Plants at work when you work very indoors

June 14, 2019 6:28 AM

Are there any plants that could survive in an office space that has no direct sunlight? Are there types of lights can can be purchased or other tricks that will provide needed energy for no sunlight plants?

I have had the good recent fortune to be relocated within my organization to a much larger, closer to home office. The only real downside is that the office is internal on our floor, and gets no real sunlight. I had a quite a few lovely plants in my old cramped, but sunny, office, and would like to have more plants.

Are there any plants out there that could handle no or almost no direct sunlight and survive? Can you tell me which ones they are? From a cursory google search I see claims this is possible, but I haven't found anyone with lived experience. Have you done it, and if so how, or am I way off?

Also, I could physically move plants back and forth (like maybe 1-2) to shared space that does receive direct sunlight.

posted by RajahKing to Home & Garden (21 answers total)

The classic office plants, pothos and spathe (peace lily) are classics because they do well in low light. Ficus and dracaena also do well. Pothos leaves will be variegated in low light, but this is normal.
posted by jgirl at 6:38 AM on June 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

I know it's not what you asked but you can get led lamps that provide light for indoor plants very reasonably that look like desk lights so would be office appropriate. I have an old swing arm desk lamp that I put a grow bulb in to that my African violets love & they get no other light.
posted by wwax at 6:40 AM on June 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Snake plants can do this! I see them all the time in hotels and other indoor buildings getting zero natural light. We have one and while it does get light, we've noticed it seems to thrive on neglect in terms of water.
posted by DTMFA at 6:41 AM on June 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

I have several air plants, which come in all different sizes and colors and shapes. All they need is to be wetted down whenever I think about it, which is not often. I have one in a giant skull planter and one that sits in the back of a Bulbasaur planter -- they are super fun to decorate with!
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:46 AM on June 14, 2019

I have an air plant that is thriving! They supposedly need only 5% refracted sunlight. I dunk mine in water for 1/2 hour a week, and once (in 2 years) added plant food to the bath.

I have a friend who killed 4 air plants in her sunny apartment because they got an hour of direct sunlight a day.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:05 AM on June 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

If you like cultural allusions, you could try an Aspidistra:

As a popular foliage houseplant, A. elatior became popular in late Victorian Britain, and was so commonplace that it became a "symbol of dull middle-class respectability".[6] As such, it was central to George Orwell's novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, as a symbol of the need of the middle class to maintain respectability—according to Gordon Comstock, the novel's protagonist. It was further immortalised in the 1938 song "The Biggest Aspidistra in the World", which as sung by Gracie Fields became a popular wartime classic.[14]

Aspidistras can withstand deep shade, neglect, dry soil, hot temperatures and polluted in-door air (from burning coal or natural gas) but are sensitive to bright sunlight.[15]

"Aspidistra" was the codename (inspired by the above song) of a very powerful British radio transmitter used for propaganda and deception purposes against Nazi Germany during World War II.[16]

In the British television series Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (in the episode “The Cardboard Box”), Mrs. Hudson (played by Rosalie Williams) is decorating the rooms in 221B Baker Street in preparation for Christmas holidays. As she picks up a potted plant, Holmes (played by Jeremy Brett) shouts at her, “Mrs. Hudson! How dare you take my aspidistra?” To which, she replies severely “I do dare” and carries the plant away.[17]

posted by jamjam at 7:20 AM on June 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

In 10+ years trying to grow plants in the office, my experience is that out of all the standard office low-light plants, the only thing that'll survive indefinitely with no direct light at all is spider plants. With strong fluorescent lights, the non-variegated versions will survive but not thrive -- which is maybe a good thing, because a happy spider plant gets really big, really fast, and you end up foisting pups on anybody who will take them. Pothos will take a long time to die without direct light, but eventually, it'll give up the ghost. (It'll also get really long and stringy and sad looking before it does.) Some people swear by ZZ plants, but I haven't had much luck.

Lack of real sunlight will also make plants vulnerable to a variety of pests -- I work in an office 30+ floors up, where none of the windows open, and we still get periodic infestations of thrips and whiteflies that'll destroy a weakened plant.

Never tried air plants, because I want dirt, and I don't want to carry my plants to the office sink once a week past all the people who will want to chat about them.

I see them all the time in hotels and other indoor buildings getting zero natural light.

