How To Care For A Dramatic & Colorful Prayer Plant At Home

Prayer plants may be one of the most fun houseplants you ever add to your growing collection. Aside from being incredibly animated, these plants have picturesque markings that make them easy to spot in a crowd. Whether you're new to this plant-parent thing or a seasoned pro, read on for everything you need to know about taking care of this intriguing houseplant.

You'll have a good chance of finding one in a nursery near you, but if you do have any trouble, try an online nursery or peek around Etsy.

Some of the most popular types of prayer plants you're likely to find when you go shopping include:

Prayer plants typically do better as indoor plants because of how temperamental they are about sunlight. They tend to do best when they're placed a few inches away from windows—particularly ones that get soft, north-facing light. "Prayer plants also do really well on shelves because they don't need really intense light the way other plants do," Gubler tells mbg. 

Once your prayer plant is set up in your home, here are some top tips for keeping it looking colorful and vibrant.

"Be sure to keep the soil moist but not soaking wet," says Ashlie Thomas, organic farmer and founder of The Mocha Gardener on Instagram. You don't need to oversaturate your plant. Ever. Just water it every one to two weeks or "when the top third of the planter depth is dried out," says Gubler.

Your average soil with a neutral pH will do. "You don't need anything that's going to intensely drain or retain moisture," says Gubler. She suggests a very basic potting soil.

Your prayer plant will not do well in direct sun. "The more sun you provide, the more unstable they become," says Thomas. Save the prime-time windowsill spaces for your sun-loving plants, and put these in a spot that gets indirect light.

Since they hail from tropical regions, prayer plants enjoy humid conditions. "Grouping plants together is a great way to slightly increase humidity," explains Gubler. You can also place your plant near a humidifier or in a steamy bathroom to keep them moist.

There's some discrepancy from our experts around how frequently to feed your prayer plant, from every time you water to every two to four weeks depending on the season. So it may be best to create a feeding schedule that works for your lifestyle (and memory).

Even if you have the greenest thumb in the world, sometimes problems are bound to come up with your houseplants. Here are some of the most common issues to look out for with a prayer plant:

Yes, you can propagate your prayer plant! Gubler says that the easiest way to do so is with water propagation. Here's how it's done:

"There are spots on the vine by the leaves where there are nodes," says Gubler. "Cut in on the section between two leaves, the inner node." You only need one node to propagate your prayer plant.

Go ahead and put your newly cut node into a cup of "room temperature water with a quarter-strength plant food," Gubler explains.

This part could take months. And that's OK! "As long as it's green and the water stays clean and clear, it will be fine," Gubler tells mbg.

Once you start to see tiny white roots, go ahead and transfer your cutting to a pot with balanced potting soil. "Make sure that you keep it really saturated [with water] as the roots grow and get used to that environment," says Gubler. Voilà—that's how you can water propagate your prayer plant.

The prayer plant is a wildly animated houseplant that loves humid environments but is a little sensitive about light. It's a little fussier to take care of than, say, a ZZ plant, but gosh, when it thrives, it thrives.