House plants that might survive a plant serial killer, (accidental)?

Miró

Oh no! My latest 'victim' has just turned up its [STRIKE]toes[/STRIKE] roots! A beautiful orchid plant that had 6 lovely blooms on it yesterday has now shed said blooms!

I just cannot keep any house plant alive for more than a few weeks despite my best efforts. Have tried the nurturing/ignoring/threats approaches but nothing seems to work. My rooms are quite dark with little direct sunlight..is this the problem? Can anyone suggest a few nice house plants, flowering or just green, (apart from plastic:p ), that might survive in these conditions and with someone who does not have 'green fingers'?

Recently tried and despatched to the great compost heap in the sky include

Hyacinths, mini daffs, mini roses, weeping fig, rubber plant, spider plant, jasmine, hydrangea, Christmas cactus, herbs of all kinds, loads of assorted green leafy things.....

Any suggestions much appreciated.

olly300

You've managed to kill a spider plant wow!!! They are pretty hard to kill

Seriously I have managed to keep peace lilies (Spathephyllum) in low lighting conditions plus some ferns and spider plants.

Peace lilies leaves wilt when they don't have enough water and are easy to take care of. Just make sure you don't over water them. When the leaves wilt all you need to do is put them in a bucket of water until the leaves look normal again. (I've had some of my peace lilies for 7 years.)

Ferns you need to be a bit more careful with ensuring they don't get waterlogged.

There are more plants on this list:
http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/17497/857/2

kimnhol

Oh dear, im not on my own then. :rotfl: My garden looks lovely, no problems out there but have resulted in what I call plastic trees and plants indoors and the odd bowl of bulbs that I can rush outside when the going gets tough. Hope you find a solution soon. :rolleyes:

Miró

olly300 wrote: »

You've managed to kill a spider plant wow!!! They are pretty hard to kill

Seriously I have managed to keep peace lilies (Spathephyllum) in low lighting conditions plus some ferns and spider plants.

Peace lilies leaves wilt when they don't have enough water and are easy to take care of. Just make sure you don't over water them. When the leaves wilt all you need to do is put them in a bucket of water until the leaves look normal again. (I've had some of my peace lilies for 7 years.)

Ferns you need to be a bit more careful with ensuring they don't get waterlogged.

There are more plants on this list:
http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/17497/857/2

The spider plants didn't exactly die...just the leaves went all brown and manky at the edges/tips. I once sat for ages neatly trimming off the brown bits with nail scissors :rotfl: Didn't help! They just looked so sorry for themselves so I binned them eventually!

Will have a look for peace lilies..they sound nice. Thanks for the info :T

tattooedhoney

Have you tried aloe vera ? It needs minimal watering and my seems to thrive on a windowsill in my bathroom and nows needs dividing every year ( sold some of the excess plants at a car boot :j )

They can grow quite big as well if you put them in a big enough pot ! But sounds like you should start small


Good luck !

thetope

orchids do periodically drop their flowers, the "branch" turns into a dead twig but a new one grows out from the stem and you get new flowers about 3 months later. when the new one grows clip the old twig off. don't give up on the orchid unless the stem is dead. just keep it watered and see what happens.

morg_monster

Miró wrote: »

The spider plants didn't exactly die...just the leaves went all brown and manky at the edges/tips. I once sat for ages neatly trimming off the brown bits with nail scissors :rotfl: Didn't help! They just looked so sorry for themselves so I binned them eventually!

Will have a look for peace lilies..they sound nice. Thanks for the info :T

If only the very tips of the spider plants went brown... I think that is pretty normal, it is something to do with something in the tap water. Mine always have brown tips but they are still pretty healthy and produce babies etc. You could try using cold boiled water to water them, that might work although I've never tried it.

My only other suggestion would be a rubber plant but I see you've tried that already... Did you start off with quite a big one? If so, maybe try a smaller one to start with that way it will get used to the conditions. I have one on my windowsill at work which never gets any direct sunlight at any time of the year, we face onto a basement car park which is lower than its surroundings, it doesnt grow as fast as my others at home but it seems to do OK.

BlondeHeadOn

What about plastic or silk ones? Even I can't kill those.....

Or I have a little heap of dead bits called a 'resurrection plant', or 'Rose of Jericho' - see link below for description. You could keep this at the back of a drawer for months, and just drag it out and put it in water just before you have visitors - I've done this before! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_plant

I'm also a serial house plant killer, in case you hadn't guessed....

nodwah

Aspidistra are supposed to be unkillable, but very hard to come by- if anyone can tell me where to get one....
Try Christmas cactus, you see them in all the supermarkets and money plants like wise, they don't seem to need too much light I've got them on windowsills that never get any sunlight and thery'er doing fine

Miró

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

Or I have a little heap of dead bits called a 'resurrection plant', or 'Rose of Jericho' - see link below for description. You could keep this at the back of a drawer for months, and just drag it out and put it in water just before you have visitors - I've done this before! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_plant

I'm also a serial house plant killer, in case you hadn't guessed....

Oh yes!!! I really like the sound of this...now, where can I get one I wonder???

seven-day-weekend

Aspidistras were very popular in Victorian households as they don't mind being in gloom or not being watered enough. They also do not mind draughts or changes in temperature.

However, even these can be killed through overwatering, which is one of the the main reasons houseplants die. Do not allow any plant to stand for any length of time in trays of water.

I recommend an aspidistra, but have just read a post saying they are hard to come by. Never thought of this, they are very popular here in Spain, every household has at least one.

Best of luck!