Compared to the rest of the rooms in the house, the highest levels of humidity and moisture can be observed in your bathroom. So, it’s not ideal for keeping many types of plants, especially if they require low levels of humidity.
However, some plants thrive in high-humidity conditions, with air plants being the best example here. These plants are also easy to care for because they don’t require any soil.
Some of the best air plants for the bathroom include the Sky Plant, Fuego, Black Tip, and Mad Pupper. The following article will mention a few more, rounding up to ten air plant choices you can get for your bathroom. Let’s go over them one by one.
10 Of the Best Air Plants For Bathrooms
It’s not always easy to keep plants in the bathroom. Sometimes there’s simply not enough light and there’s way too much steam and humidity in the bathroom, which can kill many types of plants.
Air plants, however, can be kept healthy in the bathroom because they usually crave it. They’re also easy to keep hydrated because the bathroom naturally becomes more humid after you use the bath or shower. As for their light requirements, air plants usually don’t need bright, direct light.
With the above in mind, read on for our guide to 10 of the best air plants for bathrooms and how to care for them so that they look their best.
1. Tillandsia Ionantha “Sky Plant”
A sky plant is one of the easiest air plants to grow. It displays greenish-gray leaves that sprout in a circular design. As it grows, it displays thinner leaves with bold colors. It also has small white or yellow flowers that grow on beautiful purple shoots.
Since it’s an air plant, you don’t need a potting medium because it can grow on other items. For example, you can place your sky plant on wood or in glass terrariums. It works well with succulents, providing beautiful decorative features in the bathroom.
It thrives in indirect light, and its leaves can become burned if it’s in direct light or doesn’t get enough humidity, which is why the bathroom is the perfect location for your sky plant. You can also supplement its light with artificial lighting if this is required.
This plant needs humidity and warmth, and when those conditions are met it doesn’t require lots of water. You can mist it lightly a few times a week.
2. Tillandsia Ionantha “Fuego”
This air plant’s name means fire in Spanish, which is the perfect description for it because its flowers are bright red in color. To ensure it can grow and stay healthy, Fuego requires bright but indirect light, which is why setting it up in the bathroom is ideal.
Tweak how much you water this plant depending on the conditions in your bathroom. If your bathroom is hot, you should water your Fuego every two or three days. If your bathroom is very humid, you can water it once a week.
To meet its hydration requirements, you have to mist your Fuego thoroughly with water in a spray bottle.
3. Tillandsia Cyanea “Pink Quill”
This air plant can be grown in a pot or kept as an air plant, depending on the conditions you can provide for it. Since it’s such a beautiful plant, with its pink bracts that look like quills, you’ll want to go the extra mile to ensure that you keep it healthy.
Give your Pink Quill some light but don’t let it have harsh afternoon light as this can burn its leaves. Although it wants moisture, you don’t want the pink quill’s roots to get too much water as this can cause sogginess. You should mist this air plant regularly.
Pink Quill needs the right temperature in order to flower, so ensure it’s in an environment where the temperature is around 75°F (23.8°C). Since it thrives in humidity, it fares well in the bathroom. If your plant doesn’t get enough humidity, the tips of its leaves will become brown.
4. Tillandsia Stricta Black Tips
As its name suggests, this air plant has dark leaf tips. Its central leaves form a rosette, which is where its flower stem grows. To keep it growing healthy when kept in your bathroom, this air plant can benefit from being misted weekly with Epsom salts during its growing season.
Otherwise, looking after Stricta Black Tips is easy. It requires a bit of indirect light, which you can achieve with the use of fluorescent lighting and good air circulation. Mist the plant twice per week. It thrives in temperatures between 50° and 80° F (10-26.6°C).
Although this type of air plant is hardy, you want to keep it away from temperature fluctuations, such as from your air conditioner or heater. Luckily, you don’t usually require these in your bathroom, therefore it’s a great spot in which to store your Stricta Black Tips.
5. Tillandsia Bergeri “Mad Pupper”
The Mad Pupper air plant gets its name because it produces pups, or offshoots, throughout its life. It grows quickly and forms clumps, so it will add a beautiful element to your bathroom without you having to work hard on keeping it alive. Its leaves are hardy and can display colors such as red, gray, or green tones.
As with other air plants, mist the Mad Pupper twice a week during the hot months and once a week during winter. If you notice that the plant’s leaves are curling, this is an indication that it’s not getting enough water so submerge it in water for 12 hours. If your bathroom is humid and dark, watering your plant once a week is enough to keep it healthy.
This air plant is great to keep in your bathroom because it wants bright, yet filtered, light. A light that gets filtered through a sheer curtain or frosted bathroom window is a perfect example.
