In the event you’re into low-maintenance houseplants, you could have pots with purple passion plant, ZZ plant, or wandering dude in your private houseplant collection.
However when you’re on the lookout for one thing completely different, a plant with textural curiosity and mushy, touchable branches, Norfolk Island pine is a enjoyable selection for any brightly-lit room of your own home.
The branches of this tree are set in eye-catching whorls across the trunk, giving it an interesting type. Curiously, this evergreen isn’t actually a pine. Norfolk pine is a part of an ancient plant family named Araucariaceae, which was widespread in the course of the Jurassic and Cretaceous intervals.
Native to the South Pacific, this evergreen can attain 200 ft tall in its pure habitat, with trunks 10 ft in diameter!
Fortunately, when grown indoors, they do not get almost that large. However Norfolk Island pines can nonetheless max out at 6 to 9 ft tall.
On the holidays, Norfolk pines typically are offered as residing Christmas timber. They make nice presents and cute tabletop timber for small areas in your house, condo or dorm. Better of all? With the correct care, Norfolk Island pines can final for years nicely past the vacations.
Learn extra: How to Care for a Christmas Cactus So It Blooms All Season Long
Learn on to learn to care in your Norfolk Island pine:
Why Belief Us?
I am a backyard author with greater than 15 years of expertise rising houseplants, edibles, and panorama plantings. I additionally trial new plant cultivars for efficiency and reliability, and take a look at backyard merchandise to judge practicality and sturdiness. I’ve been rising Norfolk Island pines for a few years and have two which can be at the very least a decade previous.
Norfolk Island Pine Plant Primary Information:
- Frequent Identify: Norfolk Island pine, Norfolk pine, Australian Pine
- Botanical Identify: Araucaria heterophylla
- Plant Household: Araucariaceae
- Kind of Plant: Tree, houseplant
- Native Origin: South Pacific, particularly Norfolk Island off of Australia’s coast
- Solar Publicity: Full solar outdoor, vibrant mild indoors
- Mature Dimension: 200 ft tall outdoor, 10 ft indoors
- Poisonous to pets: No
How Do You Take care of Norfolk Island Pine?
The largest problem is to offer your Norfolk Island pine as a lot mild as doable.
They like very vibrant mild, ideally with some direct morning solar. To assist the plant develop extra evenly, rotate the pot each few weeks. These crops additionally do nicely beneath a develop mild, when you don’t have vibrant, sunny home windows.
Vibrant mild retains new progress dense and compact. If it’s not getting ample mild, Norfolk pines are likely to get leggy, and their branches droop. This causes them to look extra whimsical and wispy, like Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree.
It is not essential, however you possibly can feed Norfolk pine a few times a yr, when you like, with any general-purpose houseplant food.
Additionally, don’t place this plant instantly in entrance of warmth vents or drafty home windows. That makes it very sad, and it’ll drop branches, which won’t regrow.
How Do You Water Norfolk Island Pine?
Norfolk Island pines choose to remain flippantly moist. It’s okay if it feels a wee bit dry on the floor of the soil, however don’t let it dry out any additional.
This plant will get super-fussy if it doesn’t obtain ample, constant moisture and can begin dropping decrease branches.
Norfolk pines additionally like excessive humidity ranges (increased than 50 p.c), which is hard to attain indoors within the winter in most houses. Assist it out by grouping it with different houseplants in order that their transpiration (once they launch water vapor) will be mutually helpful, or run a humidifier nearby. FYI, it doesn’t matter what you’ve heard, misting crops doesn’t elevate humidity ranges.
Can You Beautify a Norfolk Island Pine?
Completely! This plant is usually offered as a vacation tabletop tree. Be sure to select one which isn’t already dropping branches or dried out as a result of it’s not going to recuperate.
Additionally, the fragile branches aren’t sturdy sufficient for heavy ornaments, so use mini ornaments and LED lights, which additionally will likely be much less prone to dry it out.
Learn extra: 10 Simple Care Tips to Make Your Poinsettia Last Beyond Christmas
Ought to You Prune a Norfolk Pine?
It’s not beneficial.
You possibly can lower off lifeless decrease branches or uneven tricks to neaten it up, nevertheless it’s not going to stimulate progress, as pruning does when trimming different houseplants comparable to pothos or philodendron.
In case your tree will get too tall for your own home, you possibly can trim off the central chief, or high of the plant, to halt upward progress. Or attempt to discover it a brand new dwelling.
It’s additionally okay so as to add it to your compost bin and begin over, if it begins to look gangly.
Can You Develop Norfolk Island Pine Open air?
In USDA Hardiness zones 10 and hotter (discover your zone here), you possibly can develop Norfolk pine outdoor. However due to its vulnerability to wind injury as a consequence of its mature top and form, it is sometimes not beneficial as a panorama plant in hurricane-prone places, comparable to South Florida. It additionally tends to develop giant floor roots, so it is not a good shade tree.
Are Norfolk Island Pines Poisonous to Pets?
In accordance with ASPCA, Norfolk Island pines are not toxic pets. Nonetheless, any plant could cause GI upset in case your pet ingests sufficient of it, so name your vet immediately when you suspect your pet has eaten this plant. It’s all the time higher to be protected than sorry.
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Arricca Elin SanSone has written about well being and life-style subjects for Prevention, Nation Residing, Girl’s Day, and extra. She’s obsessed with gardening, baking, studying, and spending time with the folks and canine she loves.