Many people find growing houseplants in a north-facing window challenging. Yet, they can help clean the air, add visual interest to a room, and help you concentrate better.
In almost all homes, the window facing the north lets in the least amount of light.
The great news is that many plants thrive in these windows. Choosing plants that you love and that require similar growing conditions helps you raise plants in your home’s north windows.
Philodendron
Two types of philodendrons can be grown as houseplants in north-facing windows. Climbing varieties do well in hanging baskets or growing up on a support while self-heading varieties are excellent container plants to sit in your windowsill. Flowers on this plant consist of a leaf-like hood called a spathe, covering a tube-like structure, called a spadix that is usually white and pink.
Cyclamen
Cyclamen are very picky about the temperature, and it wants it bout 68 degrees during the day and 50 degrees at night. This plant produces flowers with heart-shaped petals in the winter. After it blooms, it must go through a period of dormancy. Put your plant in a cool dark spot for a few months, and it will bloom again. It does not like its stems and flowers to get wet, so you need to water it from the bottom.
Cast Iron plant
A member of the lily family, the cast iron plant emerges from the ground with long, oval-shaped leaves that can grow up to 2-feet long with seemingly no stem. It produces a tiny brownish-purple flower close to the ground in the winter, but it is easy to miss the flowers among the leaves that can be up to 3-feet wide. This plant, however, grows very slowly, so do not expect a massive plant soon.
Sword Fern
This plant grows up to 48-inches tall and be 6-inches wide. The main stem can put on hundreds of green leaflets that are up to 2-inches long and have a slight saw shape. Ideally, they thrive when temperatures are 59 degrees at night and 70 degrees during the day. This plant reproduces by spores.
Prayer plant
The leaves on this unusual plant stay flat during the day and fold up at night. The most popular variety has splotched, yellow-or-dark green leaves with red or dark green veins. These plants that seldom grow more than 1-foot tall put on white flowers on stems throughout the year. The inconspicuous flowers tend to disappear under the foliage.
Snake Plant
Often called mother-in-law’s-tongue, this plant comes in many different types, with some being tall while others are short. You can find them with flat, round, or concave leaves variegated with silver, light green, yellow, white, or chartreuse. It is very rare for a snake plant to bloom, but when it does, several white lily-like flowers will appear on a single stem.
Peace Lily
This member of the Araceae family bears a white, hood-like sheath that appears in the spring, and that many people believe looks like a white surrender flag. This plant can grow to be up to 3-feet tall. Some peace lilies will bloom again in the fall. While white to begin with, the flower will turn light green in about 10 days and stay on the plant for about a month. If you take good care of your plant. This plant has large green leaves that may turn yellow if the plant gets too much sun.
Moth Orchid
There are over 50 species of moth orchids and hundreds of varieties. Large, oval-shaped leaves sit close to the bottom of the plant. The blooms that rise on long stalks well above the foliage can last for up to three months. These unique flowers have one upper and two lower sepals along with two side petals. They also have a gorgeous lip, column and stigmatic surface sitting in the lower center.
Gardenia
The glossy green leaves and fragrant white flowers of the gardenia are a great way to add beauty to a room. Plants grafted on a Gardenia thunbergia rootstock tend to be more vigorous. This plant puts on beautiful Gardenias set their blooms during the winter, and it is especially important not to let your plant dry out during this period, or the buds will drop. Flowers with 5-to-12 lobes appear from mid-spring to early summer.
Bromeliads
This plant’s unusual shape makes it a great conversation starter. They have long sword-shaped or scoop-like leaves that form a rosette with a center cup. The center cup is designed to catch water. Near the end of this plant’s life, it puts on a flower that varies in shape based on the variety chosen.
Fittonia (Nerve Plant)
This tropical plant loves a moist environment, and if you forget to water it for a few days, it will shrivel. Give it some water, and it will spring back to life. The pink-or-white veined leaves are why many gardeners love this plant that grows great in indirect light. This plant that seldom gets over 6-inches tall will occasionally put on red-or-yellow spikes that are insignificant.
Boston Fern
Boston Fern thrives in humid environments with indirect light. It can grow to be about 35-inches tall, and it is often used in hanging baskets. Each fond can grow to be up to 35-inches long and up to 6-inches wide. Multiple pinnae up to 2-inches long appear on each fond. Your Boston fern will not bloom, but it will develop brown spores on its underside.
Spider Plant
Spider plants often grow to be about 2-feet tall and have long, narrow leaves that can grow to be about 10-inches long. Branched inflorescences appear along a stem at widely spaced intervals, and they are usually white. There can be from one-to-six inflorescences on each stem. This plant bears three-petal flowers that are slightly hooded or boat-shaped at their tips. It also produces seed capsules that can be up to ½-inch long.
ZZ Plant
Growing up to 3-feet tall, this plant can grow great in indirect lighting in your north window. You are likely to love its glossy green leaves. This multi-stem plant produces spathe-type inflorescences at the base of the plant. This easy-to-care-for plant takes about five years to fully mature, and you should replant it every year.
Golden Pothos
This trailing vine looks excellent draped across a top shelf or in a hanging basket. If given the right support, it can grow up to 6-feet tall. Its yellow-and-green foliage is waxy and heart-shaped. Most leaves on this plant will grow to be between 6-and-10-inches long leaves can be over 30-inches long in ideal growing conditions.
