Six houseplants that survive a cold hallway

Not every room is a warm south-facing windowsill. These are the ones we sell to people with a draughty Victorian hall.

The single most common reason a houseplant dies in a Shropshire house is not neglect. It is a hallway that drops to eleven degrees overnight and a plant that was bred for a rainforest floor.

The reliable six

Aspidistra, the cast iron plant, earns its name. It will take low light, cold, and being forgotten for a month. Kentia palm is the elegant option and tolerates a good deal more cold than people expect. Then there is the Chinese evergreen, the ZZ plant, the parlour palm, and any of the tougher dracaenas.

What all six have in common is that they will sit still rather than sulk. A plant that stops growing in a cold spell and picks up again in March is doing exactly what it should.

Water less than you think

Cold and wet is what kills them, not cold on its own. In an unheated hall, most of these want watering once every three weeks through winter, and a pot that sits in a saucer of water will rot at the root long before the frost gets anywhere near it.

Bring one in and we will pot it up for you at the bench. It takes five minutes and there is no charge for it.