Okay, I've never been exactly green fingered. Next year or sometime I would like to try growing some vegetables or something, but now I'd like a housplant. I want some confidence, really.

I've never been able to keep a plant alive. My cactus was rescued by a friend because it looked like I was killing it, and every other plant has pretty much just died. I don't think I'm that bad. I can remember to water something, pretty much :think: I'm like a hair's breadth from ordering this (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/8039/), but preferably I want something with flowers.

So what is pretty and really easy to look after?

Okay, I've never been exactly green fingered. Next year or sometime I would like to try growing some vegetables or something, but now I'd like a housplant. I want some confidence, really.

I've never been able to keep a plant alive. My cactus was rescued by a friend because it looked like I was killing it, and every other plant has pretty much just died. I don't think I'm that bad. I can remember to water something, pretty much :think: I'm like a hair's breadth from ordering this (http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/8039/), but preferably I want something with flowers.

So what is pretty and really easy to look after?
I was at the store the other day and I may have seen one or two you can keep..for a LONG time.
How about a plastic plant made out of recylced material? :lol: :nana: :bobo:

Here are a few http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/infopages/page307.html

I was at the store the other day and I may have seen one or two you can keep..for a LONG time.
How about a plastic plant made out of recylced material? :lol: :nana: :bobo:

Here are a few http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/infopages/page307.html
:lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm looking for the same thing. I plant on asking the people at the plant and garden place when I go, but I've heard that aloe vera plants are very resiliant and basically just need water. That might be a good option, plus you could have fresh aloe if you ever needed it!

I second aloe vera - I've always been notoriously bad at keeping plants (bad for a botanist!) but got two little aloe plants from a friend and now they're HUGE with millions of little babies sprouting from them.

They're really easy to look after, just don't put them in direct sun (i.e. a windowsill where the sun blasts in all day) and water when the soil dries out. Seems to have worked for me!

PS since the aloe revelation, I've been growing herbs in a window box, and I've got one basil plant that's over a year old :)

I'm bad with plants too, but I've always found the Wandering Jew to be an excellent indoor plant that I was never able to kill :)

They don't flower (I don't think) but the leaves are pretty enough:

http://mgonline.com/wanderingjew02.jpg

The easiest plants to keep alive are spider plants, pothos it's a kind of philodendron (you can't kill these), and certain kinds of aloe. I have this aloe plant that just won't die. My mom had it at her place and was trying to kill it off for some reason by keeping it in the basement. It just wouldn't die. If you are prone to forgetting to water plants, they make planters that are self watering. It's got a little bowl under it that collects water. They're great.
~Wonder :pibo:

I second the pothos. I think you'd actually have to water it with salt water or bleach to kill it. They do not die.

Spider plants are also pretty easy to grow, but in my experience cats will absolutely not leave them alone. I don't think they're poisonous to cats (I had a list once a long time back) but they don't look so nice eaten to within an inch of the dirt. :p

Spider plants are also pretty easy to grow, but in my experience cats will absolutely not leave them alone. I don't think they're poisonous to cats (I had a list once a long time back) but they don't look so nice eaten to within an inch of the dirt. :p
yes, I was going to say this. My parents used to have these, and the cats ruined them :lol:

Thanks all for your suggestions.

I definitely agree with the spider plant option. I've had mine for about 4 years now. I treated it like crap for the first year and a half, but it didnt die and it still loves me. I give it tons of sun and it has grown huge. I also have an aloe plant that is doing well. My last plant is an asparagus houseplant:
http://www.tandjenterprises.com/asparagus_fern.htm
This thing has been to the edge of death more than once and always grows back very easily. I've had this one for about 5 or 6 years (2 of those years being in college) and it is still doing good.

Sanseveria aka "Mother-in-Law's Tongue" will live for months with no sun and no water. They are as close to a plastic plant as a living plant can be.

Cacti are actually quite easy to kill.

Hmmm... flowers...

Plants are wierd sometimes. I usually do well with plants, but there's something about begonias and me: I kill them.

Anyway: How much light will there be where you will have them? Also, what will the temperature be at different times of the year? Do you know how humid your area will be?

I sympathize. I should ahve a green thumb. My mother can bring plants back from the dead. My dad grows organic stuff. I can't keep a dandelion alive for a few days.

I have been able to keep one plant. Bamboo. Hardy and don't need much water. You can keep small bamboo plants in little pots. I named mine Charlene.

