Low maintenance plant for bathroom?

outtatune

Aspidistra is the classic difficult-to-kill plant.

So much so that in the 1920s and 30s it became the symbol of middle class suburbia. People were now living in big semi detached houses with an extra room at the front they didn't know what to do with. So they turned it into a kind of 'Sunday best' room. Which meant it was pretty much unused the rest of the week, only got dusted once a week, any plants in there got neglected and died off quickly - but not aspidistra - it turned out to be immune to neglect. So people walking down these middle class suburban streets looking in windows would see aspidistra after aspidistra after aspidistra.

Exodi

I've tried a fair few plants in the bathroom with little luck.

Personally (and I know I'll probably upset a few of our more green-thumbed members!) I use artificial plants in the bathrooms.

On a separate note, a plant will provide effectively zero mitigation from potential mould (I'd go so far as saying it would do the opposite as the mould may end up growing on the plant/soil).

Sorry if I'm being dumb, but what is a 'trickle vent extractor fan'?

I think of a 'trickle vent' as the little vents at the edges of windows that can be opened to allow air in and I think of an 'extractor fan' as in a motorized fan in the ceiling that can be switched on and off to move air from the bathroom out a vent in the roof. Unless you mean you have both?

Trickle vents on their own are unlikely to provide enough protection against the high humidity from a bath/shower to stop mould. If you have an extractor fan that is properly vented, that can.

In either case, if you find mould is building regardless, the quickest and easiest mitigation is just bathing/showering with the window slightly open (though appreciate this is not ideal in the winter and it is just a sticking plaster fix!).

greensalad

I'd add a spider plant as others have said, but also crispy wave ferns and any pothos will be perfect. You could have a few. Ferns generally do well in humid environments as they naturally grow on forest floors.

KittenChops

waqasahmed said:

Essentially I'm looking for a plant that can take in the humidity and therefore potential mould from the bathroom

I already have a trickle vent extractor fan, and windows but it'd be good to have a decent looking plant too that's very low maintenance

As others have pointed out, no plants are going to remove mould.  Most houseplants are touted as 'air purifiers' but in reality, you'd probably need a collection the size of a rainforest for it to make any difference.  Plants take in nutrients & water via their roots (with the exception of air plants) so misting houseplants does little, if anything, for them.

If you're going to have houseplants, you need to provide them with (a) adequate water, without under or over watering - best way to tell is to touch the soil on the top and water thoroughly if the top half inch or so is dry to the touch, allowing the excess to drain off, & (b) light - most houseplants prefer indirect sunlight, although some will take a bit of direct sunlight.  Some houseplants will take a bit of neglect (spider plants are one), others will almost immediately start showing signs of stress (calathea for example).

What direction does your bathroom window face?  Presumably the glass is obscure, in which case less sunlight will reach your plants than if not.

Postik

ironhide said:

Spider plant, loves a bit of humidity, super easy to look after and before long youll have a few baby ones. If you can kill one of them in a bathroom you are pretty special!

I remember my science teacher had a spider plant that she never watered, it looked about dead.  Since it was near the sink we decided to finish it off and keep flooding it with water.  Not just small amounts of water but saturating it like crazy from the tap over and over every lesson.

What actually happened is the water helped it recover and it grew so big she had to put it on top of a large cupboard where we couldn't get to it.

waqasahmed

KittenChops said:

waqasahmed said:

Essentially I'm looking for a plant that can take in the humidity and therefore potential mould from the bathroom

I already have a trickle vent extractor fan, and windows but it'd be good to have a decent looking plant too that's very low maintenance

As others have pointed out, no plants are going to remove mould.  Most houseplants are touted as 'air purifiers' but in reality, you'd probably need a collection the size of a rainforest for it to make any difference.  Plants take in nutrients & water via their roots (with the exception of air plants) so misting houseplants does little, if anything, for them.

If you're going to have houseplants, you need to provide them with (a) adequate water, without under or over watering - best way to tell is to touch the soil on the top and water thoroughly if the top half inch or so is dry to the touch, allowing the excess to drain off, & (b) light - most houseplants prefer indirect sunlight, although some will take a bit of direct sunlight.  Some houseplants will take a bit of neglect (spider plants are one), others will almost immediately start showing signs of stress (calathea for example).

What direction does your bathroom window face?  Presumably the glass is obscure, in which case less sunlight will reach your plants than if not.

One bathroom faces East. The other faces west

Also just for the sake of decoration really, I'd probably get this for the corridor, at 1m high or so

https://www.beardsanddaisies.co.uk/products/kentia-palm?view=description-tab&variant=29123471310882&gclid=CjwKCAjwitShBhA6EiwAq3RqA7q6l-SSv4_1Yi_1r1GWg4Wi9z-6I42Oxkw_5W0Y8G_0yAMncfwVUxoCxykQAvD_BwE

sugar-walsh

Don't stop at 1, add plenty for a jungle theme. 

They don't, however, help with mould as you can see from our ceiling.

The ones that are thriving are the leafy, trailing ones, you can pick them up most places. Epiprenmum I think they're called. Got ours for a few quid in ikea, they're way bigger than this just a few months on.

Nobbie1967

I bought a little glass terrarium with a cork lid from Waitrose for about £15. It had three little plants in and has sat happily on the windowsill in the bathroom since Xmas with absolutely no maintenance, not even watering. Still looks nice. You can get bigger ones, but they do get very expensive, very quickly.