I was given a small planter with some common house plants in it. I’m still working on identifying them, but I’m not used to keeping plants inside. Since they came together, will they grow well together or will I need to split them up due to different preferences on space, light, and water?
by uhhmmmmmmmmmmm
17 Comments
Yes, they individually need more space than this small pot
They all like similar conditions, but it will be easier to repot them now than trying to separate them later when they’ve outgrown that container (which probably has no drainage anyway).
To be honest, if you want a lower hassle approach, you can just let this dry a tiny bit, work it out of the pot it’s in, and just dump the group into a bigger pot with some fresh soil.
The trick with this arrangement will just be sunlight. A well lit spot and a good watering routine will maintain this cluster fine enough.
The houseplant smörgåsbord
1 -unvarigated pothos?
2- maranta
3- diffenbachia
4- schefflera
5- dracaena
Yes separate them. They are at least less at odds than some of these arrangements but will all do much better separated
All of these have different moisture needs in terms of how long they like their soil to be moist or if they like it to dry out between watering, etc. You can get away with it for a bit, but they won’t last long and certainly won’t thrive.
For example, money trees like to dry out between waterings, maranta like to stay a bit moist. It’s fine to put different plants together in certain circumstances, but it requires a lot of forethought and unfortunately, most places don’t have time for that. They do what looks pretty, is convenient/cost efficient and sells, they don’t care if they plants die in a month or two.
I’d repot all separately not just because of the tiny pot they’re in but because depending on your waters ph that diffenbachia won’t be happy with hard water, (at least none of mine were) but the parasol plant is cool with hard water (mine is) and pothos has chokey roots in the wild and can choke out native plants in its habitat so I’m not sure how great it would be at cohabiting with these other species especially the prayer plant(maranta)
Obviously everyone has different luck but it’s worth considering a books standards even if my(or anyone’s) personal experience varies at times as things like regions (light and altitude) and city water vs well water ect can matter
Edit :turned up phones brightness and realized that’s a philodendron not a pothos and would probably benefit from the pot of its own too either way
I think it’s a dwarf umbrella tree, dracaena, diffenbachia, pothos, and prayer plant (going counter clockwise). And you’re gonna want to split them up bc some of them are unnecessarily dramatic little buggers with regard to water.
Least confident on that first one that could also be a money tree…. Don’t really like that style of plant so I’ve never owned one and having even the vaguest idea is purely incidental
Je dirais que oui. Pour les aider à bien grandir et parce qu’elles peuvent avoir différents en eau/exposition au soleil.
Et si une attrape des parasites, c’est plus facile à traiter.
If you don’t want to care for 6 or so small plants, you can keep them together and treat this as a flower arrangement.
You can always put it next to a window and water it when it starts to feel dry and see what happens. If it does die oh well. We use, eat and destroy plants for all sorts of purposes, short term enjoyment included.
I have a similar one from a few years ago. I repotted the prayer plant and the cane. But kept everything else and it’s doing okay.
They could probably stay together but I personally would separate them.
Deffo – the pot is a tad small and all of them have slightly different soil moisture needs
Definitely separate them and repot them. The big concern besides needing different light or watering requirements is growth rate.
Different types of plants grow at different rates. Your faster growing plants with more aggressive root systems will take over all of the space in the pot, leaving no room for the other root systems to grow. It will eventually snuff out some, if not all, of the other plants.
It’s not a terrible group of plants to keep together as they prefer similar watering conditions. I’ve definitely seen worse- like a pothos mixed in with a zz..but personally I’d separate them.
I got one of those in 2000. Each one of the 6 plants is still growing and thriving. Separate, bottom-watering pots that I top dress or repot as they’ve grown.
houseplant thunderdome