Where to Put an Air Plant: Light, Airflow and What Kills Them

Air movement matters as much as light

An air plant has no pot, no compost and no roots doing any real work, so everything it needs arrives at the leaf surface. Water arrives there and, just as importantly, has to leave from there. In still air the plant simply stays damp for too long after every soak, and that is the whole mechanism behind most losses.

Choose a position where you can feel a little air movement: near an open window in mild weather, in a room with a fan running some of the time, or anywhere that is not a sealed alcove. Avoid the direct blast from a heating or cooling vent, which dries the plant out faster than it can absorb and browns the tips within days.

Light: bright, indirect, and more for the silver ones

The right light is bright enough to read comfortably without a lamp, with no direct midday sun landing on the plant. An east facing position with a few hours of soft morning sun is close to ideal. A south or west window works if the plant sits a few feet back or behind a sheer curtain.

The silvery, dusty looking plants come from brighter, more exposed positions and want noticeably more light than the green smooth ones. Put the silver ones nearest the glass and the green glossy ones further into the room or in the shadier part of the same window. Getting this backwards is why one shelf of plants can contain both a scorched one and a stretched, pale one at the same time.

Turn each plant a half turn every couple of weeks. They lean towards the light and set into a curve that does not straighten out afterwards.

Never glue one down, and never seal one in

Two popular ways of displaying air plants kill them reliably, and both are worth stating plainly. The first is glue. Fixing the base of a plant to driftwood, a shell or a magnet with adhesive damages the tissue exactly where new pups emerge, and it makes it impossible to take the plant down and soak and drain it properly. A glued plant is on a countdown from the day it is stuck.

The second is a closed glass globe or a lidded terrarium. Air plants need the air to change around them, and a sealed vessel holds humid, still air against the leaves indefinitely. Even without watering, condensation on the inside of the glass is enough to start rot at the base. If you like the look of glass, use an open sided globe, take the plant out to soak it, and put it back only when it is completely dry.

1. Mount it so it can come off Use a loop of fishing line, thin wire, a plant tie or a wire hook that lets you lift the plant off in one movement. If you cannot remove it in two seconds you will not soak it properly, and that alone decides its fate.
2. Sit it base up in an open holder A wire cradle, an open ring, a piece of cork bark or a shallow dish with no water in it all work. The one requirement is that air reaches the base from below rather than the base sitting flat on a solid surface.
3. Keep it out of shells and cups Any container with a solid bottom traps the water that runs out of the base after a soak. If you want to use one for display, put the plant back only once it is bone dry, and lift it out again before every soak.
4. Let a mounted plant attach on its own Over a season, a plant tied to bark or cork sends out its own anchoring roots and holds itself on. Those roots are for gripping, not for feeding, so you never need to water anything but the leaves.

Temperature and moving it through the year

Air plants are comfortable in the same range people are, roughly 55 to 85F (13 to 29C). They tolerate warmth well as long as air is moving, and they suffer quickly below about 45F (7C). Frost kills them outright, and the damage shows within a day as translucent, water soaked patches that then turn brown.

Because the sun's angle changes, the right position changes too. A spot that was perfect at a south window in autumn becomes too strong by late spring, and a summer position three feet into the room becomes too dim once the light weakens.

Outdoors in summer shade suits them very well, but bring them in before nights drop below 50F (10C) and never leave one where it will sit in prolonged rain with no air moving.

Reading the position from the plant

The plant tells you whether the position is right, usually within a few weeks of a move. Learn these four signals and you can place a new plant confidently rather than by trial and error.