Looking for small, low-light, drought-tolerant houseplant
What's a small houseplant that is low-light and desert-test tolerant?
Term definitions for this post:
Small: 3" pot
Low-light: About a foot from a north window with sheer curtains
Desert-test tolerant: I'm not very reliable about watering this spot ... I won't over water it, though.
And no, I don't want a fake plant here. It'll be in a small trio with two other live plants ... I missed watering, and one died. Fern, succulent, flower, foliage plant, open to any live-plant suggestions.
This is the happy plant from the trio (Asparagus fern, maybe?):
(This is not the location ... I couldn't get a good picture in its location ...)
I may switch out the Boston fern which survived the missed watering but isn't thrilled about it. The silver ribbon fern died.
Thanks all!
Comments (7)
BlueberryBundtcake - 6a/5b MA thanked Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, ALRelated Discussions
Looking for a low light ground cover style houseplant
Comments (20)Some web researched turned up the following - I can't vouch for the source one way or the other, but the info sounds reasonable enough: 'Since the 1850s, the plant has had at least twenty-five botanical names, botanists finding the plant under varying conditions and at different stages of maturity. Heinrich Wilhelm Schott was the first to name it. Syngonium podophyllum was published in Botanische Zeitung in 1851. He later (1857) published the name Nephthytis in Oesterreichisches Botanisches Wochenblatt. 'Nephthytis' was the name picked up by the horticultural trade. Not a bad name being derived from Nephthys, the Egyptian goddess of households. But by botanical rules, a plant's name reverts to the first correctly published name.' Here is a link that might be useful: here's the full web page about it...See MoreLow growing, drought tolerant shrubs for a lousy looking hillside
Comments (7)Might want to try Rus aromatica 'Gro-low' (selection of native sumac). It stays a couple of feet high at most but spreads well. Leaves are small, shiny, dark green; fall color is a nice red. I have a patch in my native corner, and it has filled in very nicely without any care except in the first year. Another possibility is northern sea oats. You are welcome to come dig some out of my garden, they spread prolifically and deer don't eat them. Nice seed heads in fall, strong root systems....See MoreLooking for drought tolerant trees with small mature size
Comments (3)First, a small tree is considered to be 20-35' tall. Widen your search to medium-to-large shrubs, as they are more appropriately sized. Pittosporum 'Marjorie Channon', for example, can be limbed up into a lovely somewhat airy small tree of 12' or so. Avocados can be cut back really, really hard, and they grow back and do fine. The growers come through their fields with these huge motorized cutting machines, like a windmill set horizontal, and mow their avocados down to a reasonable height every few years. A good hard trim by a trained arborist could make your sister's life a little easier....See MoreSuggestions for new drought tolerant landscape.
Comments (25)dchall, I assume your photo was taken in San Antonio? Here's the big difference between CA gardening and gardening in most of the rest of the US. In San Antonio, as elsewhere in the US, you get rain during the spring and summer months. A drought for you would be less rain during the growing season. In CA we get zero rain during most of the spring and summer, always. If zero rain is the definition of an extreme drought then CA is always in extreme drought in the late spring through early fall. All of our rain comes in the winter. It is not unusual for us here in Southern CA to get no rain at all, not even a drizzle, from April to the end of October or even into the middle of November. With no rain at all and temps in the 90s and above the jasmine in your photo would not survive....See More
gardenfanatic2003
7 months agogardenfanatic2003
7 months agolast modified: 7 months agoBlueberryBundtcake - 6a/5b MA
7 months agoTiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
7 months agoSome Aloes are surprisingly tolerant of lower light. Aloe bellatula is a diminutive plant that blooms in the spring and fall around the equinoxes.
Various Rhipsalis can be kept small by trimming away excess growth if desired. Won't die unless it goes w/o water for a very long time. Probably won't bloom in lower light, but for most Rhipsalis, the blooms aren't the "wow" type anyway.
iochroma