Go with a pothos. As long as I was in college all my plants died except for the pothos. They can really take a beating.

I vote for a goldfish plant, which in my family, are known as Bong Water Plants. Back in college, a friend of mine bought a little plant at one of those plant stands when vendors come onto campus at the beginning of the year. He had a failed water bong in his bedroom, and instead of getting fresh water for the plant, he fed it bong water. It didn't do well. Christmas time rolled around and he was just going to leave it in his room to die but I said I'd take it home cause my dad has a greenhouse and see if he can fix it. He did. Now we have the original bong water plant, as well as "sons" and "grandsons" of bong water plant made from cuttings. We found out later that they're actually called goldfish plants because when the flower, the flowers look like goldfish!!
This past winter, I was sick for a month and in the hospital/my parents house. I asked my bf to come water my plant a few times. He forgot. Beyond that, he closed the curtains because I wasn't home, and turned the heat down to 50. After a month of being cold, dark, and dry, I gave the plant a good watering and opened the shades and soon thereafter it bloomed. The flowers lasted a while too.
Anyway, cool plant, hard to kill.

Sanseveria aka "Mother-in-Law's Tongue" will live for months with no sun and no water. They are as close to a plastic plant as a living plant can be.



Is it safe for cats to chew on? I can't keep any plants because Sabrina will nibble on them. :no: I have no idea which plants are safe for cats and which aren't.

Is it safe for cats to chew on? I can't keep any plants because Sabrina will nibble on them. :no: I have no idea which plants are safe for cats and which aren't.


It's considered to have low toxicity risk.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Sansetr.htm

Try growing catnip, hard to kill, it is in the mint family so all it really needs is water.
Go to a store and pick up one of those small metal decorative bird cages, you put a pot in it and plant the catnip, the cage is decrative and protects the plant from the cat.
it blooms pretty purple flowers and best of all most cats love it asa treat plus it makes a great tea for upset tummys for people

I have a prayer plant. By brother-in-law tried to kill it when I moved last because it looks kinda like a weed. It was totally dead when I received it back, but I watered it and it recoved and it blooms with a white blossom. It's also known as a clover. The one I have is a three leaf variety. They are very hardy and recover easily.... Good Luck - Plants like me though.

I grow catnip for my sister because she has the black thumb of death. After I start it growing, I hang it from one of her light fixtures so the cats don't get to it.

Cats love to eat plants. Bamboo is usually destroyed. So if you have cats, put the plants in a place the cats cannot get to. And if the plant is toxic to cats, don't get it. Cats usually love to eat wheatgrass and it's so easy to grow. I do it all the time for my sister's cats. And yet they still look at me like I'm the devil.
~Wonder :devil:

bamboo?

There's also Chinese evergreen and Spathiphyllum (aka peace lily aka closet plant). Both of these can tolerate pretty low light conditions and are very easy to care for.

Pothos is good too, but it needs more light. I had to move mine outside.

I agree with Sanseveria (aka mother-in-law's tongue aka snake plant), but I should point out I somehow managed to kill one of these and I'm normally pretty decent with plants-- I suspect I tried to care for it too much. Like Pothos, it does better with more light than a lot of apartments can provide.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia or "the ZZ plant" is a big palm-sort of looking thing - and you CANNOT kill the thing!

I got one and hardly ever remember to water it - and sometimes the blinds to the room it's in stay closed for a week or more - it doesn't care... no sun, no water and it still does well.... how can you lose?

Wow, after reading all of these intelligent botanical suggestions, I'm afraid I'm about to get pelted with fertilizer for what I'm about to say...

How about a weed?

Check out my little baby. This is "Helicopter" and she's 4 weeks old:
http://www.geocities.com/everwestward/DSC04760helicopter400x600.gif

I found her growing in an old pot. Just a stub with two leaves (hence the name Helicopter). I was about to rinse the pot out, but then I remembered the Emerson quote: "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."

So I decided what the hey. I haven't had a houseplant in over 8 years (ever since I decided it was cruel of me to keep killing them accidentally). But I'll be happy to take care of any visiting plants who come my way.

I'm dead serious; why don't you go fetch a dandelion from the sidewalk that would otherwise be killed. That might be a fun place to start. :yes:

A weed is just a plant that is out of place.


I grow dandylions , I think most people think of themas weeds I say they are yummy.