This post is about Asplenium nidus, or Birds Nest Fern. There are a few types of Birds Nest Ferns, the two most common being the Japanese and Victoria Birds Nest Fern. The Victoria has thinner, more ruffled fronds than the Japanese. As far as ferns go, this is one of my favorites, along with Button Ferns and Pteris fern.
Asplenium Nidus – Birds Nest Fern
One of the easiest ferns to care for as a house plant is the Birds Nest Fern or Asplenium Nidus. It is more likely to let you get away with a few mistakes than many other ferns. An added attraction is the leaflets that often fall from other ferns, creating quite a mess, are not present on Birds Nest Fern. This makes it a clean fern in my book, unlike the messy Boston Fern. With a Boston Fern, you may end up spend more time cleaning up after it than you do taking care of it! Not so the Birds Nest Fern.
Light green fronds surround a fibrous nest, explaining the name Birds Nest Fern. The fronds are long and blade shaped with a dark midrib. Birds Nest Ferns can grow quite large and the plant pictured here was well over 3 feet tall!
Syngonium is an easy houseplant to care for and grow as long as it is placed in a bright light situation. It will tolerate lower light levels with reduced watering frequency. For the best results, bright light is best for your Syngonium houseplant.
Syngonium houseplant is a native plant of tropical Central and South America. Syngonium podophyllum is also known as Nephthytis plant. Other common names for the Syngonium plant are Arrowhead plant, Elephant Ear plant, Butterfly plant and Goosefoot plant. You can find Syngonium with an all green leaf, green and white leaf, a pale, almost white leaf, and a pink leaf. There are a couple of pictures of Syngonium plant leaves below.
If kept in a moist, humid environment Syngonium will produce aerial roots that may attach to surfaces much like a Pothos plant or Philodendron Cordatum plant. These aerial roots can also be set into the soil resulting in a nice ground cover plant. Use Syngonium in a terrarium, as a table plant, hanging plant, or a climbing houseplant.
Watering Syngonium
The soil of your Syngonium houseplant can be kept somewhat moist during spring and summer, allowing only the top inch or two of soil to dry. There should be a reduction in watering your Syngonium during fall and winter months, allowing the soil to almost dry. Do not allow to dry completely but also avoid constantly soggy soil. See sections on watering your indoor plants and indoor houseplant lighting for further information that will benefit the health of your houseplants.
Other Care for Syngonium
Bright light and high humidity will be beneficial to the Syngonium plant. It will become thin, weak, and leggy in low light so a spot next to a window with bright, indirect light is ideal. Some morning sun is okay but keep out of hot, afternoon sun.
Temperatures for Syngonium should be kept above 60°F. The Syngonium is not a plant to expose to cold temperatures.
Regular showers with room temperature water are great for Syngonium, helping to discourage insects. Water evaporates quickly from the leaves of plants so it is not very effective as a way to increase humidity in the long term.
A new plant can be somewhat prone to insect problems. I have seen Syngonium with mites, mealybugs, and thrips. Purchase healthy, insect-free plants to avoid these pesky problems. Always inspect plant roots and foliage before you buy. Distorted foliage, spots, or holes in leaves, brown soggy roots should all be avoided when purchasing a new indoor house plant.
To keep your Syngonium happy and pest free, use a spray bottle to wash down weekly with water, making sure to hit the underside of the leaves. This will discourage insects and help keep your Syngonium plants leaves free of dust.
Apply to top and lower leaf and stem surfaces of your houseplants, being careful not to saturate the soil. You can clean by hand or use a spray bottle to apply your house plant cleaning solution. I use a sponge moistened with my cleaning solution to gently wipe the top and lower leaf surfaces. Cleaning of your houseplants should be a regular part of your house plant care.
Thanks for visiting and come back soon as information on indoor plants, pictures and more are being added all of the time. I hope that your indoor tropical houseplants and all of your plants and flowers are happy, green and growing because that is why I started this site PlantAndFlowerInfo.com.
Working in the interior landscape business for more than 30 years has gotten me lots of questions about how to care for indoor potted houseplants. Customers ask about their own plants at home. Why does my plant have yellow leaves… what causes brown leaf tips…how come the new growth on my plant is dying…I water my plant everyday but it still isn’t doing well…how much should I water my house plant?
It can be hard to diagnose every indoor plant problem when you do not have access to the plant itself. So, I generally find myself asking them questions about how they care for their plants. Most often, the problems are solved by changing watering habits or by moving the plant to a better light situation. Often doing both of those things makes a big difference.
In almost every instance, changing the way people look at watering and lighting for their indoor plants gives them positive results with their houseplants.
I care for indoor plants as my job and I know that there are not many plants that I care for that always use the same amount of water or need watering on a rigid schedule. Many different things influence a plants water use.
Customers turn off the lights, leave the lights on, turn off the air conditioning, turn up the heat, close the blinds, open the blinds, and sometimes move the plant to some undisclosed location! All of these things, and many other things, influence the way you need to water an indoor plant. But hopefully, most of these things won’t happen to the houseplants in your home.