A lot of commercial spaces have plant services that come by and swap the plants when they start getting sad about lack of light/water. They get treated basically like long-lived cut flowers.

tl;dr: I'm considering biting the bullet and just getting a desktop plant light.
posted by joyceanmachine at 7:28 AM on June 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

When I worked in an office, we had aglaonemas, variety Silver Queen, near the reception desk, which has zero sunlight, only indoor lighting. They did very well.

You might be able to get away with begonias or impatiens, if you want flowering plants.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:39 AM on June 14, 2019

I was always very anti-fake plants, but I inherited a big fake one when my next door coworker moved offices and it brings me as much joy as the real plants I have at home. It’s not even a particularly good fake!
posted by sallybrown at 7:48 AM on June 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Moving plants might be a solution. I worked in an office that had a plant service. They came about once a week and when plants started to languish they switched them for fresh plants. I don't know that they nursed them back to health but it would be worth trying.
posted by Botanizer at 7:59 AM on June 14, 2019

Thanks to LEDs, there's tons of tiny grow lights out there, including USB-powered ones. Do NOT get the red-blue ones, they put off a light so profoundly annoying it's rage-inducing.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:09 AM on June 14, 2019

I have a philodendron 'brasil' and a dracanea 'Lemon Lime' at work in a windowless office, although the florescent lights are on 24-7 so that may help. They've been there for 3 or so years now and show no signs of fading. The philodendron grows well although the leaves are somewhat smaller than when I got it, vines nicely. The dracanea looks amazing, maybe it would grow faster with more light but it couldn't look fuller or happier.
posted by lemonade at 9:15 AM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a philodendron that grew happily in my last office, which had no windows at all. Since I brought it home and put it in a window, it has been dying a long slow death. I think it's a vampire plant.
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:21 AM on June 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

I had a philodendron that was dying at home- I think my preschooler was sneaking extra water to it- and once I took it to my windowless classroom it came back to life. It just spent a school year under fluorescent lights with minimal and only occasional watering and it looks fantastic.
posted by Rapunzel1111 at 10:07 AM on June 14, 2019

I had a small pothos on my desk in a windowless office for about 4 years. Aside from having no natural light, the plant would be in total darkness every weekend and holiday. It was a nice little plant on my desk, just had to give it a little water like once a week. I brought it home after leaving that job, and I don't see that it's doing any better or worse than it did in the office.

As long as it has good drainage and you don't overwater it, a pothos should do well in that environment. Once or twice a year it grows a few new leaves, and a couple other times a year it loses a couple leaves. I did give it a new pot and soil after bringing it home from the florist, which maybe helped?

My office pothos haven't gotten leggy, but I've seen other people's that did. I've had that first one for about 10 years now.
posted by bananana at 10:23 AM on June 14, 2019

I have an English ivy plant that does really well in my totally-artificial lighted environment. I had a peace lily that did GREAT in a basement office with no windows at all, then died when I brought it home from that job and tried to make it live in a house with windows.

I have killed so many pothos I don't even try anymore.
posted by assenav at 10:47 AM on June 14, 2019

I have the desk lamp that wwax linked to in my windowless office, and its great. Its connected to an outlet timer so I don't have to remember to turn it on/off, and it's white light so my office isn't purple all day. I have a pothos, african violet and a spider plant that get 12 hours per day under the lamp and they are all doing well, the african violet is about to flower so it must be happy.

The only down side is you can't fit a ton of plants under the lamp. This is probably a good thing for me otherwise my office would become a jungle.
posted by Shal at 11:07 AM on June 14, 2019

I have had a pothos in my windowless office for several years now. I water it weekly and give it some Miracle Gro from time to time. It looks pretty great imo. It gets no light during the weekend.
posted by purple_bird at 11:29 AM on June 14, 2019

I recently got a ZZ plant (short for Zamioculcas zamiifolia) and it's wonderfully tolerant of all sorts of neglect, including low light. It only needs to be watered about once per month. It's really shiny and glossy-leaved and keeps sprouting new growth in the low-light location where it now lives. Just be warned that it's toxic, in case you ever take it home to a house where there are pets or toddlers.
posted by missmobtown at 12:20 PM on June 14, 2019

they do make plant grow lights that look like regular lightbulbs that you can fit into most desk lamps. I have one that's on a timer on my desk at work and it keeps my pothos very happy even though people in my office always keep the damn blinds closed.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:31 PM on June 14, 2019

I've grown a lot of plants indoors with no direct sun to some degree of success or another, though your options will expand considerably if you can supplement with artificial light. All of them would also benefit from occasional weeks in brighter light, though moving from a dark office to direct sun and back again can cause sunburn and weak, thin growth, so make it bright indirect light rather than actual sun.

