Written by Jenelle Schafer
While selling houseplants at our local farmers market, the comment I hear most often by passerby’s was, “Your houseplants look great, but I kill everything I bring into my home.” These comments always make me wonder what goes on inside their homes that “everything” ends up biting it eventually. Are they too neglectful and forget they own plants? Are they over caring for their plants and end up smothering them? Or are they trying plant varieties that tend to be fussy about their growing environment? The solution to the first two questions isn’t always super easy and requires the changing of habits, which we all know can be tough sometimes, but the solution to the third is simply finding plant varieties the grow well regardless, or sometimes in spite of, the cultivation practices they are subjected to. Here is a list of 5 plants that even the blackest of thumbs would have trouble killing.
1. Zebra Plant (Haworthia attenuata)
In my opinion, Haworthia is so easy to grow, it might as well be plastic. Haworthia has thick leaves with raised textured white stripes decorating the plant. It is often confused for Aloe vera, but a key difference is the leaf texture. Where Aloe leaves are filled with gel, Haworthia leaves are very firm. Because of the leaf rigidity, the plant has very slow reaction to changes in its environment. Plants with soft thin leaves will show water stress really quickly with wilting or drying leaves, but succulents with thick leaves like Haworthia can last weeks or even months without water before they really start to show any sign of distress. Even when Haworthia does start to show signs of drought, they are very easily revived. I have had some Haworthia that I have thought were for sure dead, they had shriveled leaves and were kinda greyish colored, but I gave them some water, put them under a grow light, and within 3 to 4 weeks you would have never known that they had previously been visibly deceased.
There are several different kinds of succulents that can store water and survive in drought for long periods, but something that sets Haworthia apart from most succulents is its ability to tolerate low light conditions. A large majority of succulents are full sun, which makes sense considering the native desert environment most succulents come from. Haworthia will thrive in bright, direct sunlight, but will also thrive even if it is not near a windowsill. For me, getting the right lighting is one of the hardest things to do, especially when there are only so many windows in your house and none of them are south facing. But plants like Haworthia are great because their growth and health aren’t tied to direct sunlight and it makes them versatile for any situation.
2. Wax Plant (Hoya carnosa)
Another plant with thick, waxy leaves is Hoya, aptly named the wax plant. Hoya leaves have a thick cuticle, the outer leaf tissue, which prevents the plant from losing lots of water through transpiration, the process plants go through to “drink” and “breathe” essentially. The slower the rate of transpiration, the lower the frequency of watering the plant needs. In other words, because Hoyas don’t lose as much water through their leaves, they also don’t go through as much water in their potting soil, allowing them to go longer between waterings. And, since the leaves aren’t reactive to water stress, if the potting soil is dry and the plant is ready to be watered again, you can wait a few days and the Hoya will be and look fine.
One of the things I like about Hoya is that they are always ready to be propagated. Hoya leaves form off twining stems and, on the stems, between where the leaves are attached, are little bumps called preformed roots. These latent structures are just sitting there waiting for some soil contact to create a whole new plant. It always seems to me that plants with the ability to easily produce clones of themselves are usually easy going and don’t require a lot of special care to get them to do what you want them to do.
3. Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
Pothos, to me, is one of the most classic houseplants. You can find it at any nursery and so many people have them in their houses. Pothos ends up being so hardy for so many people because of its light requirement. Pothos needs medium light, which functionally looks like placing it on a ledge or in a hanging basket in a room that gets good natural lighting but doesn’t need to be directly touched by beams of sunlight. Also possessing preformed roots, Pothos follows the pattern of being low maintenance and easily propagated.
The traditional Pothos, with plain heart-shaped green leaves is the most common variety, but there is another species in the same family, Silver Satin Pothos (Scindapsus pictus 'Silver Satin'), I have found to be equally, if not hardier. The Silver Satin Pothos has really attractive leaves with sparkly silver speckles, but also features a thicker leaf tissue than the traditional Pothos, giving it greater drought tolerance. It has all the great low maintenance traits of the Pothos with extras!
4. Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
Spider plants are another really common houseplant, and for good reason. They grow well in medium light, and the plants produce stalks with plantlets on them allowing you to have near infinite baby Spider plants. But Spider plants are also just in general low maintenance. No pruning or shaping needed. Just fountains of leaves all the time. And they have big, thick roots which are capable of storing plenty of water for all the plant’s needs. When you are ready to start growing a Spider plant, you probably don’t even need to buy one, since there’s got to be someone in your life that can share some plantlets with you.
5. Wandering Jew (Zebrina pallida)
Ah, finally, a plant with some color! Plant color is largely tied to light. Many plants will generally only express the right color if they get the right kind of light. Because of this, colorful plants can be tricky to take care of as you not only have to think about how to keep the plant healthy but also maintaining the proper color expression. Fortunately, Wandering Jews don’t fit into the tricky plant category. They have vibrant purple, green and silver striped leaves and can maintain these colors in medium light conditions, while other varieties with similar colors would need full sun to do so. Wandering Jews also have a crazy fast growth rate. If the hanging stems are getting a bit too long, you can chop them off and the plant will proceed as normal. And when you do cut the stems, they easily root in potting soil so you can easily fill out your pot of Wandering Jew.
Well, there ya have it; 5 easy plants to keep alive. This list is by no means exhaustive, but they are ones that I have never seen anyone have trouble with. As you probably noticed, a common theme for hardy plants is the ability to withstand inconsistent watering practices and being able to grow in lesser light settings. But the truth is that if you can learn to water plants correctly, and if you can figure out where in your house a plant will get the best light for its specific needs, you will be set to take care of any plant species. For more information about watering houseplants check out our article Watering Houseplants 101. Happy growing!
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