Spider plant Chlorophytum 'Vittatum'

The Spider plant is are delivered in a standard nursery pot. You can repot the plant into a larger pot if you like – use humus rich potting compost - or just stand ‘asit is’ in a decorative planter. A saucer under the nursery pot will suffice too – allow water to stand in the saucer for a short while only. Water regularly, but only when the potting compost feels dry to the touch and the saucer is empty of water. Keep the soil moist if you want the plant to keep growing.

Chlorophytum comosum needs a warm spot (18-25 degrees centigrade) but preferably out of direct sunlight and preferably not below 10 degrees. It can tolerate temperatures as low at 2 degrees centigrade but will then stop growing – it will also require less watering in cooler conditions.

Although this spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is a genuine Savannah plant that grows outdoors in the sun in the wild, it is actually more sensible to keep it out of direct sunlight. The more sunlight it gets, the more you will have to water it. This plant responds well to fertiliser - which you will soon notice by its rapid growth.

Keep it somewhat dryer over the winter and only give more water in the spring, with some plant fertiliser. You can expect to see flower stalks with little white flowers appear – small and not particularly decorative. You may then get tiny plantlets appearing on the stalks.

The spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is a (sub) tropical plant from the Savannahs of South Africa where it appears as soon as it gets damp. All the leaf above ground dies off in the dry season and the plant survives by forming a tuber. One shower of rain is enough to get the leaves appearing above ground again. There is no necessity for the plant to go underground - a dry season need not occur - so watering it all year round is not a problem.

New studies have classified the Chlorophytum as Asparagaceae.