Desk Plant

A Bear

My new desk is looking pretty bare, so I figured a plant might be a smart way to improve it. While I like plants, I'm no huge green thumb and my desk environment is not the most hospitable place--its in a library basement. I've done a little research, but thought I should seek some practical advice. Basically I'm looking for something able to live indoors under low to no natural light conditions and is pretty small, my desk itself ain't too vast and could probably be best described as "cubbylike" so the plant cant even be too tall. I'd also like it if the plant wont quickly outgrow it's surroundings. I have had a succulent in my apartment for the past 5 years or so and its done great, but its gone from about a 3in pot to one over a foot across--so something that might grow even slower might be good.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

get a little cactus

they are cool looking, don't grow quickly and don't need much upkeep

matt has a problem

Find an Air Fern. Stays green forever, never needs dirt or water, remains the same size until the end of time!

Actually, it's the skeleton of a long-dead sea creature, dyed green. But it looks exactly like a fern. I've had one on my desk for 7 years now.

elfdude

A bonzai tree might work great too, keep in mind you need to keep trimming them. A pothos, fire flash, philos, sanseveria, emerald ripple peperomia, african violet, peace lily, zz plant, Boston fern, brake fern, ponytail palm, or a calathea would all be ideal plants. There's literally thousands though.

If you give any plant some TLC and prune it correctly you can easily control how big it gets.

Keep in mind several of the plants I suggested can get enormous if you give them too much water/food/ too big of a pot. Find one you like the look of and do some research. Some of them require a lot of TLC most just require a touch up here and there, some watering and trimming though.

By far my favorite plant is a pothos. They also rumored to attract fairies :P

A Bear

Both a cactus and pothos were plants I've done some research on--exactly how small can pothos be? I figure the whole plant cant be much beyond the dementions of a 2 liter soda bottle or so.

elfdude

It only needs around 8-20 leaves left in tact to thrive, it's a vine so you'll have to trim it but it's fairly resilient. If you are allowed to allowing it to fall down the sides of your desk would look neat and if you needed to you could just whack the vines off and toss them. I've seen people grow them in a dixie cup from nothing but a clipping off someone elses' so you shouldn't really need to worry. If you're allowed to let it grow up about a foot or down about a foot it'd be ideal but you don't need to. Depends really on the species of pothos too, some have leaves as big as your hand others have dainty little leaves 1-2 inches across.

Cyvros

A nice cactus always looks good on a desk. I used to have a banana cactus on my desk until I accidentally killed it (don't worry, though, it's not easy - I was 10 at the time and could kill anything). Just make sure you've got a base for it so that you don't get dirt everywhere. They should come with bases anyway, but just in case.