Low Light Indoors? No Problem!

The most important criteria in selecting a plant for indoors, to enhance our décor, is the amount of light that's ideal for the plant to grow in. This segment shows a wide variety of plants to choose from when decorating your home or office with low light levels.

Produced by the Department of Communications at Kansas State University. For more information, visit our website at: http://www.kansasgreenyards.org

Transcript:
Low Light Indoors? No Problem!

One of the most difficult situations indoors is to find the appropriate plant for low light situations. So, if you’re in an office with no windows - and just fluorescent lights in the ceiling for eight hours a day - they’ll do fine on the plants shown here.

Probably the highest quality, and the most attractive of this group of plants, are these Aglaonema’s. This is the classic one; it’s a Silver King. It’s dark green with a silver variation to the leaf. And, we have Pink Jade with pink tones in the main stem and veins of the leaves, and blotches of pink in the leaves.

We also have Silver Queen with even more variation, and the Pewter with silvery-pewter, greenish leaves, to an even darker, more burgundy tone leaves. So, we have a wide range of color spectrum in these Aglaonema’s, also known as Chinese Evergreens.

When we look at other plants that do well indoors, we might consider the ZZ plant. Again, it’s another low light plant that’s a little bit exotic.

We also have this Sansevieria plant, also known as Snake Plant or Mother-in-Law’s Tongue. It’s hard to kill. It has sharp, pointed leaves, and it grows upright. So, it’s a narrow plant without much spread.

The lowest light plant to put indoors is called Aspidistra, also known as Cast Iron Plant, or Bar Room Plant. This tends to survive all sorts of abuse. There are plants for any light level you have indoors. Just remember to intelligently choose it for the amount of light that you have, and the location that you want to put the plant.

This feature story prepared with Alan Stevens, retired Kansas State University Research and Extension State Leader, Horticulture. For more information, visit your local county extension office or visit our website at KansasGreenYards.org.