Would any of these plants work for a bedroom that gets no sunlight? Watering is of course no problem. It doesn't have to last for more than a year.

Bob. Please expand on the lighting situation. NOT having any sunlight is one thing but having NO light is quite another situation. Thanks for posting. I think you will love ATP.

Hi & welcome! If you are able to use a fluorescent light, like a shop light, you would have some options.

no sunlight. just artificial light. dont have fluorescent lights. i'm looking for a plant that will look decent for about a year. doesn't need to grow and flourish---just survive. thanks.

If you have only incandescent lights, and no windows whatsoever, then you'll have almost no useable lighting, at least when it comes to growing plants. The plants below might do fairly well for you since they all can grow with little/poor light conditons:

1. Pathos (Epipremnum) and Philodendron - Similar plants that grow vine-like
2. Snake plant aka mother-in-law tongue (Sanservieria)
3. Zeezee aka ZZ plant (Zamioculcus)
4. Corn plant (Dracaena)
5. Cast iron plant (Aspidistra)
6. Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema)
7. Dieffenbachia
8. Peperomia
9. Peace lily (Spathiphyllum) - The only one that has substantial blooms

The rubber tree (Ficus elastic) might do OK but probably not as well as the above plants.

Beware, if you have pets, pretty much all of these plants are poisonous to cats/dogs.

As someone who really cares about plants, it's a bit hard to truthfully suggest you put a plant into a room with no adequate light source for a year. The plant will likely not thrive or be happy. Perhaps it would help to rethink how you can provide adequate lighting or ask yourself what besides a plant might fulfill your goal.

Good Luck

RoddenBlessed Please take a few moments to tell us something about yourself and it would be real helpful to have your location (at least your zone) in that right-hand corner.

You are right in a sense. We who truly love growing plants just hate losing them. But the other side of the equation is that its a free country and Bob has every right to put whatever plants he wants wherever he wants. How many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Poinsettias are tossed each Christmas season? How many of the big-box store-bought orchids survive the first year?

Any of those plants I listed are pretty doggone tough plants and given other necessary growing conditions, most of them will survive low light. They certainly won't flourish and perhaps the Peace Lily won't bloom, but they'll probably survive the one year that Bob wants to grow it/them.

I have a feeling that there is a story behind what Bob wants to do and I hope, if there is one, he might share it with us. For instance, why do you want a plant(s) for only a year?

The plant may not thrive, but the million dollar question is .... do plants have feelings? I'm not sure it would feel unhappy? Maybe they do.

At any rate, there are lots of artificial plants nowadays that look real enough you can't tell they aren't real without touching them. Artificial plants have come a long way. Gone are they days of fakey looking plastic stuff. Google artificial plants and you may be surprised. And then at the end of the year you can re-sell your plant, move it or give it away or put it in storage until you are able to use it again.

We will never know the question's answer. I have feelings though, and to me, that's what counts. I don't like to lose plants.........period.

I know about artificial plants and found out kind of my accident how real they looked. I was looking up one of the plants I grow and stumbled upon a company that had artificial ones. There were very expensive, 5-10x what a live one costs. I knew then that these were high quality artificial plants.

I think its safe to say its a bad idea for people to try and grow things without light.... plants need light some more than others but they need light. good list ken, i have some of those and they work well.


bob you should really get a good atifical strip light, such as a sunleaves, take it from me it'll do wonders.

What's a "sunleaves"?

In my personal experience in my home that receives shaded bright light in the winter from one window only and covered in dense shade in the spring/summer, the ZZ Plant thrives and does extremely well. The Peace Lily sits in front of the one sunny window in the winter but thrives in bright shade outside for the rest of the seasons. A Malabar Chestnut Bonsai, does well in front of a South-facing window in the kitchen, though that is screened by a sun-blocking screen. Otherwise, most other house plants seem to suffer in my lack of light even though they don't seem to understand that a cold winter would be worse had they been left outside!

There you go. I don't grow tropical plants with a northern exposure.

thanks for the comments ppl. i'll try to open the shades sometimes. it's a media room that we dont spend much time in. is there any difference between the ZZ and Dracena in terms of what will survive with little light? ALso if they do get sun which will will grow faster and taller? Thanks for the insights and info everyone. Take care.

Now that we know there is a window that can be used for natural light, we need more info. Bob, what direction does that window face? Where do you live?

Both the Dracena and ZZ will handle low light. It just depends on the form/coloration you want.

It depends on the time of year too, as some times I get lots of sun in my south window and then when the seasons change the sun is not as strong sometimes.

ZZ plant has a limit to how high it can get, about 2-3 feet, it's a bulb plant. Dracaenas are woody entities and are limited only by the growing conditions, and eventually, height of the ceiling.

Since Bob only cared about having a plant for a year, size/height shouldn't matter too much.

In my lectures I tell folks that in my opinion, a south exposure is best during the fall and winter, because of the sun being so low in the southern sky. During the spring and summer, I prefer an eastern exposure, again due to the sun's angle.

bob131313 said:Would any of these plants work for a bedroom that gets no sunlight? Watering is of course no problem. It doesn't have to last for more than a year.

Of your photos above, I would choose the ZZ plant, Zamioculcas zamiifolia for that room you intend to grow in it. It is in the 2nd photo to the left. I have them here in my living room and they do quite fine in a north facing window. There was a time I have it way at a corner just getting very little light by late afternoon already. Very low maintenance, drought tolerant and leaves stay shiny green. Just be mindful of watering, it has very fat roots and thick succulent- like stems that holds water very well.

Dracaenas are okay too, but I do find that at least some bright indirect light is best for it.

For me at least, I really need to know where Bob lives and what direction that window faces. There is certainly nothing wrong in going with the ZZ plant. Over-watering can/is the problem with this plant.