to the touch, and mist often to allow the plant to propagate.

From photos in home decor media to housewarming gifts, the quintessential indoor houseplant is spider- or airplane plant (Chlorophytum comosum) Spider plant is easy to care for and tolerant of low light and average room temperature and humidity, which makes it a good training plant for beginning gardeners. As a container plant, it can be displayed on a table, pedestal, or hanging basket; just be sure there are room for the runners it sends out. Once those baby plants develop, they can be cut, dusted, and propagated in the glasses of water we all know from window sill gardens. Keep the soil slightly moist and resist the urge to fertilize -- the plant is so hearty that it should need no extra attention that way, whereas one harm you can do to spider plants is overfertilizing this abundant species. 

Gift basket standards such as peace lily, prayer plant, and ivy should be transplantable to their own containers if they came from a healthy nursery or flower shop environment. Many indoor gardeners care for dish gardens of succulents, moss, or bonsai, but be aware that these plantings require enhanced attention due to their delicacy, and that that delicacy can convey a higher mortality risk. Terrariums are fun and fascinating, and with correct care can last not just years but generations. Many kitchen gardeners grow window sills full of herbs, and with good planning and learning about the specialized care they require, wall gardeners can grow succulents or air plants.

Indoor gardening is a specialty whose charges invariably evolve into specialties of their own. Garden clubs welcome plant specialists and many plant specialists have clubs of their own. Indoors, these include but are not limited to orchids, African violets, herbs, and, for gardeners skilled in their care and in homes where there are no contraindications, carnivorous plants. Patio, balcony, porch, and deck are transition areas from indoors to outdoors, and plants that may be too finicky on the other side of the wall will do just fine in these areas if correct grow conditions are met. Depending upon your USDA Hardiness Zone, try placing a strawberry pot or olive sapling on the patio, clusters of begonias or geraniums on the porch, even a lemon tree on a sunny deck. Finally, remember that many plants, some common, are toxic or poisonous and should not be brought into the home; click here to learn about these.

Resources

GardeningBooks Part One and Two

Urban Home Blog's Guide to Terrariums

Urban Home Blog's Guide to Caring for Cut Flowers

USDA Hardiness Zone Map