Dieffenbachia is an excellent low-maintenance plant for beginner plant lovers. The plants are easiest to take care of, can be easily propagated, and look beautiful as they fill any empty corner of your house and bring lush green colors to any bland room.
Dieffenbachia can tolerate low light and less watering, which is why they are an excellent choice of plants for people with hectic schedules. Dieffenbachia, also known as dumb-cane, are beautiful houseplants that can be kept in homes and offices, and the reason why they look so lush and stunning is because of their large blue-green leaves with cream color or white spots.
When searching for houseplants, we often grab the first plant that catches our attention with its beauty. However, it is to be noted that plants kept indoors should have one or more characteristics that enable them to survive in low light conditions inside your bedroom or office.
Appropriate lighting is one of the critical factors that grows and thrives a plant, and there is a lack of it indoors. Even now, many houseplants are adapted to the low light conditions, but it is still essential to know which part of your house you are keeping your plant in. Keeping a sensitive plant in a bright room that receives direct sunlight will scorch its leaves, and maintaining a plant that needs intense light in a dark room will wilt it.
Even when determining a low light location for your plant, monitoring the light intensity as the season change is important. Since houseplants are kept in low light, they require less watering than regular plants. You need to check whether the soil or your plant is wet enough but not soggy, as it causes root rot. Many houseplant owners manage to kill their plants by overwatering them.
Growing and Keeping a Dieffenbachia in Your House
Dieffenbachia is a tropical plant that requires warm and humid conditions for ideal growth. They should be kept in a bright spot of your house, but if the air is too dry for them, they start showing symptoms by turning their leaves brown from the tips and edges.
Dieffenbachia plants have regular moderate watering, and you should not keep their soil wet and soggy for extensive periods. These plants can easily die from overwatering, so if you are unsure whether you should water them or not, it is best to keep them on the dry side.
Dieffenbachia purifies the air and grows well if you use a high-quality fertilizer. However, the plant stem, roots, and leaves contain a non-soluble substance, calcium oxalate, which can produce pain and swelling if it comes directly in contact with the skin, tongue, and eyes.
People love to keep dieffenbachia in their houses as they grow quickly and stand tall, which makes them suitable for corners of your bedroom or an office. Over 50 species of dieffenbachia boast several shades of cream-colored, yellow, or white splotches on its beautiful lush green leaf base. So if you are fond of this plant, you can choose from many varieties.
Also, check: Should I Use Coffee Grounds on My Dieffenbachia?
1. Dieffenbachia Camille
Dieffenbachia Camille is the most beautiful variety of dieffenbachia as they have an ivory-colored center with dark green leaf edges.
2. Dieffenbachia Compacta
Dieffenbachia compacta have medium green leaves with creamy yellow splotches, which purify the air efficiently.
3. Dieffenbachia Delilah
Dieffenbachia Delilah has large creamy white leaves spotted with dark green color.
4. Dieffenbachia Carina
This variety has medium-sized green leaves decorated with light and dark green splotches.
5. Dieffenbachia Honeydew
Dieffenbachia honeydew has large golden yellow leaves that are edged with a lovely dark green shade.
6. Dieffenbachia Exotica
Dieffenbachia exotica looks like dieffenbachia Camille, except that the leaves have more green color than the previous plant.
7. Dieffenbachia Rebecca
Dieffenbachia Rebecca is a more compact dieffenbachia variety and has bright yellow leaves edged with a green shade.
8. Dieffenbachia Sarah
Dieffenbachia Sarah is one of the prettiest dieffenbachia varieties as the dark green leaves fade to cream color at the center and are spotted with medium green.
9. Dieffenbachia Sparkles
Another lovely variety of dieffenbachia has light green leaves spotted with white and dark green colors.
10. Dieffenbachia Tiki
Dieffenbachia tiki has upright, wavy green foliage spotted with grey and white colors.
Click this link: Do Dieffenbachia Like Humidity? [Signs And Process]
Plants Similar to Dieffenbachia
Some plant owners love to pair their dieffenbachia with other houseplants. However, they should consider that all the houseplants must have similar requirements and growing conditions. Otherwise, it would become challenging to take care of them at once.
1. Peace Lily
Peace Lily has beautiful dark green shiny foliage and often sports white or pink flowers. Like dieffenbachia, it is a member of the aroid family. However, while dieffenbachia rarely flowers when kept indoors, peace lilies give rise to stunning creamy white flowers when kept in bright sunlight.
Peace lilies require moist soil to grow properly and thrive in indoor areas that receive indirect sunlight. It should be kept in a much brighter place to make the plant bloom.
