How to Pick Plants for your Studio!

Having greenery around me as I work is incredibly important to me. Well, having greenery around me *all the time* is incredibly important to me really - but even more so when I’m working.

I use my plants for sketches, for neg/pos space studies, color inspiration and to provide little moments of visual peace from their spaces in the studio. For me, a space without plants is a space without a soul.

Choosing plants for my space came down to three things, light, humidity and general care requirements, and if you’re looking to add a few green friends to your space - these can help you too.

Light: Check out the lighting in your area, which direction do your windows face? No natural light? Better invest in a few grow lights. I have one southern facing window in the loft (no natural light on the bottom floor right now, so I’m not putting any plant friends down there) so I’ll congregate most of the plants in that area. If you aren’t sure about your light there are light meters you can purchase, or start with a low-light tolerant plant like a ZZ and see how they do.

Humidity: I have a cheap little meter to measure the humidity in my space as I have lost one too many prayer plants to significant drops. In the winter my studio is humid, in the summer it’s relatively dry with the AC running. Check the levels in your studio before getting a plant that requires high humidity. It’s not too hard to add a small humidifier - but that can be tricky in a studio space where there are materials that might not enjoy a lot of moisture in the air. For my purposes, all plants that require high humidity will live in my plant space at home where I can more fully control the levels.

General care: Does the plant require a lot of routine maintenance? I water by the finger-check method, so I check the plant friends about once a week in the summer and once every 2 in the winter. I can’t have something that will require constant moist soil as I may not be around with the right frequency to keep it happy. I also don’t want something that will get super huge in the in this space. It’s still an art studio afterall, as much as I would love a jungle I have to consider collectors dropping by and open studio nights – these might be hard to do if my guests have to dodge vines.

SO! The plants I went with for my space are:

ZZ plant: these are low light tolerant, drought tolerant and have been just so easy. They store water in their base, so if I’m out of the studio for a week they will be just fine without me.

Pothos: I love Pothos. I’ll say it again, I LOVE Pothos. They are so easy and come in so many beautiful varieties. Just remember the more white they exhibit, the more light they will need. If you have super low light try to steer towards the Jade (all over deep green) varieties. I have a neon in the studio currently, but I’m propping a marble queen and manjula from my collection at home to add to this space.

Hoyas! I currently have a rope and a carnosa queen in the studio, but will be watching these closely in the summer months as the humidity reacts to the airconditioner. I don’t keep the ac on while I’m away, so as long as it doesn’t drop too much these should be fine. If you want these plants to flower give them access to bright indirect light, otherwise just enjoy their waxy weird leaves.

Along the same lines, my monstera adansonii will also be under humidity-surveillence as the summer goes on. They tend to like more than 60% humidity, not sure if the studio will stay that way so if it looks to be getting too dry it will go back to my plant room at home.

I also have two varieties of sansevieria. Typically these are labeled as ‘low-light’ plants, but that doesn’t mean it needs low light. I have better luck with these in bright light, they grow so much stronger/taller. I have a whale fin and a laurentii and these will have no trouble with the shifty humidity thankfully.

Finally, I have a small string-of-hearts. I don’t usually go for succulents, but these are so great for negative/positive space studies with all the hanging stems. It would probably appreciate a little bit stronger light, but I’ll keep that in mind as I water and make sure not to saturate it.

And that’s it for the current collection. I just added these larger shelves to accommodate more in the future, but I’ll wait for the end-of-summer sales I think.

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