It is a fact that several plants will bloom with no light except that ordinary fluorescent lights. I tried the experiment last winter despite much advice against it.
Everyone I asked said plants would not thrive and bloom without some daylight. But I had various plants bloom in the partial or complete shade, which responded beautifully to the fluorescent light in my basement.
I am sure the basement’s even temperature and humid air had much to do with my success. Anyone who has grown houseplants knows that the hot, dry air of the average living room is a significant drawback.
Significantly, few plants can bloom in winter without adding extra moisture to the atmosphere. No excess heat was used, just from the basement’s stoker-fired soft coal hot air furnace.
It was located some 25’ feet from the flowers. The temperature was usually about 60° degrees Fahrenheit.
African Violets Success
The African violets grew with great success. They did not have as many blossoms as daylight produces, but the blooms were much more significant.
The foliage was nicer looking than I have had in any other location. The African violets were relatively small plants when they were put under the lights.
They grew into blooming plants in a few months. However, those I carried upstairs to the living room windows did not stop blooming.
Sick-looking plants perked up in a short time when I put them in the basement under the fluorescent lights. A few that had crown rot were cut off at the soil line and set in soup plates of water to re-root.
In 10 days or two weeks, tiny white roots started. More than one bloomed in the water when I slowly put them back in the soil.
Growing Plants Under The Fluorescent Lights
Amaryllis bulb blooms were spectacular under the fluorescent lights. Indeed, blossoms that come from amaryllis depend primarily on the size and health of the bulb, but even the best of bulbs must have plenty of light to bring them into flower.
Begonia semperflorens and shrimp plant, Beloperone guttata, both were covered with flowers for many weeks with no other light than that from two 40-watt white fluorescent bulbs.
I had primrose buds that dried up without opening upstairs. In February, I put the plant in the basement under the fluorescent light, new buds came, and it bloomed until late spring.
The fluorescent lights kept ferns and various foliage plants fresh and green all Winter, with no dropping or brown leaves like those observed in the living room.
My regular utility fluorescent fixture, with two 40-watt white bulbs, was hung by chains, which came with the institution, 3’ feet above the table for the flowers.
Naturally, the plants were less than 3’ feet from the lights, depending on the size of the plants. Most of the low growers, I set on tall juice cans. I kept the lights on for 14 hours a day.
Using fluorescent lights is a very inexpensive way to have more room for Winter plants. The fixtures are comparatively cheap, and the cost of the electricity to operate them is small. I have found very little difference in our electric bill since using mine.
You are likely thinking, “I do not want to run up and down basement stairs to see my flowers.”
I will admit that is a drawback, but that is the only place I had the extra room, and it did enable me to have blooming plants in my living room all winter that I had never had before.
It certainly will be a lovely decorative project for my basement recreation room — if I ever finish it!
44659 by Pearl Arthur