The best plants for dark low-light rooms are those that can survive in a spot that is 4- 5 meters away from a bright window. If the room is more than 5 meters from a window, you’re looking at “very low light”.
Best Plants for Dark Low Light Rooms
You can get by with fewer plants if you are working with very low light. There is a house I lived in that was built in 1980 and I only had one south-facing window that got full sun for an hour or so every day. And many of the plants I tried failed.
In this list, I have included plants that can grow in spots that have just enough light to read comfortably. However, artificially switching on a light during the daytime would give a brightening effect.
Aspidistral Plant for Dark Rooms
Gardeners describe the Aspidistra as a tough and adaptable house plant. It grows well in low-light conditions and requires little care.
The Aspidistra is a perennial plant that thrives quite well on average and at lower temperatures. It can tolerate shady spots and even thrive indoors with little light exposure.
The foliage on this plant includes large leaves which are glossy in nature. The greenish-bronze leaves of this plant can add a very rich touch to your home space.
Some gardeners have difficulty growing the Aspidistra, but it is not as difficult as people think.
It performs well with average soil and rarely requires fertilizer. In fact, too much fertilization can damage the health of this houseplant.
This plant is known to survive with little water as well. It also requires very little care and maintenance, so it doesn’t need much of your time or effort.
Aglaonema For Dark Rooms
Aglaonema is a common houseplant that needs indirect sunlight. It adapts to low light and drier air with ease while dying in high heat or direct sunlight very quickly.
You can grow this plant in a container indoors, but it’s best in spots where it won’t be too close to heating vents that dry out its leaves. Check this post on the Chinese Evergreen Complete Growing Guide.
The Chinese Evergreen is a small plant with dense, oval-shaped green leaves. It will reach about two feet high when you put the whole thing in a pot, but it can fill out to be bigger if the roots are left intact and given room to grow.
Chinese Evergreen is also known as Aglaonema or Silver Vase Plant because of its metallic silver-colored leaves.
It’s grown for its appearance and is rarely known for any other value. They require moderate water and fertilizer.
For instance, Aglaonema ‘Silver Queen’ is a beautiful plant with lance-like leaves that are green on the top and silver in color on the bottom.
Dracaena For Low Light Conditions
Dracaena are a combination of low-light plant types that offer the most color with the least lighting. a number of specific plants within those broad categories look good in the reduced light.
Dracaena deremensis ‘lancifolia’ (lanceleaf dracaena) is one of the most dramatic. It has each leaf tipped in red. Learn how to grow Dracaena here.
It is not only a good palm to use for lower-light areas but also can create an interesting contrast in lighter or more brightly-lit areas as well.
The long, oval leaves of dracaena deremensis are more tapered than the standard plant and have a reddish color on the ends, which adds greatly to its ornamental value.
Holly Ferns For Dark Rooms
Holly Ferns are never the primary focal point in most landscaping schemes, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re not worthy of some TLC.
Before the fronds unfurl their fiddlehead-like tufts of new growth, they make especially good additions to a hanging basket.
After all, they’re undemanding and handsome plantings that will last for more than a decade with relatively little attention.
Cyrtomium falcatum (more commonly known as holly fern or ebony spleenwort), comes from the British Isles, where it grows wild in woods, hedgerows, and even on rocky cliffs.
The 2-foot-wide plants are often grown as ground covers, but they can be equally useful in hanging baskets or terrariums.
Hanging planters add a touch of drama to any room, and the fiddleheads emerging from holly fern’s rich green fronds will grab attention when they unfurl after a week or so.
I have a Holly Fern in my bathroom window and it’s doing great. The only true problem is that these plants get VERY big. Mine is nearly five feet wide and I plan on moving it to another spot, where there is more space.
Parlor Palm for Light RoomsÂ
The Parlor Palm is one of the most popular, and easy to care for indoor palms.