Peace lilies are tropical plants like dieffenbachia, so you should keep them in warm areas. The plant is similar to dieffenbachia as it also contains calcium oxalate crystals.
A peace lily can outgrow its pot, so ensure that you move your peace lily to a larger container when it reaches a specific size.
2. Chinese Evergreen
Chinese evergreen, also known as aglaonema, has a striking similarity to dieffenbachia in its appearance. This plant looks like dieffenbachia as they both produce oblong or elliptic green leaves with mottled patterns on their surface.
A way to distinguish aglaonema from dieffenbachia is to see the color of splotches on the leaves. Aglaonema leaves have silvery splotches, while dieffenbachia has creamy white or yellow patterns on the leaves.
Chinese evergreen is low maintenance and hard-to-kill houseplant placed in shopping malls and closed restaurants, as it requires low light and humidity for survival.
These plants require light fertilizers and watering once a week. Like dieffenbachia, they are easy to propagate as you can set a stem cutting in water, which grows new roots in only a few weeks.
3. Cast Iron Plant
As its name suggests, cast iron plants are hard to kill and resilient houseplants that resemble dieffenbachia in their ability to thrive in low light and less watering.
The plant takes years to mature, reaching three feet in height and two to three feet wide. The plant features tall and attractive shiny green leaves and enjoys living in areas with moderate to low humidity levels.
Cast iron plants prefer shady and low-temperature environments, as direct sunlight can scorch and bleach their leaves. This plant’s soil should be allowed to dry between watering and requires less fertilizer.
4. Lucky Bamboo
Lucky bamboo is an eye-catching plant with swirls and braided stalks, and they are usually kept as an attractive decoration in offices and houses. It got its name from bamboo, as the plant grows fast, but it is a succulent, which means it can survive at the hands of beginner plant lovers who sometimes forget to water them.
The lucky bamboo prefers bright, but filtered sunlight, and the plant is very sensitive to hard water containing lots of minerals. Consider watering lucky bamboo with distilled water, and keep them in a warm environment with average humidity.
5. Kentia Palm
Like dieffenbachia, kentia palms can thrive in indirect sunlight and reach 12 feet in its height. They are slow-growing plants and cannot survive much longer in drought-like conditions.
The kentia palm requires warm conditions for better growth, so if temperatures drop below 25°F, keep them away from freezing areas. On the other hand, in summer, keep them away from direct sunlight.
Kentia palms are excellent air purifiers, and their lush and tropical foliage can bring colors to any dull room. If taken care of properly, they can grow to impressive heights as the plant is resilient to cold and warm temperatures and requires less maintenance.
Have a look: Dieffenbachia Repotting – What You Need to Know
6. Devil’s Ivy
Devil’s ivy is an excellent houseplant that is easy to grow, and its vines can be used to cover any specific area of your house. The long vines are trimmed to control their shape, and the cuttings make it easy to propagate this plant, just like dieffenbachia.
Another similarity this plant shares with dieffenbachia is the presence of calcium oxalate crystals, which makes this plant poisonous as it can cause pain and swelling on the skin, tongue, and lips if directly contacted.
Devil’s ivy can be kept in a light spot that doesn’t have direct sunlight. Their soil must be moderately damp but not soaked through. They require light feeding once a month.
Devil’s ivy or pothos easily climb support, which is why they can take any shape and be displayed as a hanging plant.
7. Spider plant
Spider plants are pretty and delicate houseplants that grow very quickly, and the baby plants are produced as small replicas of the parent plant. The babies are attached to the main plant as a web; you can either detach them or leave them on the main plant to grow their roots.
Spider plants prefer moderate watering and shouldn’t be kept in too bright or too light areas. Intense, bright heat can scorch their leaves and produce brown spots on their surfaces.
Spider plants look pretty sitting on a shelf or office desk and require significantly less water and fertilizers to thrive.
Conclusion
All the plants discussed above share one or more qualities with dieffenbachia. It would be best if you acquainted yourself with the specific conditions in which these plants thrive so that you can give them the best environment in which they can reach their full potential in terms of growth and beauty.
You can also read through more house plant articles:
- Why My Dieffenbachia Leaves Are Turning White? [7 Reasons]
- Can You Grow Dieffenbachia in Water?
- Are Dieffenbachia Toxic To Dogs?
- Are Dieffenbachia Toxic To Cats?
Hi! I’m Sophia, and I love plants – especially an expert in growing house plants. I stay in Chicago, United States of America, and through my blog and social media platforms, provide tips and tricks on how to grow healthy, vibrant plants indoors. Check out more here.