Gardening is for everyone, and if your living situation doesn’t allow for an outside space and you’re caring for your indoor plants, well then congratulations—you have an indoor garden! Indoor gardeners are some of the most creative and innovative folks in gardening. They make great use of smaller spaces and limited sun while taking full advantage of the controlled conditions and year-round growing options that indoor spaces offer. And for many indoor gardeners and plant lovers, the journey begins with a spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). Like snake plants, spider plants are easy to grow, adaptable to a variety of conditions, and provide some fun visual features in any indoor space. Let’s dig in and learn a bit about the growing and caring for spider plants and how they can fit into your indoor spaces!
Basic Information About Spider Plants
Chlorophytum comosum is an interesting plant. A native of central and southern Africa—where it goes by many names—spider plant grows up to 24 inches/60cm tall, with heavy tuberous roots for a plant of its size. Chlorophytum comosum also produces long draping inflorescences that in turn produce small white flowers which add further visual interest when the plant is used as an accent piece in an indoor setting. These inflorescences also grow into plantlets—small clones of the original plant that may put down advantageous roots if they come into contact with soil. This neat feature makes spider plants not only stunning to look at but also easy to propagate. Thus they become fun plants to share and like snake plant a great way to practice your propagation skills!
Spider Plants and Air Quality
Spider plants are often grown indoors due to their peculiar ability to improve air quality by filtering out common household pollutants like formaldehyde and xylene. While it’s true that spider plants can improve indoor air quality and that many household plants help improve air quality by introducing more oxygen into your space, the reality is that larger spaces with force-air HVAC systems cycle air so quickly as to nullify any effect that the plant is having. So for small rooms or apartments, spider plants may help keep your air fresher. For an office space, let’s grow spider plants for their beauty and for the joy of having plants around!
Tips and Tricks for Caring for Spider Plants
Spider plants are easy to grow and almost as easy to propagate, but there are a few things to know about caring for spider plants in order to get the most out of them and fully enjoy the beauty they offer. Unlike many container plants, spider plants benefit from root-bound conditions and only need to be re-potted every few years if they start to overcrowd and threaten to break the container! They don’t have any particularly complex soil or feeding requirements—any good container mix will do in growing healthy and happy spider plants. Feeding spider plants is likewise easy—newly potted plants probably don’t need to be fed for the first few months of growth, and after that established plants should only need a general purpose container plant fertilizer every three months or so.
Spider plants can adapt to a variety of light, temperature, and humidity conditions, which is a real boon for indoor gardeners. They do best in indirect to moderate light with a once a week watering schedule; make sure to allow the soil to dry out a bit in between waterings. Average humidity and room temperature conditions suffice to keep these plants happy, but be sure to protect them from sudden drops in temperature.
Spider plants only have one real issue, which occurs when they’re watered with tap water. These plants are especially sensitive to fluoridated water or water heavy with other additives like chlorine. If your water has these properties, never fear—just leave the water out overnight before watering and let the additives evaporate into the air. They’re harmless to you and the resulting water will help keep your plant healthy. A sure sign that your spider plant is struggling with additives in water is browning tips on its long leaves. If you see those, either let your water breath overnight or use distilled/filtered water and see if the problem doesn’t clear up.
Spider Plants: A Great Addition to an Indoor Garden!
Spider plants are just fun—they’re great plants for an office or classroom and a wonderful way for younger gardeners, students, or first-timers to get started in plant care. As an addition to any indoor space or indoor garden, spider plants add beauty, depth, and layer either alone or in conjunction with other indoor plants. They do especially well in hanging baskets, allowing indoor gardeners to take advantage of ceiling space as well. We hope this encourages you to give spider plants a look and consider them as an addition to your garden space!
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