If you live in an area that experiences cold winters, you’ll love that this air plant can tolerate temperatures of between 50 and 89.6°F (10-32°C). It’s best to keep it indoors as you want to protect it from frost.
6. Tillandsia Tectorum “Snowball”
This air plant gets its name because it looks like a snowball, thanks to its fuzzy leaves. The fuzziness actually comes from trichomes that enable the plant to absorb water effectively. What’s interesting about its leaves is that their color changes – they are bright green after you water the plant and then turn greenish-white when they become dry. When mature, this air plant blooms in purple flowers, just to add to its beauty.
This plant wants bright, direct light, so it’s great for bathrooms that get some direct sunlight every day. When watering it, mist it every week or two, instead of soaking it. Soaking a snowball air plant in water can cause its roots to rot.
7. Tillandsia Kolbii
This is another type of air plant that has fuzzy leaves. They’re light green and compact but can bloom in flowers of various colors, such as orange, red, and purple. It thrives when placed in the bathroom, as it wants to be in bright, indirect light.
If you can see that the plant looks scorched or it has red-tipped leaves, these are indications that the plant is getting too much light. Move it into a different area of the bathroom where there’s not as much light.
The Kolbii needs regular misting so that it doesn’t dry out. You can also soak it by submerging it into a bowl of water for half an hour every week or two. If your plant has bloomed, avoid putting the flowers into the water as they can be damaged by it.
Ensure your bathroom is properly ventilated before bringing Kolbii home as it needs good air circulation.
8. Tillandsia Streptophylla “Shirley Temple”
If you’ve never owned an air plant before, the Shirley Temple is a great one to choose as it requires minimal care. It also looks beautiful, with its long leaves that curl.
While it can be kept outside if the weather in your region is mild, keeping it in the bathroom is a wise choice as it wants a lot of moisture. Make sure you mist it once or twice a week or soak it for half an hour every week or two to ensure it stays well hydrated. Since it absorbs water through its leaves instead of roots, you want to turn it upside down and submerge it into the water.
By keeping it in the bathroom, you won’t have to worry about watering it regularly. Interestingly, when you water your Shirley Temple more regularly, its leaves will become wavy. However, when you water it less frequently, it will become tightly curled. Also, this air plant wants to be kept in indirect sunlight, as too much direct light can burn its leaves.
When this plant blooms, its central leaves become pink and peach in color, while its spike becomes pale pink and its flowers display purple flowers, so it will provide a beautiful decoration for your bathroom.
9. Tillandsia Bulbosa “Bulbous Air Plant”
If your bathroom gets sun for a few hours per day, storing a bulbous air plant in it is a good choice as it thrives in bright, indirect light. This is why it also works well when stored with other terrarium plants.
Although this air plant only flowers once a year, its dark-green leaves become violet in color when it’s ready to bloom. It’s called a bulbous air plant because it has tendrils that stretch from its central bulb and these are green in color.
This plant doesn’t need regular watering. Just mist it twice weekly with water in a spray bottle, without soaking the leaves. The Bulbous is fascinating because it has hair-like structures on its leaves called trichomes which draw moisture. When found in drier regions, there will be more trichomes on the plant that make it white or silver in color.
The plant is generally low-maintenance, especially when it comes to temperature requirements. It can handle a variety of temperatures as long as they are higher than 55°F (12.7°C). Since the ideal temperature for a bathroom is around 73°F (23°C), it’s the perfect location.
10. Tillandsia Capitata “Peach”
This air plant is called “peach” because it has a rosette of curled, silver-green leaves that become a pastel peach color when the plant gets ready to flower. When it blooms, it displays gorgeous yellow and purple flowers.
Just like with other air plants, misting it regularly helps to keep it hydrated. You should mist it about once or twice a week and submerge it in water for 15 minutes once a week. If the temperature is hot in your region, you should submerge it for an hour once a week.
Make sure it doesn’t get too much light, as this can cause its leaves to become yellow. It wants bright, but indirect light so keep it where sunlight is not directly hitting your bathroom.
It’s quite low-maintenance when it comes to humidity requirements – it perfectly tolerates being in high humidity. If you’re giving your plant a bit more light or your bathroom gets hot, you should mist it more frequently so that it will better tolerate the heat.
Conclusion
If you love air plants, you’ll appreciate that they’re easy to look after and low-maintenance, making them ideal for beginners. You can also store many of them in the bathroom, as the humid, indirect-light conditions help them to grow and be healthy.
As we’ve seen in this guide, some of the best air plants to keep in your bathroom include the Sky Plant, Pink Quill, and Snowball. They all can bring a little bit of drama and beauty to your bathroom. We hope we were helpful!
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