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The Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is one of nature's survivors. It has long, ribbon-shaped leaves, which can range from pale green to green with white stripes depending on the variety.

The Spider Plant makes an ideal houseplant because it is happy in a wide range of conditions. It can cope with high or low light levels, although a very sunny position will make it go limp.

Unusually for a houseplant, the Spider Plant is happy with very dry air - so it won't object to your air conditioning. It's equally happy in humid air, though, and makes a great plant for a bathroom.

Ideally, the Spider Plant would like to be watered well in summer and left drier in winter, but it's really not going to complain if you forget to water it occasionally, or even if you overdo it. It would like to be fed once in a while, but it won't die if you forget that as well. And it won't even complain if you don't dust its leaves.

The really cute thing about Spider Plants is that they reproduce by growing miniature versions of themselves on long stems. These little plantlets can be potted up on their own to make new plants. You can peg them down so that they're touching soil, but still attached to the mother plant. Or if they already have stubby roots of their own, you can cut them off from the mother plant and just plant them up.

Learn more about this author, Emma Cooper.
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