Best fits:
• Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant, airplane plant, mala madre), for reasons everybody else covered already.
• Chlorophytum 'Fire Flash' (fire flash, mandarin plant, green orange)
• Clivia cvv., though blooming is very unlikely unless you can also give it cooler temperatures during the winter.
• Ctenanthe burle-marxii
• Dracaena deremensis cvv., D. fragrans (corn plant), though they're prone to burnt leaf tips and margins if in the path of a heat / air conditioning vent, or if minerals build up in the soil. If you're not going to be able to flush out the soil with a lot of water from time to time, to redissolve some of the minerals, skip this one.
• Epipremnum aureum (pothos), like everybody said already.
• Pandanus veitchii (screw pine), though it's not ideal in an office setting because they can get VERY big if you keep up-potting them when you're supposed to, and the leaf margins have spines that can catch on clothing.
• Philodendron hederaceum (heart-leaf philodendron), which is similar to pothos but gets along better with me personally.
• Plectranthus verticillatus (Swedish ivy), though it's not ideal for an office setting because the colorless sap will temporarily stain skin orange; I've yet to check to see whether it will do the same for clothing.
• Polypodium aureum (hare's-foot fern, blue hare's-foot fern), though happy ones will produce yellow-orange spores, and the plants themselves can become enormous, so it might not be ideal for an office.
• Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily), though people sometimes find them tricky to water, and some varieties shed white pollen.

Small plants that are good fits with added artificial light:
• Episcia cvv. (flame violet), though humidity might be a problem long-term, and it trails, so it's not ideal to sit directly on your desk.
• Saintpaulia cvv. (African violet), though some people can get the hang of watering them and some people can't: I'm one of the ones who can't.
• Schlumbergera cvv. (holiday cactus), though there may not be many blooms. Newer hybrids are much better about setting buds without long, cool nights than the older varieties, though, so you'd still probably get some.

Would survive, but the long-term appearance (>2 years) won't be what you'd hope for:
• Aglaonema cvv. (Chinese evergreen) are very tolerant of low light and are easy to grow, but naturally lose leaves from the base, so after a couple years they tend to be kind of leggy, which may or may not be a problem for you.
• Ardisia crenata (coral berry) or A. elliptica (shoebutton tree) get a lot less compact with age, but are attractive as juvenile plants.
• Chamaedorea metallica (metallica palm) is unusual, and more tolerant of poor conditions than parlor palms (C. elegans), in my experience, though they don't offset or anything, so in time you end up with a very long stem that has a little tuft of leaves at the top.
• Dracaena sanderiana (lucky bamboo, ribbon plant)
• Monstera deliciosa (swiss cheese plant, split-leaf philodendron) won't grow huge, heavily-split leaves in low light, but should still grow -- it'll just look like a big heart-leaf philodendron. Leaves will be larger and more split if you give the plant something to climb on, which may or may not be practical in an office.
• Syngonium podophyllum and S. wendlandii (arrowhead vine) get a lot less compact with age, but are attractive as juvenile plants.
• Zamioculcas zamiifolia (ZZ plant, eternity plant, aroid palm) will grow stronger and faster in good light; new growth in low light will be very weak, stretched-out, and floppy. Should look a lot better if you can supplement the light by giving the plant its own lamp, or give it a vacation week in a bright spot every month or two.

I don't necessarily recommend, but you might get lucky with:
• Ficus benjamina (weeping fig) and Ficus maclellandii (long-leaf fig) -- they react to drops in light level by defoliating, especially benjamina, so if you buy one, expect it to drop half its leaves after you bring it to the office. Maclellandii is better about this, but will still defoliate some. Both can get very large. Some people are sensitive/allergic to the sap.
• Fittonia albivenis cvv. (nerve plant) is fine with the light from a small desk lamp; its main problem is that it's a one-strike-and-you're-out plant when it comes to watering, and it likes more humidity than most offices have.
• Nematanthus cvv. (guppy plant), with a lamp. It's a trailing plant, so maybe not ideal to sit on your actual desk.
• Rhapis excelsa (lady palm)
• Stromanthe sanguinea cvv.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 8:34 AM on June 15, 2019 [3 favorites]