• Question: Is there a plant that even my mum can't let go brown and die off?

    Asked by wookiee to Amelia, Clem, Izzy, Sarah on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Cactus!

      I have one which sits on my desk and has done for years, i like plants, but i’m rubbish at keeping them! they are also pretty and different looking!

    • Photo: Sarah Harvey

      Sarah Harvey answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Despite being a plant scientist, I am terrible at house plants – have managed to kill cacti both by overwatering and by under watering (personally I think it takes special skills to underwater a cactus!)

      So my recommendation is: try a spider plant! I have had one for years and as long as you water it a bit once it shrivels up and looks dead, it bounces back and makes new leaves! And if it all goes horribly wrong then they often have babies so you can start again!

    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      People always say “you like plant science, you must like gardening”. This isn’t true at all – we like looking at the plants a bit more closely. If I could grow plants well, my research would probably be happening faster!!

      Both cacti and spider plants are great suggestions!

      My personal favourite easy-to-keep plant is the jade plant. It can live for a really long time, and is happy at room temperature and doesn’t need much water.

    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      This is a great question! My mum is the same and I bought her a cactus for her birthday 🙂

      A cactus is an amazing plant. They have adapted to live in hot dry places like a desert so they are super good at conserving water! This means it doesn’t matter if you forget to water it.

      My personal favorite plant that can survive even if you forget to water it is called the Resurrection Plant. It is called that because if it doesn’t get any water it shrivels up, goes brown, and looks like it has died. It can stay like this without water for years! Then when you finally do water it again it springs back to life and looks like a proper plant again. I think that is AMAZING. However not sure if you can buy these in the shops, may have to look into that one…

    • Photo: Clemence Bonnot

      Clemence Bonnot answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I am also pretty bad with plants… the reason I guess I I am rarely home or to tired to even bother water them… the only plant that have survived my poor ability with feeding them is the ficus benjamina.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_benjamina
      this plant has also survived my cat which is amazing.
      So I would advice it 😉

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