A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum I need a nice starter plant

Hello! I came across this forum while Googling "house plants." I've never grown a plant in my life and I'm looking for a starter plant of sorts. I've been looking over these forums for about the past 24 hours and I feel I am completely in over my head!

Seems everyone here is pretty helpful. I live in an apartment that has windows and a balcony that faces the south-west with large pine trees blocking out most of the sun. I'm in the Minneapolis, MN area and two days ago it was 70 and sunny and today we had snow.

I guess my question would be, what would be a low maintenance plant that I could grow in a pot to start my green thumbing?

Note: I had originally posted in the New Member forums and was directed to here.
Any help would be appreciated.

Ivy, peace plant, or difenbachia (I doubt that last one is spelled right, sorry)
and you'd probably have to mist the last two pretty often, due to a lack of humidity?

WELCOME!

I really like Dracaena Marginata, and Wandering Jew..... I find both really easy.

Also Philodendrons are good too! Super easy.

Glad to have you here.

Welcome, Yep wadering Jew would be great.

Guess I'll bring my response over here too, from the welcome thread!

A really easy plant to start off with is a philodendrum, or pothos. Both are vines - the pothos has a bit of variegation to it - color other than green - usually white or light yellow. Philodendrums are all green. It is a low light plant and is practically fool-proof so long as it is watered regularly.

If you post this question down in the houseplant forum you will probably get more answers there.

Good luck!
Lynne

chinese evergreen, zz plant, prayer plant, dracaena (there are a zillion varieties), and lots more. ask any gardener and you'll get a different answer or variations of the same answer.

Spider plant is a great hanging starter plant, and then you can have many more with the babies that grow from the mother.

Spider would be nice, mom had a few those that she grew of one of her grandmother's plants.

Thanks everyone!

I followed Lynne's lead--& brought my response here for you too.

Hello and Good Morning, Cheekigal. Welcome to the forum.

I agree with Lynne on both counts.

--I have had Philodendrums for 28 years now. other than re-pot occasionally & perhaps take cuttings to start new pots, and of course watering they have been pretty maintantance free.--In my first home they were at an east window--now they are at a west glass sliding door.---they seem not to care one way or another.

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Good Luck from me too: Carol
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My fairly new philodendron has two new leaves started, but they haven't opened after about 2 weeks just sitting there. What am I doing wrong? Does it need fertilizer?

Thanks for any input.

Joni

Snake plant is a nice, easy plant too!

It's hard to go wrong with a cactus or succulent. They just need a sunny spot, some water every two weeks or so, and a little liquid plant food every few months (do NOT give succulents cactus food!).

You can also try bamboo, which does well in a pot with gravel and a few inches of water. Just make sure they get some sun and a little bit of general plant food every now and then.

And yes, I'd recommend spider plants. Hard to kill one of them!

Pothos definitely gets my vote- in that filtered by pine boughs south west light it should do fine. Try placing the pot on a tray of pebbles that you keep wet to raise the humidity around the plant and it should thrive. Also, try top dressing the plant with a layer of peat moss for a little extra acid. (top dressing is simply adding a layer to the existing soil at the top.) This plant likes an acid soil. If not peat moss- then go peel a little bark off those pine trees and place it around the top of the soil and water from above- pine bark also adds an acidic "flavor" to the existing soil.
Plus it is an EXCELLENT plant for filtering the air. (google golden pothos and TCE to get an idea on how to make this versatile house plant work for you...)
Good luck, and have fun...
:)
HB

Hello, I started out with Pathos (Devil's Ivy). I never had any luck with plants until I bought one of these. I have over 13 of these plants. I have purchased a few and propagated the rest. I used to water them on a consistant basis and they struggled. Now, I water whenever I think about it... maybe twice a month. If I see a yellow leaf or them looking "sad" I pluck the yellow leaf... water and the next day they perk right back up.

Funny story, my 15 year old son has one in his room. I have gone in there too many times to count and thought there was no way I could get the plant to "come back" from MAJOR lack of watering. I give it a good soaking and wah lah... good as new the next day.

Pathos are the most hardy, easily cared for plant I have ever owned. I used to have one hanging in my dining room that grew so big that it wrapped around the entire room. NO exaggeration!! It grew suckers onto the wall and just kept growing. When I moved my bf was not very careful with it and many stems broke off... almost died but now it is thriving again.

They are extremely easy to start new ones from. Good luck... hope it helps.

Nancy

13+ Pathos
5+ Diffenbachia
2 Spider plants (not good with these)
1 crocus (whatever the name is)
1 large ficus tree
1 small ficus bush
1 umbrella plant
2 palms
2 Snake plants
1 large cactus (attempting to grow some from seed right now - just planted them a couple days ago)
I think thats the majority of them... LOL... oh ya avid outdoor gardener too