What Plants Are Suitable for the Office? Practical Plant Care Tips to Share
The office is a different kind of space from the home. What flowers and greenery are suitable for growing in such a place? How do they differ from the plants kept at home? Next, we invite someone with a great deal of plant-growing experience to explain it to everyone.
He is the owner of a gardening and nursery business near the author's home, with ten to twenty years of experience growing flowers and planting trees, so he can truly be called an experienced gardener. He says there are quite a few plant varieties best suited to the office, usually evergreen plants that give a feeling of vitality and can also purify the air.
1. Spider Plant
Spider plant, also called trailing stem grass, diao lan, orchid grass, hanging orchid and so on, and in the West also known as airplane plant and spider plant. The spider plant is a perennial evergreen herbaceous plant of the genus Chlorophytum in the family Asparagaceae. It has horizontal or slanting rhizomes, with plump roots. The leaves of the spider plant grow in clusters and are linear in shape, somewhat like orchid leaves, which is how it got the name orchid grass. Its leaves usually have green or yellow stripes, and flower stalks emerge from the leaf clusters. The flowers are white, occasionally with purple petals, and the capsule is flattened-spherical and three-angled. The whole plant can be used as medicine. It is a green plant with a powerful air-purifying effect, and it has a very obvious purifying effect on the foul exhaust fumes produced together with cigarette smoke in crowded office areas. The spider plant is suitable for growing in soil made from fertile sandy loam, humus soil, peat soil and fine sand soil plus a small amount of base fertilizer. It is highly adaptable and not choosy about soil. The spider plant likes semi-shaded conditions and cannot tolerate direct sunlight, so in winter it needs a bit more sunlight. The spider plant is a moisture-loving plant, and the potting soil should be kept moist at all times, especially in summer when sufficient watering is needed; the spider plant is a foliage plant that is fairly tolerant of fertilizer, and during the peak growing season, from late spring to early autumn, applying an organic liquid fertilizer about once every 7-10 days is enough to meet its growth requirements.
2. Pothos
Pothos is a large evergreen climbing plant of the genus Epipremnum in the family Araceae, also known as devil's ivy, golden pothos, golden vine, mulberry leaf and so on. It has a strong climbing habit and quite well-developed aerial roots that can attach to any object it can climb, making it a plant variety that is extremely easy to grow. The mature branches of pothos have thick leaf stalks, slightly enlarged at the base, with the upper joints reaching 2.5-3 cm, slightly fleshy, with a wide groove on the ventral side, long leaf sheaths, and thin, leathery leaves that are emerald green, with mostly irregular yellow patches on the leaf surface. The leaf margins are entire, and the shape is an equal ovate or ovate-oblong form, with a short, gradually pointed tip and a deep heart-shaped base, slightly short, with both sides slightly raised. Pothos is a shade-loving plant variety and cannot take strong light. It likes hot and humid conditions and is suitable for planting in soil rich in humus, loose and fertile, and slightly acidic. Pothos is not cold-tolerant, and the indoor temperature in winter must not fall below 15 degrees. During the growing season it needs sufficient watering, while in autumn and winter water should be controlled. As for fertilizing, applying an inorganic liquid fertilizer once every 15 days before winter is enough.
3. Lucky Bamboo
Lucky bamboo is a perennial evergreen small tree of the genus Dracaena in the family Agavaceae. Its plant is slender and grows upright, with branches on the upper part. Its rhizomes spread horizontally and are nodular, and the stems are thick. The bamboo leaves are alternate or nearly opposite, lanceolate in shape, with an obvious main vein. The color of lucky bamboo is deep green. Its umbel inflorescence has 3-10 flowers, the flowers are bell-shaped and purple. The berry is black and nearly spherical. Because in China there is a saying that bamboo brings peace, it is also called the fortune bamboo. Lucky bamboo likes shade and moisture and tolerates high temperatures, is tolerant of waterlogging and strong fertilizer, and also has a very strong cold resistance. It is suitable for planting in well-drained sandy loam or semi-silty soil. The suitable growing temperature for lucky bamboo is between 18-24°C, and below 13 degrees it will enter a dormant period. The overwintering temperature must not be lower than 10 degrees. Lucky bamboo is suitable for growing in areas covered by scattered light; too strong light will cause the leaves to fade and affect its growth rate.
4. Peperomia
Peperomia is a perennial evergreen herbaceous plant of the genus Peperomia in the family Piperaceae, about 10-30 cm tall, with fleshy stems, a creeping base, many branches, and the lower several nodes often bearing adventitious aerial roots, with thick longitudinal ridges between the nodes. The leaves of peperomia are dense, in whorls of 3-4, and almost equal in size. The leaf stalks are short, about 1-2 mm, hairless above or with short soft hairs, and the leaf blades are elliptical or nearly round, bluntly rounded at both ends. The leaf blades are hairless, or the young leaves are covered with sparse soft hairs. There are 3 veins, thin and inconspicuous, and the leaf blades are fleshy with transparent glandular dots that turn pale yellow when dry and appear wrinkled. Its spike inflorescence is solitary, growing at the top of the leaf or in the axil at the base of the leaf. The flowers are small and bisexual, without a perianth, growing together with the bracts in the depression of the inflorescence axis. It likes a warm, humid, semi-shaded environment, and the suitable temperature for growth is around 25 degrees. It is not tolerant of high temperatures or severe cold, and in summer it needs ventilation and shading, and cannot tolerate direct sunlight. In winter the minimum must not be lower than 10 degrees. Peperomia likes loose, fertile, well-drained sandy loam, and during the growing season from May to September it needs sufficient watering; in summer it also needs water sprayed on the leaves and into the surrounding air to maintain air humidity, and it needs fertilizing once a month.
In short, all four of these plants are evergreen foliage plant varieties, all have powerful air-purifying functions, and all are suitable for indoor growing without needing much sunlight, so for a public area like an office they are the best choice.
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