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For a lot of plants, wintertime means slower growth or no growth at all. Some plants even go dormant. It can also mean that there will be leaf drops. It will be yellowing leaves. You might also see an uptick in pests like thrips, and mealybugs, and spider mites. A lot of times in wintertime the temperatures will cool, and there will be a lot less light, and this can be really hard on plants. Especially indoor plants that do not get very much light already. However, some plants, remain pretty unfazed. Some of these plants even thrive.
Succulents
I know this may come as a surprise and a shock because succulents are always touted as California environment plants. These plants want high heat and they want a lot of light. These are both things that winter definitely does not offer so why put them on this list? There are succulents out there like the Hens and Chicks(Sempervivum) that do not care if it’s cold. They are going to continue to grow whether they have a lot of light or not.
There are a lot of succulents out there that will continue to grow in the wintertime.
They will just get leggy. You may have to propagate them in the springtime but you are going to have a lot more to propagate. So you will have a lot more plants later too. To combat the legginess, you can just put a grow light directly over them and they will do just fine too.
However, certain succulents, like Hens and Chicks do not care either way. They are going to keep growing anyway. They will grow more pups if they have more light but they do not care if it is cold. A lot of times they can even overwinter in the ground outside, even in places where it snows. It is pretty incredible. So definitely make sure that you are researching your succulent. Your newest summertime succulent might even do well in the wintertime.
Ferns
This next one may surprise a lot of people because they are known to be finicky and hard to care for plants. Regardless ferns are really resilient plants. They are not as wimpy as people make them out to be. Ferns are incredible.
A lot of them are native to Canada and North America. They are prehistoric plants that survived the fall of the dinosaurs. So, they are definitely very hardy plants. There are about 10,000 different species of ferns with more being discovered regularly. There is always going to be a fern out there that is going to thrive in winter.
Some prime examples would be Sword Ferns and Maidenhair Fern.
They can handle some cold. There are tropical Maidenhair Ferns, so make sure that you are paying attention to those specific ones. Always research your plant. The majority of ferns do not need a whole lot of light. So, as long as you can keep them a little bit on the warmer side(above freezing) they are going to continue to grow in the wintertime.
Even your Boston fern, if it starts to drop some foliage, you can give it a little bit more light from a grow light then it will grow perfectly fine for you. A lot of these plants on this list do not need a lot of light. That is one thing that is really awesome about them. They will do really well and thrive even in the lower light conditions, which is amazing and makes ferns an absolutely perfect plant for indoor homes in the wintertime.
Carnivorous Plants
These plants are not really talked about too much. A lot of people think that they are very difficult plants, but they are actually great for people who like to overwater their plants. They like to stay wet. They are bog plants with many native to North America. This means they can handle quite a bit of cold generally speaking. You can even find them in Canada and other northern regions. There are some subtropical and tropical varieties of carnivorous plants. Make sure you are researching specific ones. There are varieties of Venus Flytraps and Pitcher Plants that do amazingly well and endure the cold just fine. They do not need a lot of light. They do better if you can give them more light. Most plants will, but they really do not need a whole lot of light.
You can overwater them. You don’t have to worry about feeding them. I’m sure the natural pests in your home will pop up just fine for them for the most part. Some of these carnivorous plants, do not even like to be warm at all so you can put them in your refrigerator when it gets too warm in your house.
Phalaenopsis Orchids
This one kind of shocks people as well, because Phalaenopsis Orchids are known to be epiphytic tropical plants. They like to be in the warmth and high humidity, and that’s what most people think of for Orchid care. However, it is actually in the cooler temperatures that they start to push out their bloom spikes. You will see lots of your orchid flowers popping up if you have phalaenopsis orchids in the wintertime and it’s really spectacular to see. They are definitely thriving plants in the wintertime. If you have been waiting a while for your Phalaenopsis Orchid to bloom, maybe six months or more now might be prime time. They were probably just waiting for winter.
Christmas Cacti
This next one is another epiphytic plant like orchids. They like to grow on trees. They are also from tropical regions. This is a tropical cacti also known as a Christmas cactus. They like to grow upon trees in tropical rainforests and generally speaking, they like their high humidity and they like their light.
However, these plants, being cacti, can handle quite a bit of cold. They are not frost-hardy by any means, but they can definitely handle a chilly home and still push out some new growth. Especially if there is a lot of light.
If you want them to bloom, go ahead and give them no light though.
They will pop up with a whole bunch of blooms for you. Growers will place them in special rooms in their greenhouses where they can give them very little to no light at all. That is how they make them push out all their buds. It is really fun to have them in your home so you can actually have them bloom quite a bit in your very dark home and brighten up the winter gloom. Just make sure after they are done blooming that you move them back into a more lighted area so that way they are getting some of that energy back.
People think that winter is a death sentence for their plants and that their plants are all going to wilt and die and lose leaves and not grow at all. Hopefully, this list helps you take a look at some of the plants that are going to do really well in the wintertime. So, that you can have some that are going to do well in the summertime and some that are going to do well in wintertime in your collection. That way you can always have plants blooming and growing and doing something at some point in your plant collection, which just makes caring for plants all the more fun.
