Prayer Plant Is Overrated—Why You Ought to Strive Rising Hen’s Nest Fern

Prayer vegetation are beloved for his or her colourful stripes and chic oval leaves. These members of the Maranta genus can tolerate lower-light situations that may be difficult for different houseplants. In reality, they’re usually thought of an alternative choice to their cousin, the finicky calathea, which is notoriously tough to maintain pleased.

However in terms of lovely vegetation that take pleasure in a steamy rest room surroundings and may tolerate decrease gentle, I’ve given up on prayer vegetation. As a substitute, I am right here to suggest a plant that is by no means failed me—that I can not seem to kill.

This is why my go-to lower-light houseplant suggestion is now the stately chook’s nest fern—plus different favourite lower-light vegetation.

Why Prayer Crops Are Overrated

I’ve tended a number of prayer vegetation over time, and for probably the most half, I used to be in a position to preserve them pleased in my steamy rest room. However one thing at all times occurred—going just a little too lengthy between waterings, by chance overwatering, an excessive amount of gentle, not sufficient humidity—to foil me.

I am nonetheless unsure what I did to kill the final one. It was thriving within the oblique gentle of my rest room skylight, having fun with common steam baths and a distinguished place subsequent to the sink that ensured I did not overlook to maintain its potting combine moist.

First, it developed brown patches on its leaves. I pruned them off and new, tightly curled leaves emerged, however most by no means unfurled. Lastly, after the plant sustained injury from an overfertilizing mishap, it was achieved for. I pruned away the broken leaves and flushed the soil with water a number of occasions, however it by no means recovered.

Sure, my prayer plant’s loss of life was my fault. A part of conserving houseplants is determining what works properly with your property’s local weather and situations—and the extent of care you are in a position to present.

For a plant that is alleged to be an “simpler” various to an excellent pickier plant, prayer vegetation simply aren’t price it to me anymore.

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Why I Love Hen’s Nest Fern

In my years caring for houseplants, I’ve additionally owned a few chook’s nest ferns—and guess what? I did not kill both of them, although they needed to face the identical challenges my prayer plant did. My present chook’s nest fern was in a position to survive—even thrive—within the situations my prayer plant merely could not hack.

It is pleased in my temperate, lower-light rest room or in the back of a brilliant, sunny room that roasts in the summertime and will get chilly in winter.

If I overlook to water my chook’s nest fern for a number of weeks—which has undoubtedly occurred—it will wilt dramatically, creating a grayish pall on its lime-green leaves. And guess what? After I give it an excellent soaking, it is again to its proud, perky self the subsequent day. Brown ideas? Simply trim them off in a V-shape and you may by no means know the distinction.

With a chook’s nest fern, you won’t get the beautiful pink stripes or nyctinasty—the prayer plant’s fascinating behavior of transferring its leaves up at night time and down within the daytime—however you get one thing I feel is extra worthwhile: A plant that is powerful, resilient, and forgiving of a gardener’s very human errors.

My Different Favourite Low-Gentle Crops

• Spider plant: These elegantly arcing, versatile vegetation are a traditional for a cause. Nevertheless, there are locations too dim even for them to thrive, like my tiny north-facing again porch window.
• ZZ plant: How might you not love a plant that grows higher when you do not water it? This slow-growing, glossy-leaved staple in business areas in every single place endures because of its tolerance of dim gentle and drought situations.
• Boston fern: I’ve two of those beauties hanging in my bed room, which receives gentle from a north-facing window on one aspect and faces an alleyway on the opposite. They’ve managed to thrive in these less-than-optimal situations. Should you overlook to water, they let you already know with a bathe of tiny leaves to brush up, so keep on prime of it.
• Staghorn fern: My different rest room MVP is a plaque-mounted staghorn fern that is tripled in measurement since I purchased it lower than a yr in the past. All I do is soak its sphagnum moss each couple of weeks and grasp it again up.
• Heartleaf philodendron: This widespread philo is a lot simpler to develop than its variegated cultivar cousins, including lush tropical vibes to low-light corners and north-facing home windows.