Chlorophytum comosum ("Spider Plant") is native to South Africa but it is a very common house plant for many. Spider Plants prefer bright light but no direct sun. The plant has long narrow leaves that grow from a central rosette. It produces stolons with tiny white flowers and baby plants that will take root when they touch the soil. It makes a nice hanging basket plant with the pendant stems and baby plants dangling beneath the pot.

Here in Florida some people grow Chlorophytum as landscape plants where they spread and make a nice ground cover. I had a flower bed in my backyard with many of these plants a few years ago. There are still two plants in the ground beneath a tree, compliments of baby "plantlets" from a hanging basket plant whose stolons reached the ground and took root.

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This plant loves our area so much that it grows like a weed. It can take direct sun for a few hours, but it prefers part sun/part shade, especially in our area, where our summer temps rise to triple digits. It has very thick rhizomatous roots and it can conserve its water a lot, so even if you forget to water it for a couple of days, the plant will survive. Easily propagated by the plantlets formed at the end of a stalk. I usually wait for the roots to be more prominent before I sever a plantlet from the mother plant. It prefers to be pot bound and can easily deform or break your pot if it is very tightly growing in it. When that happens you can divide the plant to give away to friends or share with anyone else. Our winters are quite mild, no snow, so my plants can stay outdoors. I just let Mother Nature do the watering at that time. In other seasons, especially from late spring to early fall, watering every other day or daily when temps rise to the 100F's will be helpful for the plant to survive the extreme heat. It is prone to browned tips, I just trim those off, and from time to time I also pull out dead leaves to maintain the appearance of the plant.

It can be grown in soil, or if indoors I have grown it in just leca rocks and water, or leca rocks with water gel beads. Either way, the important factor is water. When I grow it in soil, I prefer to use regular potting soil, but I add some extra perlite to keep the mix open and not clumpy. I grow them also as hanging plants so the babies cascade nicely.

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