Low-maintenance indoor plants for Spanish homes

UNTIL it's warm enough to make full use of your garden, terrace or balcony, indoor plants are an option for adding greenery to your life and, indeed, introducing flora to your interior world is an oft-made – and broken – New Year's resolution.

That's because the non-gardeners among us tend to find they can't even keep a plastic one alive.

Most of the time, inability to keep plants flourishing, indoors or outdoors, is purely lack of knowledge about what they need; how much sunlight or shade, how much water, whether they should be in a colder environment or whether they thrive better with the heating on full.

Spanish news and online shopping website 20deCompras, in association with Colvin garden centres, has offered some advice as to what to do if you're not exactly green-fingered, but want to bring a bit of nature into your abode.

For beginners, or those who do not spend much time in their property, it's best to opt for robust varieties that can 'look after themselves', cope with adverse conditions, and do not need too much human intervention, says 20deCompras.

The authors recommend three specific types to start you off, and the bonus is that they are very elegant in the right pot and can add a touch of class to any room.

That said, keep them out of pets' reach. Some plants are poisonous to cats, dogs or both, and cats have a tendency to chew plants to help themselves throw up...and to use the soil as a litter tray.

Bowstring Hemp

The Sansevieria Zeylanica is known in Spanish as the Savannah or, amusingly, Lengua de Suegra, which translates as 'Mother-in-Law's Tongue'. If you have a mother-in-law and are on good terms with her, she'll probably see the funny side and might even be flattered – her 'tongue' might be long and sharp, but it certainly looks good as home décor.

Bowstring Hemp is not, as you might have expected by the common name in English, anything whatsoever to do with cannabis plants; its leaves, dark green with white or lighter green 'stripes' and a yellow border, rounded but ending with a subtle point, long and upright, do not tend to grow out of control, so this shrub does not take up too much space.

Many owners keep them in the bedroom, since these plants pump out oxygen all night long, purifying the air.

Given that they're practically immortal, they're ideal for a novice plant-keeper, and need very little water – about once a fortnight, fill a tray and stand the pot in it, and that's it.

Bowstring Hemp prefer the shade to direct sunlight, so they're ideal for this time of year when you may be struggling to get any rays through your window except for about two hours in the middle of the day.

ZZ Plant

This is one of a number of names the Fiona Zamioculca goes by, as well as Zuzu Plant, Zanzibar Gem, Aroid Palm, Eternity Plant and Emerald Palm.

Grown almost entirely for ornamental means, its glossy, bright-green 'leaf-shaped' leaves can even be dusted and polished, and it's very easy to care for.

The ZZ Plant has been a de rigueur home decoration piece since the 1990s, when they first became highly trendy, although in Tanzania, one of the countries they are native to – these being along the eastern coast of Africa, from southern Kenya to north-eastern South Africa – the shiny leaves are pressed for their juice, which is used to treat earache, inflammation and ulcers (disclaimer: We haven't tried this, and if you decide to, it's entirely at your own risk; although let us know what happens, because we're curious).

ZZ Plants grow very, very slowly, and need very little water; in fact, over-watering them is detrimental to them, especially in winter when they drink even less than in summer.

Colvin advises to only water a ZZ Plant when the top two inches, or five centimetres of the soil is bone-dry, and never to drench them.

Don't let them sit in a puddle of water in the pot-tray, either – if this fills up, empty it straight away.

Split-Leaf Philodendron

Sometimes known as a 'cheese-plant', or even a 'fruit-salad plant', the Monstera Deliciosa does not live up to its common or Latin names – it doesn't sprout cheese, you can't put it in a fruity cocktail and it wouldn't be delicious if you tried to eat it.

But in the Mexican rainforest, which it is native to, the Monstera Deliciosa does, indeed bear fruit, and this fruit is said to be very tasty indeed.

The Monstera bit comes from the shape of the leaves, which do put one in the mind of big green scary monsters found under beds, in swamps, and on children's cartoons.

These very large, dark green, shiny, waxy leaves appear to have 'fingers' cut out of them – the reason for this being that they grow naturally in the shade, and the 'slots' allow the light to filter through to the ground rather than resting directly on the leaf surface and drying it out.

To this end, the 'cheese-plant' is another which does not need direct sunlight pouring through your windows onto it.

And given that it is native to a hot, dry country, 'cheese-plants' do not need much water at all.

Colvin says you only need to water it about twice a week in summer and once in winter, and only when the top layer of soil is dry.