{"id":120,"date":"2008-10-27T05:02:35","date_gmt":"2008-10-27T13:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=120"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:00","slug":"spider-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/spider-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPIDER PLANT
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>What is it about plants with the word “spider”\u009d in their common names?\u00a0 There are several of them, including: “spiderwort”\u009d or Tradescantia virginiana; cleome, with its big, colorful spidery flowers; and that old household favorite, spider plant or Chlorophytum comosum.\u00a0 The common theme–other than a plant, leaf or flower form that looks somehow “spidery”\u009d–is the ability to reproduce abundantly.\u00a0 Tradescantia will fill up entire shady corners of the garden if you let it, and cleome will self seed with wild abandon.\u00a0 Left to its own devices, spider plant will produce dozens of baby “spiders”\u009d every year.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most people have seen spider plants, even if they didn’t know what to call them.\u00a0 The plant’s appearance is unmistakable, with a mounding, fountain-like array of long slender leaves and even longer arching flower stalks that are eventually tipped by tiny offspring. \u00a0Spider plants are the kind of indoor ornamentals that grandmothers or great grandmothers would have hung from ceiling hooks or placed on decorative pedestals.\u00a0 First described by late eighteenth century and botanist Karl Pehr Thunberg, the species is native to South Africa, one of the world’s horticultural treasure troves.\u00a0 The Latin name, “Chlorophytum comosum”\u009d is descriptive.\u00a0 “Chloro”\u009d means “green”\u009d and “comosum”\u009d means hair, which undoubtedly refers to the flower stalks.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is a mystery to me why anyone would voluntarily buy a spider plant, because so many people have them already and they are so easy to propagate.\u00a0 I suspect that is why I was unable to find a single online retail source for specimen spider plants.\u00a0 The behemoth Chlorophytum comosum that spends its winters in my dining room and its summers in a corner of my back garden, has been around so long that I have forgotten where it came from.\u00a0 However, I have many generous, plant-loving friends, and the baby spider plant was probably a gift from one of them.\u00a0 It was almost certainly propagated by a gardener who pinned one of the tiny plantlets to the top of the soil in a small pot and then left the pot close to the parent plant.\u00a0 After a few weeks the new plant rooted itself and the gardener detached it from the parent.\u00a0 Baby “spiders”\u009d will also root in a jiffy in a glass of water.\u00a0 With a little effort, you can produce enough spider plants to supply any of your friends and family who don’t have one already.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By spreading the plants around, you would be doing your nears and dears a favor.\u00a0 Not only is Chlorophytum comosum easy to grow and eager to reproduce, it cleans the air.\u00a0 The big green spiders dispatch airborne toxins including formaldehyde, benzene and, especially, carbon monoxide.\u00a0 They are the ultimate good neighbors.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I can attest to the fact that spider plants also thrive on neglect.\u00a0 Mine has been ignored for years.\u00a0 I forget to water it, almost never fertilize it, and even occasionally lose track of it when it’s on its summer vacation in the garden.\u00a0 In response to all this inattention, it produces a plethora of white, six-petaled flowers every year.\u00a0 They are inevitably followed by the baby plantlets, ready for propagation.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spider plants are, in fact, hard to kill.\u00a0 Overwatering will do it, so if you have a tendency to kill plants with kindness, be sure to restrain yourself and water only when the surface of the soil is dry.\u00a0 The plants are less fussy about light than many other indoor ornamentals.\u00a0 Generally medium to bright indoor light is fine.\u00a0 Outside, spiders need a bit of shade or the foliage will burn. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like many ornamentals that are grown primarily for foliage, spider plants are available in both green-leafed and variegated forms.\u00a0 The variegated forms, which include my plant, are more popular.\u00a0 My spider plant has leaves that are mostly white, with green margins.\u00a0 Some variegated versions reverse that combination, with white or cream-colored margins.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To get a spider plant of your own, ask around among friends and relatives until you find someone who will give you a rooted plantlet.\u00a0 If that doesn’t work, check the local nurseries, garden centers and big box stores periodically through the late fall and winter months.\u00a0 At some point in time one or all of those retailers will probably offer young\u00a0 plants.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spider plants are decorative, unfussy and make themselves useful around the house by cleaning the air.\u00a0 In many households, they may be the only carbon-based life forms that can make that claim.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPIDER PLANT \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What is it about plants with the word “spider”\u009d in their common names?\u00a0 There are several of them, including: “spiderwort”\u009d or Tradescantia virginiana; cleome, with its big, colorful spidery flowers; and that old household favorite, spider plant or Chlorophytum comosum.\u00a0 The common theme–other than a plant, leaf or flower form that looks … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}