Light and Plants

Of all an indoor plant’s needs, one of the most important to health and long life is the amount of light it receives. Our plants are grown indoors which acclimates them to the naturally lower light conditions of the home. Exotic Angel Plants® should only be kept in indirect light, like that filtered through curtains or blinds. Within these lower need levels, our plants are divided into the following three broad categories:

High Light
This group includes plants such as Croton, Ficus, and Hoya, which require full sun at a south-facing window or bright light reflected off a light-colored wall.

Medium Light
This category belongs to the intermediate plants, such as Rex Begonias, Dracaenas and Ivy, that thrive in partial shade or the filtered light coming through a sheer curtain.

Low Light
These are plants that get along on a minimum of illumination, such as Calatheas, Fittonias and many Ferns, that can survive in indirect, shadowless light coming through a north-facing window.

It is fairly simple to tell whether a plant is getting the right amount of light in the location where you have placed it.

Too Little Light?
If the distance between the new leaves on its stems is greater than the distance between the older ones, the plant is stretching to get more light. Its stems indicate this by elongating, in some instances bending, toward the light source. In such a case, move the plant to a spot where it will get more light.

Too Much Light?
If the plant wilts during the hot part of the day, and the leaves begin to develop yellow and then brown patches, the plant is getting too much light. Move it back from the window or draw the curtains during the middle of the day. Another symptom of too much light is when the leaves start growing vertically as to “hide” from the sun by lessening surface area exposed to sun.

Giving Your Plants Even Lighting
The light level recommended for each species in our variety section is the least that will maintain health without encouraging fast growth. Window light is generally one-directional and causes the part of the plant away from the light to stretch toward it; if you want a plant near a window to grow evenly, give it a quarter turn every day—or at least every time you water—so that all parts of the foliage will get equal light.