Favorite Low-Light Houseplants?

Good Morning All,

My co-worker and I are both plant fanatics and would like to add some more greenery to our office. We've been experimenting with plants we've brought from home, but before I go out and buy something new I thought I'd get your imput. We've got a couple pothos that have done beautifully for almost a year, a couple of suculents and an ivy that's doing so-so.

We get no natural light at all, but we have pretty bright flourescent lighting for about 12 hours a day. Everyone who comes into our office admires our plants (they all have artificials) so of course now we really want to show off our green thumbs! Does anybody have any suggestions for us?

Thanks,
La

African Violets and Episcia's grow really well under artificial light!!

syngoniums love the fluorescents as well as peacelilies to name a couple.

S

Thanks gals. I've never had much luck with African Violets in my home environment, maybe that's what I'm doing wrong. I'm going to give them a shot!

Chinese evergreen
ZZ plant
Philodendron
Oak leaf Ivy possibly

Sansavaria
bromelliads for color (will hold color for 4-6 months)

if you want, or have room for a taller plant...
lisa cane
mas cane
janet craig
warneckei

I can't thank you all enough for the great ideas. Of course I will be buying my co-worker a plant for Christmas, and you've given me so many to chose from now.

I have only a little natural light in my office and have fluorescents on about the same amount of time, but I've been getting a larger number of plants. I agree with all the suggestions above! Dieffenbachia did NOT do well for me - not dead but not growing either. My aglaonemas are doing great; philodendrons are doing fairly well. I'd recommend the purple passion plant - it is terrific and propagates at the drop of a hat. You can do no wrong with syngonium - we even had some cuttings sitting in water for months. Wandering Jew plant is doing very well but I think I have to pinch it more since it becomes too leggy. Some people here have something called beefsteak begonia. Ivy would be great but I had problems with mine getting mites all over due to the dryness. Over the winter, I highly recommend amaryllis bulbs in the office and they make nice gifts. They never get bugs or anything. I have taken mine home to feed over the summer - not sure if office light is enough for them to store up energy for the next year. Happy gardening...

I totally agree on the purple passion and they are gorgeous! You might also try a Mandarin Plant. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62897/
They are very colorful and I think the lights from the office would be sufficient. Also a Tiger Monkey Flower says it makes a nice house plant. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/106504/
And a Stromanthe:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/59470/

Gosh some of these are beautiful....and so unusual! Which brings me to my next question. Where do you buy these plants? I am hard-pressed to find a nursery open this time of year around me....would the box stores carry them?

(edited for typo)

This message was edited Dec 11, 2007 6:36 PM

Home Depot often has the common types, sometimes in larger hanging baskets but then of course they are a little more expensive. They also sell some nicer ones from the Exotic Angel company (see separate thread in this forum recently). You might want to see if there is a particular HD in your area that has more of a garden center, since ours vary in size/supplies here in Chicago. If you are looking for floor-type container plants, HD has bigger ones fairly cheaply (I got a sanseviera that had worms in it! :( but certainly you'd want a bigger one of those since they grow so slow; I've also seen ZZ plants there and post-trained larger pothos-type plants). I imagine your cold weather is like ours - I'd probably bring an extra paper grocery bag or newspaper to wrap plants up to take home... at least that's what they do in our year-round nursery.

AND - most important - save your HD receipts! They have a guarantee so if the plant dies within a year (or you are not happy with it) - even if it is probably or totally your fault - you can return it and get your money back. I have had a couple little things totally die on me and although it seems sort of cheap to want several $ back, that lets me get something that works better.

Lowe's is where the majority of mine have come from, and most on clearance! :) They have the same deal as Lowe's on returns, too. :)

Thanks again! I will definitely be plant shopping during my next trip to the "big town".