PILF
Walt

Spider Plant

$16
Grade ALight 3
4″ pot · Tax included · No account

Wants to be near a window but not in the sun. Water about weekly — it’ll tell you by going a bit pale and limp, and it bounces back within the hour.

Near a window, out of the sun.
Weekly-ish. Safe if the cat chews it.
Two weeks is fine if it’s watered the day you leave. Three, and it’ll look rough for a week and then recover.
Safe if the cat or dog chews it.
Where Walt came from
A baby snipped off its runner on September 12. Spider plant pups root in days. Due in mid-November.
The Wicker Park shelf — where everything starts. Everyone on this shelf.
The most common way people kill this one

Tap water. The tips go brown from what’s in it, people read that as dying, and they start overwatering. It isn’t dying. Let a jug of tap water sit out overnight, or use filtered, and the new leaves come in clean.

How big it gets

A foot-tall mound, then babies on long runners. Snip a baby off, set it in a glass of water, and you’ve got another plant in two weeks.

What it doesn’t get along with

Cats and dogs: fine. Fine to chew. Cats love it and it does them no harm — expect a nibbled tip or two.

The sun’s actual path. Window light, yes; sitting in the beam, no. Radiators and heating vents dry the air and the soil faster than you’d think — a foot or two away is enough.

A pot with no drainage hole. Water needs somewhere to go; if the pot you like has no hole, keep the plant in its nursery pot and set it inside.

What it’s trying to tell you
Brown tipsThe water. Let it sit out overnight before using it. The brown doesn’t go away; the new leaves come in clean.
Pale, bleached leavesToo much sun. A few feet back.
Limp and pale all overThirsty. Water it.
Long stalks with little plants on the endIt’s happy. Those are babies; snip and root them, or leave them hanging.

Every symptom, every plant, on one page.

Where it came from

A baby snipped from a spider plant in Wicker Park, rooted in water, and potted. They root in days.

Grown in Wicker Park, Chicago. Most shelves are a few blocks from where it was potted.

If you’ve killed a C, start here

A C wants a rhythm — a fern, a calathea, a fiddle leaf fig. Losing one says nothing about you. This one is a Grade A: it forgives a month of nothing.

The list for people who’ve killed a C. · How the grades work.

Something else? hello@pilf.me. Replies come from a person, usually the same day.