Pothos
I have always been fascinated with plants and flowers. Perhaps, that’s what attracted me to biology classes and eventually made me a successful student on a national level science competitions in high school. I love how plants can regrow after losing parts of their bodies, or even begin a new life from a leaf or a part of the leaf (like in african violets). But even with my love and depth of knowledge I killed a lot of plants. Like a ton. I often joke that I accept a 25% mortality rate per year for plants in my house and garden but that of course would be unacceptable in my day job as a doctor!
I used to take plant death as personal failures but I later understood that sometimes plants are already purchased with dormant illness that I could not possibly diagnose or my house humidity, temperature and amount of light may not be that much in my control and may not be to their liking. After a couple of attempts of growing one species I accept that they don’t like me and move on to try a different one. Except for Gardenia: I told my husband I will keep buying it until it lives. Plant number three is still alive and blooming. Yey! But that one was an obsession. That’s not what I do anymore.
So what I do now is instead of trying to worship the picky plants and impress the Garden Fairies Facebook Group members with pictures, I just care for the hard to kill no failure plants that impress only me with their resilience to neglect when I travel or go into intense hospitalist work stints, or locum to rural communities for weeks. I don’t brag about them, but I gained very reliable leafy roommates who don’t demand anything from me, and give more than they take – their soothing beauty and stillness, with occasional newborn leaves.
I know how too many options sometimes makes it even more paralysing to make a choice. So here is my absolute favourite list of three plants tested over decades by me on two continents. These babies won’t disappoint. They have survived neglect, lack of sun, relocations and continue to persist. You cannot go wrong with any of them.
- Pothos
This is an amazing plant that will grow well in a semi dark room even. If you have variegated leaves or Golden Pothos it will be slower, but still a nice robust plant. It performs even better if regularly watered and occasionally fertilised but this one I only fertilised once in two years. I never had it bloom but maybe with better care it could?
- Monstera Deliciosa – Swiss Cheese Plant or Split Leaf Philodendron
I have seen many of these in big pots in schools and various institutions back home because they can be just growing without bothering anyone. When I visited Portugal and saw them in a park in Lisbon I was impressed how massive they get when in warm climates. I also saw a lot of them in tropical Costa Rica and even tried their fruits – something I never saw produced in domestic plants. But I think they still look pretty decent for a Canadian home too. This plant was bought on sale in February and it got frostbite on all leaves a few days after moving in. They all turned brown and dried out. I thought the plant was sick and would soon pass away. I prepared to palliate my new baby Monstera but to my surprise she grew new leaves that looked perfectly normal. I am glad I put up with the poor appearance for about a month because now this baby is doing well in a pretty dark bedroom but gets all the love from me.
Giant Monstera in Lisbon park, Portugal. August 2023
- Tradescantia (zebrina) – Silver Inch Plant
Can you believe that this beautiful plant grew out of a 10 cm piece I found in a parking lot three months ago? Someone must have bought one of those hanging baskets for the summer and because the stems are so juicy, they are a bit brittle. I rescued that little piece and put it in water. In a few days it had a lot of roots and I planted it into an old pot and out on my patio to resemble the hanging basket.
Now another piece fell off and again the cycle repeated because it grew lots of roots just in a week of standing in the water near my kitchen sink window. So now I have two Tradescantia plants. They also grow in the wild in South and Central America, and are considered invasive in South Africa.
I used to value variety in my home garden, but now I learned to appreciate lucious growth of a few types of plants and just multiply them all over the house. That creates nice patterns and actually looks pretty nice.
What houseplants do you grow? Would love to learn what are your favourite indestructible green friends.
