How to Choose an Indoor Plant for the Light in Your Home

What most often fails an indoor plant is not watering or feeding: it is the spot. Before you choose a plant because it looked good in a photo, stand where you want to put it at midday and look. Can you see the sky from the window? Does sunlight fall on the floor or the wall? Bright indirect light means a place close to a bright window that direct sun does not reach, or reaches only through a sheer curtain. This is where alocasias, anthuriums and hoyas thrive, and where variegated leaves keep their colour. Medium light is the middle of a room, or near a window that faces a wall or a walkway. Pothos, satin pothos, calatheas and the money tree live happily here, even if they grow a little slower. Direct sun behind glass in a Saudi summer burns most foliage plants within days. If your window gets the midday sun, set the plant a metre or more back from it, or behind a sheer curtain. And if your plant leans towards the window, or its stems stretch with gaps between the leaves, it is asking for more light.