Chinese evergreen

The Chinese evergreen grows on the forest floor across tropical Asia, in deep shade under a closed canopy, and it has been cultivated in China for centuries as a plant of good fortune. It is one of the very few plants that genuinely thrives in a dim room rather than merely surviving one, and modern breeding has given it forms in silver, cream, pink and deep red. The catch is that the more colour a form carries, the more light it needs, so the plant that is famous for dark corners is often sold in a version that cannot live in one.

Light

Low light is genuinely tolerated by the plain green and silver forms. A room lit by a north window in the northern hemisphere or a south one in the southern, or an interior office lit by lamps, will keep one going for years.

The coloured forms are a different plant in practice. Pink, red and heavily cream marked cultivars hold their colour only in bright indirect light, and in a dark room the new leaves come out progressively greener until nothing is left of the pattern. If you have bought a pink one for a dim hallway, either move it or accept that it will turn green.

Direct sun scorches all of them.

Water

Water when the top 3 to 4 cm of compost is dry, roughly every nine days in summer and every sixteen in winter. Soak it thoroughly, let it drain, and empty the saucer.

It would rather be slightly dry than slightly wet. The roots are not vigorous and the plant grows slowly, so a large pot kept damp is the standard way it is lost. Use tepid water rather than cold, which marks the leaves.

Warmth

This is the one thing it is fussy about. It comes from the tropics with no cool season at all, and it starts to suffer below about 16 degrees: the leaf edges curl, grey patches appear, and growth stops. Keep it away from doors, from a window that is opened in winter, and from air conditioning vents. It is a good plant for a warm interior room, not for a cold hallway.

Feeding and repotting

Two or three half strength feeds across spring and summer are enough, and none in winter. Repot in spring only when roots have filled the pot, which for a slow plant may be every third year, and go up one size only.

Pruning and propagation

Cut yellowing lower leaves off at the base of their stalks. An old plant develops a bare stem with a head of leaves on top, which is its natural shape; if you would rather not have it, cut the stem back in spring and it breaks new shoots from the base.

Divide at repotting, keeping several stems and a fair share of roots on each piece. Stem cuttings with three or four leaves also root in damp compost given warmth, and a cut stem left in the pot usually sends up new shoots as well, so the operation gives you two plants.

Flowers

A settled plant sometimes produces a small pale spathe on a short stalk, like a modest peace lily flower. It is not why anyone grows the plant, and it takes energy that would otherwise go into leaves, so most growers cut the stalk out at the base as soon as it appears. If you leave it, a green berry cluster may follow, which is worth knowing about in a house with a small child or an animal, since the berries carry the same irritant crystals as the rest of the plant.

Ailments

Yellow lower leaves usually mean too much water. Curling edges and grey patches mean cold. Brown tips are dry air, tap water or feed salts. A coloured form going green needs more light. The ledger below has the rest, and there is little of it, because a warm plant in a snug pot that is watered when it is dry has almost nothing to go wrong with.