Which plants actually do well in a steamy bathroom

A bathroom is a strange room to keep a plant in. It swings from cold to warm and back twice a day, the air goes to near enough 100 per cent humidity every time somebody showers, and most of them have one small window or none at all. That combination kills a lot of houseplants and suits a small number of them extremely well, which is why the bathroom plant that thrives at your sister's place dies at yours.

One thing worth being straight about, because it gets claimed a lot. Plants are not going to fix a steamy bathroom. A plant takes up water through its roots and puts most of it back out through its leaves, so the dehumidifying effect of a fern on the windowsill is close to nothing next to an exhaust fan or an open window. Put plants in there because they look good and because they genuinely enjoy the conditions, not instead of running the fan.

The ones that actually suit it

Boston fern

Ferns come from damp shaded places and a bathroom is the closest most houses get. The frilly fronds that go crisp and brown in a dry lounge room stay soft in a bathroom. It wants indirect light and it will not forgive drying out.

Peace lily

Handles low light better than almost anything else on this list, likes the humidity, and it tells you clearly when it wants water by drooping and then standing straight back up an hour after you water it. Very hard to kill.

Worth knowing that the sap irritates, so it is not one for a bathroom a small child or a cat spends time in.

Spider plant

Tolerant of nearly everything, which is why it ends up everywhere. Humidity suits it and it looks right in a hanging pot where the babies can dangle. A good first plant if you have killed a few.

Bamboo palm

For a bathroom with a bit of floor space and reasonable light. Slow growing, so it holds its shape for a long time, and it likes humid air.

Aloe vera

The odd one out. Aloe wants bright light and it does not want wet feet, so it only works in a bathroom with a genuinely sunny window and good drainage. Put it in a dim one and it stretches and goes soft.

What decides whether it lives

• Light is the real limit. Humidity is the easy part of a bathroom and light is the hard part. Be honest about how much your bathroom gets, and if it is genuinely dark, the peace lily and the spider plant are the two worth trying.
• Drainage, always. A pot with holes and a saucer, not a decorative pot with the plant sitting in its own runoff. Humid air plus wet roots is how you rot a plant in a fortnight.
• Watch the watering. A bathroom plant needs less water than the same plant in a dry room, because it is losing far less through the leaves. This catches people out.
• Dust the leaves. In a low light room the plant needs every bit of light it can get, and a film of dust takes a surprising amount of it.

Where to put it

Window ledge, a floating shelf, or hanging where the fronds have somewhere to go. Keep it off the floor right next to the shower where it gets splashed with soap, because that is a different thing from humidity and plants do not like it.

Shop related products

• Brunnings Premium Potting Mix 36L. For potting up whatever you bring home.
• Brunnings Perlite 5L. Through the mix for drainage, which matters more in a humid room than anywhere else.
• Brunnings Horticultural Charcoal 5L. Keeps an indoor pot from going sour.
• Neutrog Seamungus Liquid Concentrate 1L. A gentle liquid feed for through the growing season.

The garden centre carries mixes, pots, fertilisers and tools, and the plant benches change every couple of weeks, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is in before you make the trip. What is online sits in garden products.

More for indoors

• Monstera care, the 6 things that actually matter
• 11 plants that grow in water
• Homemade plant food to keep your plants happy

I have drowned a Boston fern and dried out a Boston fern in the same calendar year, which I think shows range.

Cheers,
Candeece