Lucky feather is a good choice if you are looking for a low maintenance plant with low light requirements. Here you can find out what you need to consider when caring for and propagating this tropical plant.
Lucky feather, botanically named Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, is one of the easiest houseplants to care for. The plant originates from tropical regions and is characterized by its robustness. Lucky feathers are low maintenance, making it suitable for offices and frequent travelers. It also doesn’t need much light – so you can easily place it in dark corners such as hallways.
By the way, the lucky feather is slightly poisonous. Therefore, you should place it out of reach of children and pets.
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Lucky feather: This location is optimal
As already mentioned, lucky feather is a very hardy perennial plant. Therefore, it does not make any special demands on its location. You can use window places with a lot of light for other plants.
A semi-shaded location is best for the feather of happiness. It can still be bright, but direct sunlight should be avoided at all costs.
For example, shelves opposite windows, east or west windows and windowsills of north windows are suitable.
The lucky feather can also cope with dark spots – it just grows a little more slowly there.
Tip: In summer, you can also place the lucky feather on your balcony or terrace. Here, however, you should take special care that the plant does not get direct sunlight, especially midday sun.
Proper care of the lucky feather
To the delight of all plant lovers, lucky feathers are very low-maintenance houseplants. They are extremely undemanding, so you hardly need to pay attention to anything:
- Lucky feathers form thick rhizomes underground, in which they store water. Therefore, you should be sparing when watering. The plant likes it dry rather than too wet. Let the soil dry out before each watering and then water only a little. The feather of happiness will hardly forgive waterlogging. Important: If you notice yellow leaves on your feather of happiness, this usually indicates too much moisture. Then you should act quickly and get the plant out of the too wet soil and repot it.
- During the growing season between March and September, you should fertilize the feather of happiness once a month. Use either conventional liquid fertilizer, try fertilizer sticks or use homemade fertilizer.
- Lucky feathers grow relatively slowly. Nevertheless, you should repot them every two to three years. By the way, lucky feathers like it very tight in their pot. So you can leave them in the pot until it bends. Wait with repotting until the roots grow out of the bottom of the planter.
- You do not have to cut the lucky feather. If a leaf should die, simply remove it.
Propagate feather of happiness: 2 possibilities
If you want to propagate your lucky feather, you have two options: You can separate the rhizomes or use cuttings.
Propagation via rhizome separation
If you choose this option, it is best to wait until you repot the plant anyway.
In the course of this, you can separate the underground rhizomes (roots) with a sharp tool.
This way you will get independent plants that you can plant in separate pots.
Propagation by leaf cuttings
For this option you need a little more patience.
Simply cut off a few leaves from the mother plant and plant them in soil with the cut side down.
Keep the pots at least 20 degrees Celsius. A small indoor greenhouse, for example, is very suitable for this.
Keep the soil moist, but avoid waterlogging. As soon as roots have formed – which can sometimes take a long time – you can place the plants in their intended location.
