Haworthia, the zebra cactus

The zebra succulent

My last plant post featured a lil' speed demon (Mottled Imbe can grow 10 feet per year), so now it's time to slow it down a notch with Haworthia, the zebra cactus.

Haworthia is a slow and stable succulent that doesn't need very much in terms of care. This makes it fantastic as a starter houseplant, but also a little bit ho-hum if you're looking for something with a little viv and pep. Haworthias are not the star of the houseplant show, and will happily hang out in the background while you preen over the fussier plants (*cough Alocasias cough*). They'll just keep looking sleek and modern on a shelf somewhere, and if you happen to remember to water them every once in a while, they'll reward you by growing another .001 centimeters. They're a perfect desk plant, because they won't care one bit if you take a long weekend or go on vacation for a few weeks, and they'll be perfectly happy with the indirect light of fluorescent overheads. 

Light: Bright indirect sunlight. They hate direct sunlight — it will turn the tips of the leaves crispy and brown. Right now I have one that's hanging out 8 feet away from a west-facing window — far enough that it doesn't get any rays of direct light. They do okay with low-light (I had one for years in a north-facing window), but they'll just kind of manage to stay alive rather than actually grow.

Water: DO NOT overwater! This is true with all succulents, but because Haworthias are sort of aloe-y, they'll store lots of water in their leaves. The moment you overwater, the leaves will turn dull green, then yellow, then brown, then squishy, and then the whole plant will rot away and die. Don't do that! Give it a shot glass of water every few weeks or so, maybe even less in the winter. I've had mine for more than a month, and I'm not sure if I've ever watered it. It's doing great.

Fertilizer: Only feed occasionally, with something that's very diluted. You can feed once or twice in the summer with a cactus fertilizer. Don't feed it during the winter — the mixture will scorch the plant while it's dormant.

Because these plants are so distinctive and perky, they're really fun to put in interesting containers (as long as the containers have drainage holes!!). Right now mine is in an antique tin can, but I've seen them for sale in teacups, plastic dinosaurs, sweet little pinch pots, ceramic pandas, glass globes... Because they grow very slowly, it's unlikely that you'll need to repot for a long time, so go wild.