Shop/Field Guide
Plant stories
The Field Guide
Not a care guide. A record of how things actually died.
There are a great many websites that will tell you how to keep a plant alive. This is not one of them. This is a record of how each species tends to die, what the signs were, and — the question most people actually have — whether it is dead or simply resting.
An enormous number of living plants are thrown away every winter. Before you throw anything out, try the quick check.
One for each plant
20 Plants
One per species. Each dies differently.
- MonsteraMonstera deliciosaThe one everybody starts with. Also the one everybody drowns.Read the story →
- Fiddle Leaf FigFicus lyrataNotoriously dramatic. Will punish you for rearranging the furniture.Read the story →
- PothosEpipremnum aureumSold as unkillable. Killed regularly.Read the story →
- Snake PlantDracaena trifasciataAdvertised as impossible to kill. This is a lie of omission.Read the story →
- ZZ PlantZamioculcas zamiifoliaSurvives neglect. Does not survive attention.Read the story →
- CalatheaCalathea / GoeppertiaBeautiful, and quietly furious about your tap water.Read the story →
- Peace LilySpathiphyllumThe only plant that tells you when it is thirsty. People still miss it.Read the story →
- Moth OrchidPhalaenopsisThrown away alive, in enormous numbers, every year.Read the story →
- String of PearlsCurio rowleyanusPhotographs beautifully. Dies quietly from the middle outward.Read the story →
- Aloe VeraAloe barbadensisA desert plant, kept on a windowsill, watered like a fern.Read the story →
- Spider PlantChlorophytum comosumHard to kill, easy to make ugly.Read the story →
- Prayer PlantMaranta leuconeuraFolds its leaves at night. Stops folding when things are wrong.Read the story →
- Boston FernNephrolepis exaltataWants a bathroom. Sold to people with radiators.Read the story →
- Rubber PlantFicus elasticaTougher than its cousin the fiddle leaf. Still a ficus.Read the story →
- Jade PlantCrassula ovataCan live fifty years. Frequently manages eight months.Read the story →
- AlocasiaAlocasia spp.Dies every winter. Frequently comes back. Rarely believed.Read the story →
- Heartleaf PhilodendronPhilodendron hederaceumForgiving to the point of enabling.Read the story →
- AnthuriumAnthurium andraeanumSold in flower. Sulks for a year afterward.Read the story →
- Air PlantTillandsiaNeeds no soil. Widely taken to mean it needs nothing.Read the story →
- Supermarket BasilOcimum basilicumDoomed on the shelf. Not your fault.Read the story →
On the person, not the plant
Notes
Why Do I Keep Killing Plants?
The assumption is always neglect. It is almost never neglect. People who neglect plants do not go looking for an explana…
Read →Overwatering Is Not About Water
Overwatering is the most misunderstood phrase in houseplant care, because it sounds like it means giving a plant too muc…
Read →Dead or Dormant?
An enormous number of living plants are thrown away every winter. Dormancy and death look almost identical from the outs…
Read →The January Grow Light
Something predictable happens every January. Days are short, plants look miserable, and their owners buy equipment. Grow…
Read →The Cachepot Problem
If there is one thing in this guide worth acting on immediately, it is this: go and check whether your pots drain.…
Read →Reading a Yellow Leaf
A yellow leaf on its own tells you almost nothing. It is the single most common houseplant symptom and it has at least s…
Read →Plants That Suit a Dark Apartment
The phrase low light does a great deal of dishonest work in plant retail. Almost nothing genuinely prefers low light. Wh…
Read →When to Give Up on a Plant
Not every plant should be saved. This is an unpopular position in a hobby built around rescue, but persisting with a pla…
Read →