Which species of houseplants can I put next to a north-facing window?
Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at
5:43 am
I am moving to an apartment with only north-facing windows and one east-facing that doesn’t get much sunlight. What kinds of small/medium size houseplants like these conditions?
Tagged with: Houseplants
Filed under: Gardening Resources
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Pick a plant, put it by your wall if it dies you know you’ve picked the wrong one, simply pick another. Hope this helps
African Violets are great. I have one in my north facing window. You only have to water it once a week too.
There are a few that will tolerate the kind of shade that a north-facing window has.
You could try Aspidistra, which has large, shiny dark green leaves and is quite slow growing, putting out one or two new leaves per year. it will cope well with shade and is also not fussy about watering (i.e. it will stand a bit of neglect if you forget to water it). in Victorian times it was commonly grown in dark hallways and has a reputation for being (almost) indestructible.
Sansevieria is also a good choice (also known as the Snakeskin plant or Mother-in-law’s Tongue). Long, pointed, strap shaped leaved in a range of green, yellow and blue tones. is also very adaptable and hard to kill but dislikes being overwatered in winter (it will rot).
you could also try some ferns: these often grow in the wild in shady woodland so a window with lower light levels works well for them, as long as you give them the moisture and humidity they need. staghorn fern is a good one to try.
for some colour, try growing a Coleus. they have velvety leaves in a great range of vibrant reds, purples, yellows etc. and are very easy to raise from seed. the foliage needs some light but will be of a more intense colour if it is shaded a bit rather than grown in strong (bleaching) light. seeds readily available at garden centres, nurseries or on Ebay.
unfortunately, flowering plants tend to need more light than a north facing window offers; there may be some that you could grow but i don’t know of any.
Good luck!
Most plants in the philodendron family, dracena family, or agloamena family can do well with light from a north facing window. Avoid cacti, succulents and any plants that flower — they require bright light to flower.
This site will give you some pics:
http://www.shilohnurseries.com/pages/index.php?pID=22&PHPSESSID=e4e43a7ee2a812cfde808796093d55c2
There are quite a few of them Hon. Snake plant, wax plant, ferns, philodendron and pothos are some of the more common varieties; most are readily available at any place that sells houseplants. There are also a number of ivies that don’t care for bright sun, if you prefer a trailer. All of the above have very low light requirements.
You’ve gotten a pretty good list of answers already. North facing windows in an apartment aren’t all bad. The higher up you are, the less obstructions you might have in those windows.
Someone suggested the Philodendron family of plants… very good for lower light areas, they include: Philodendron, Pothos, Chinese Evergreen (Aglonema), Peace Lily (Spathephyllum) and Dumbcane (Diffenbachia). There are more, but these are easy to find, and grow. Cast Iron Plant (Aspididstra) is good, as are Snake Plants (Sansiveria) especially the dwarf or birds nest kinds.
I hope that this helps