Parlor palms are slender palms that plant their feet in the water but grow in soil. It provides excellent mass plantings or can be used as an individual specimen. Keeping them well-watered is easy since they are a forgiving plant.
With its mounding shape and glossy, rich green leaves Parlor Palm is one of the most popular interior plants available.
The slender, arching foliage provides a striking contrast to other plants that are more compact in their growth habit. This palm will not disappoint you if you can provide it with warmer temperatures (65 â 85 degrees ).
The Parlor Palm prefers water to be kept at the roots. Too much overhead watering will cause leaf tips to brown and may require fertilization (depending on growing conditions).
This palm makes a great addition to a floorscape or as an accent plant in your larger home or office landscape. It is highly tolerant of dry soils, and it will adapt to most indoor environments.
If possible, move the plants outdoors when temperatures are above 65 degrees and bring them back in when it get below 65 degrees.
If you are growing it in very low light, provide artificial lighting. You can use fluorescent grow lamps with cool white, red, or blue spectrums.
Snake Plant Sansevieria For Dark Rooms
The Snake plant or Mother-in-Law’s Tongue can be grown indoors with low light. Leave it in an area that receives 5 hours of sunlight and 9 inches of water a week and it will thrive for years!
Plant in a 5- or 6-inch pot that has drain holes so the excess water can escape. If you want to stimulate growth, fertilize during the summer months but it’s often not necessary.
The plant will need to be watered once a week when the air is dry and can tolerate dry-out periods of up to 6 weeks. Learn more on Sansevieria here.
Snake plants are some of the best plants for dark low-light rooms in both offices and homes. Even if you are a beginner plant parent you should try them.
Boston Fern
Boston Ferns can be planted in very low-light or dark rooms. They are able to adapt to the level of light available. However, moving them to a well-lit area for a few days promotes healthy growth.
In a dark room, your Boston ferns may never flower, but they will grow vigorously and keep their leaves for many years with just water misting once a week.
Boston Ferns are a good house plant for people who receive low light. Boston Ferns do especially well on windowsills and they are really easy to grow.
In North America, Boston ferns grow wild in the forests of Massachusets. In the wild Boston, ferns grow on tree trunks and branches high above the ground.
This is important because Boston ferns are not able to handle direct sunlight so they would burn up if they grew right under a window or any other source of direct sunlight.
Boston fern care is very simple. They need lots of moisture but not too much sunlight or they will burn up. The soil should always be moist, and it is best to mist the fern with a spray bottle.
Boston ferns grow tall and narrow fronds, these kinds of fronds are called pinnate leaves. Boston ferns can grow up to 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide.
Most Boston ferns in the United States are grown indoors and harvested from wild populations.
Boston fern propagation is a very easy process. Take a frond from a mature plant, strip the rhizome off of it, and plant it in a pot with moist soil.
A rhizome is the end of the stipe on your fern, and it looks like a root but don’t let that fool you it’s not a real root!
Peace Lily For Dark Rooms
Peace lilies are popular indoor houseplants. They are related to philodendrons and are also some of the best plants for dark low-light rooms.
The peace lily is native to the southeastern part of Asia. It is one best plants for dark low-light rooms. It has heart-shaped leaves that are about 10-12 inches and are swordlike in appearance.
It produces white flowers with greenish-reddish bracts or leaflike parts at the base that look like a flower.
The plant is one of the easiest indoor house plants to grow even for beginner gardeners. It doesn’t need any skill level or experience at all and can withstand neglect for quite some time.
This plant is also known by other names like spathiphyllum, white peace lily, and spathe flower/lily
Make sure that the leaves are not exposed to direct strong sunlight as they will become damaged.
In locations of very low light, you can add fluorescent lights above or around the plant for indirect lighting, this will help the plant grow well.
Best Plants for Low-light Rooms
Finding plants that will grow healthy even when kept in a room with low light and minimal sunlight can be daunting. Don’t go for succulents because they will become etiolated.
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