Sanseveria or Snake Plant

Houseplants bring a breath of fresh air to a stuffy winter indoor landscape. If you’re thinking about adding a few, you may wonder which houseplant to choose – especially if you lack a “green thumb”. This depends on your interior style, your personal taste, and few practical considerations including light, day and night temperatures, the presence of drafts, children and pets, and available space.

Most of our homes have low light levels, especially in the winter. And many plants will not prosper in the dry heat of a home in winter. Even so, some tropical and subtropical plants do quite well in the house. Here are a few handsome and reliable performers that always look good – no matter what color your thumb is!

• Sanseveria, also called snake plant or mother-in-law’s tongue, is attractive and practically indestructible. It’s an excellent choice for low light. Best of all, it tolerates very dry soil; you can go away on vacation for six weeks, and when you come back, it’s still thriving! It’s erect, lance-shaped leaves compliment contemporary furniture.
• Large, glossy green leaves adorn the wax plant, Hoya carnosa, a vine which periodically blooms with a sweet-smelling, waxy flower. Like the Sanseveria, it tolerates low light and dry conditions. I grow my hoya on a circular frame. Allowing wax plant to climb encourages it to bloom.


Cycad or Sago Palm

• Spathe plant or peace lily, Spathiphyllum sp., comes in a range of sizes suitable for use on tabletops or as floor plants. It lives well in low light conditions, but gives a bonus of continuous blooms if grown in medium or bright light. This plant has the ability to recover after being alarmingly wilted. I sometimes find my spathe plant in this condition, and know it’s time to check my other plants, too – a kind of indicator plant for watering.
• The sago palm or cycad, Cycas revoluta, is trendy now. Resembling a palm, this easy-to-grow houseplant is actually a rather primitive, cone-bearing relative of the conifers. A rosette of glossy dark green leaves grows from a central point at the top of a showy, shortened trunk. It gives a great tropical effect in medium to bright light.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia, the ZZ Plant

• The ZZ Plant, Zamioculcas zamiifolia, is one of the toughest and most durable houseplants around. ZZ is also called the Eternity Plant, supposedly because it lives for an eternity. It thrives in nearly any lighting condition short of total darkness and requires little watering or fertilizing. I’ve never know it to attract a pest.

All of these plants grow so easily, you may just take them for granted like I do. Then you suddenly notice that they are covered with dust. Reward these stalwart growers with a periodic shower – they deserve it!

Next time, I’ll look at some of the more colorful characters on the houseplant scene.

Happy Gardening!