Snake plant, ZZ plant, pothos and Chinese evergreen handle a dark room better than anything else on the shelf at the garden center. All four turn up on extension lists for the lowest light band, and all four take a dry spell better than a wet one. Start with those bedroom low light plants and you skip the slow decline that kills off most first houseplants. Parlor palm belongs on the short list too, next to the cast iron plant. Both grow at a crawl, which is no bad thing in a room you sleep in.
One pothos leaf spent a whole winter pressed flat against my north-facing bedroom window, three floors up over a parking lot. By February I found that edge gone papery and tan while the rest of the vine stayed green. Cold runs straight through a pane, and in July the same glass pushes heat back the other way. Any leaf resting on it takes the hit.
Judge the spot before you buy. If the window faces north, or the room runs on lamplight once the sun drops, Maryland Extension puts that at 25 to 100 footcandles. ZZ plant, snake plant, cast iron plant and peace lily are the ones built for that band. A bedroom with a big east window is not low light at all, so you have far wider choice there than you do picking north facing bedroom plants for a shaded wall.
Snake Plant
- Light: Rated for the lowest band, so it holds up on a wall the sun never reaches.
- Water: Let the mix go dry through. Sitting wet does more harm than a dry spell.
- Habit: Stiff upright blades take floor space but almost no width.
ZZ Plant
- Light: Sits in the same 25 to 100 footcandle group as the snake plant.
- Water: Slow growth means slow drinking, so check the mix and not the calendar.
- Habit: Glossy dark green leaflets that handle a week away from home.
Pothos
- Light: Named for spots that get no sunlight at all.
- Form: Trails off a shelf or climbs a pole, whichever suits the wall.
- Pick: Take the plain green form over the golden one for a dark corner.
Chinese Evergreen
- Light: Rated low light, in the same group as parlor palm and peace lily.
- Look: Broad patterned leaves bring more color than the other four.
- Care: Keep it off cold glass in winter and it asks for little else.
Cast Iron Plant
- Light: Turns up on the low light band and on the no-sunlight lists both.
- Pace: Slow enough that it stays close to the size you bought for a long while.
- Use: Send it to the dimmest corner the room's own light still reaches.
These plants are decor. They do not clean the air in your bedroom, whatever the tag on the pot says. Matching the air exchange the room already gets through the door, the vents and the gaps around them would take 10 to 1,000 plants per 11 sq ft (1 sq m) of floor. Buy one because you like waking up to it, and let the open window do the air.
For the dimmest wall in the room, take the plain green form over the variegated one. Darker green leaves carry more chlorophyll and suit weak light better than the pale streaks on a fancy cultivar. Water on the state of the mix, never on a fixed day of the week. A dark room dries a pot far slower than a sunny one, so the weekly pour that suits a kitchen window will drown roots in here.
If you add a grow lamp, cap the total at 16 hours of light a day. Plants need a dark period, same as you do.
Set each pot so no leaf touches the pane, then leave it be. Check the mix with a finger instead of the calendar, and hold any lamp under that 16 hour cap. Plants for dim bedrooms die from fussing far more often than from neglect, and the five above will sit there looking sharp for years.
Read the full article: 10 Low Light Houseplants for Dark Rooms
