This is a peace lily – spathiphyllum. We received it as a gift this fall and I nearly killed it. The floral shop that sold it had covered the top of the soil with a nest of fiber – coconut maybe? or one of the decorative mosses? Anyway, it made it difficult to tell just what was going on with soil moisture, and I kept adding water, a cup here, a cup there, thinking it was drying out. Not so much! I acted on a hunch one day and took the plant in my kitchen to pull it out at the sink. Good thing I was at the sink, because there must have been a solid inch of stagnant water in the bottom of the pot! Peace lilies, as I learned, do not, absolutely do not like wet feet. Luckily I caught it in time! I trimmed off the faltering flower stalks so the plant can focus on roots and leaves and in the future will only be watering it at the sink where I can be sure it has fully drained before going back in the decorative container!

So I am not actually positive what plant is in this small fish tank – I forgot to save the label when I bought it. I thought it might be a bacopa, but when googling the images that looked most like it are the Java fern, microsorum pteropus. It is not growing fast (either that or my betta is nibbling it on occasion).

Maranta leuconeura , commonly known as a prayer plant. The leaves on my plant are nice and open as it is in a lower light room in my basement. I have not found it to be too fussy, which was a surprise as it seemed when I first was looking up how to care for it that a lot of people end up losing theirs. I try not to let the soil dry out completely; and I do open the window shade most days. It seems to be doing alright. We are in winter season so I do not expect a lot of growth right now.

epipremnum aurem, pearls and jade. A name often used for these vines is pothos. I’ve always called it pothos, regardless of the leaf colors, but some folks call it devil’s ivy (the things you learn when you start researching! yay!) This plant is super easy to care for – I just water it occasionally and it is slowly growing. They do fine in low light, so I don’t need to take up valuable real estate under my grow lights to keep it happy. win win!