Little to no fuss houseplants?

Hello, forum. I live in a tropical environment (Mauritius)
and was curious as to what sorts of plants would fair
well indoors with little sunlight. I would like to transplant.

Thank you in advance!

-Regards, J.S.

The first one that comes to mind would be the sansevieria, they can tolerate almost anything.

The plants I have that do well in the lowest light are various Philodendrons, Cordyline fruticosa, Dracaena sanderiana, various D. deremensis cultivars, D. fragrans (corn plant,) Calathea, Maranta, various Aglaonemas, various Tradescantias, Dieffenbachia, parlor palm (Chamaedorea elegans,) Anthurrium (peace lily,) ferns, Callisia repens, C. fragrans, Hemigraphis.

ZZ plant
Sansevieria
Horthornia
Shefflera

To name a few.

I wouldn't put any of those in less than some direct light. The Scheffs and Sans I have are outside, in the direct sun all summer. All of the almost-white leaves in the pic below are new pups this year. ZZ and Haworthia get afternoon or morning sun and do well.

I've learned something new, I never would have put a sans in sun thinking it would have burnt to a crisp! Love your touch of purple, purp :>)
Christine

I agree, they do look great when they get some, or a lot of sun, but they can survive extremely low light as well, and still do well. That's one of the things that I like so much about these. They can really take extremes, and abuse. One thing to keep in mind though…If they are growing in "less than optimal" situations, then adjust the watering and fertilizing accordingly.

Thanks, Christine! The soil was loose there this spring after putting the Sans in, so it was easy to stick cuttings of Tradescantia pallida there soon after (the purple plant, for those who might not know.)

Yes, Tim, as long as you let Sans get very dry in low light, they will 'stand' for it. Boring to have a plant in suspended animation when there are others that would grow fast enough to notice, IMVHO. Just not ideal if one is choosing from nothing though I've lived in places where that's all I had to offer for years at a time. Sans just wait it out as long as they don't rot.

Here's the same plant, in October 2002, struggling after a few years of too-low light and admittedly too-moist/too-often soil (with Aglaonema modestum.) I thought all plants wanted to be soppy wet as often as possible back then. Glad it stuck it out to be brought out in the sun in AL eventually.

I find schefflera to adapt well to very low light, and Peperomia also takes it .
Aglaonema aka chinese evergreen also does well in low light.

The last pic I posted has Aglaonema modestum growing with the Sans. Here's a piece of the same plant in proper lighting. Either is fine, but there's a huge difference in appearance.

I would add Kentia palms as being ok in low light. However if you are transplanting and moving plants around....from sun to deep shade or from deep shade to sun.....going too fast can send the plant into shock. You need to put the plants in a temporary light shade place to get them aclimated....and for their food manufacturing systems to have time to adjust to the change in light.

my indoor Sans get no direct light and a fancy Aglaonema as well. they do fine.
i have other Sans outside in brutal west facing sun.

Clivias do well in low light . Ficus 'Alli' does well too.

This message was edited Nov 30, 2013 4:25 PM

Thank you all so much! I have settled on snake plants for the time-being. I appreciate your help. :)