An attic apartment with small windows isn’t a perfect place for house plants. Since we have a concrete roof, there’s not much chance of adding roof windows without major renovation, so we live with what we have. Actually, I don’t really mind the darker space. I spend half of the day outside, so I prefer a darker space while indoors. But, as I said in the beginning, this means most of the plants don’t like my home. Most of the time I play “the buy and wait” game. I buy a new plant and wait to see if it will survive or not. 

Most of the plants actually survive. The only plants I lost were the ones that I took outside and left on the balcony. The heat shock killed most of them before I could react. That’s why I decided this year none of my plants will go outside ever again.

I have found a couple of places where my plants thrive and grow just fine. Violets and Streptocarpus prefer the kitchen window. Although it’s a very sunny place, the window is small so they don’t get burned. It’s also the most humid room since I cook every day. 

The bathroom is home to Rhipsalis, Laceleaf, and Maranta. They all like the humid environment and constant temperature. Although the bathroom is on the west sunny side, we mostly keep the bathroom doors open, so the temperature is never too high. Rhipsalis is just thriving here, it is growing continuously, and has quadrupled its size in less than a year. 

In the bedroom which is on the north side, I keep my Sansavierias, Peperomia, and Fittonias. Although Sansavieria is considered one of the easiest plants to grow, I’m really having trouble with it. I just can’t seem to find them a good enough place without them dying. They like the bedroom during summer, but they don’t like it during winter. So I move them to the living room. And they hate the living room during summer, so I move them back to the bedroom. As it’s visible in the photo the leaf on the bigger one is dying. I’ve moved it to the bedroom when it started rotting and now it stopped. At least the plant is safe and alive.

The living room is the home of all the small pots and plants. The window sill in the living room is big enough to host a large number of plants. Here I keep my Monstera which is growing amazingly. Monkey leaf monstera doesn’t have as big leaves as the other varieties, but it sure looks amazing. And in my small living room, it looks huge. 

Another big plant in the living room is my Lucky bamboo. I ordered one online, but I had no idea it would be this big. I was expecting a small cane, big enough to put on the desk, and I got a monster cane. I had to buy a special tall vase to put it in, and now it’s tucked away next to the Monstera. I haven’t found a perfect place for it yet.

I also have a bunch of small pots with small plants. Recently I’ve told my hubby to look for plants every time he goes to the supermarket. Not the greatest place to shop for plants, but it has one big advantage: plants on sale that have been badly taken care of. So he brings me home a half-dead plant each time he sees one, and I try to save it. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t, but when I do I end up with a plant that would be very expensive if it were healthy.

I have all sorts of plants here, succulents, mini cactus, Calatheas, Soleirolia, a tiny Syngonium, even a Peace lily, there’s room for everything here. I’ve placed most of them in bigger joining pots so that I could move them around easily. 

Since the sill is slowly filling up I’ve been thinking of adding a big LED tube on the empty surface just beside the sill and filling it up with house plants or maybe even building a small plant village there, with small pots and plants. My house clearly enjoys only small plants, so why not try it.