Aglaonema, the Chinese evergreen, is a patterned tropical foliage plant from Southeast Asian forest floors, and it keeps its leaf colour in dimmer light than any other coloured-leaf houseplant sold in the UAE. This guide ranks it on light against four other coloured-leaf plants, then covers watering in a cooled flat, the red cultivar exception, and the four problems owners report.
How much light does Aglaonema need?
Green and silver Aglaonema holds its colour at around 500 lux, the level of a room lit by a window on the far wall. Red and pink cultivars need roughly 1,000 to 2,000 lux. Below those levels growth stops first, then new leaves come out smaller and plainer.
A lux reading from a phone app is close enough for Aglaonema. Hold the phone flat where the leaves sit, at midday, with the blinds as you normally keep them.
Direct sun is the opposite risk. An hour of afternoon sun through west facing glass in May bleaches pale patches onto the leaf that never green up again.
Why Aglaonema tolerates less light than other coloured plants
Aglaonema tolerates the least light of the common coloured-leaf plants because its pattern is mostly silver and pale green laid over a working green leaf. Crotons, coleus and polka dot plants rely on red and yellow pigments that the plant only maintains when it's getting strong light.
Ranked from the lowest light floor to the highest, six coloured-leaf plants and cultivars sold here line up like this.
- Silver and green Aglaonema, such as 'Silver Bay' and 'Maria', keep their pattern at about 500 lux.
- Prayer plant, Maranta leuconeura, holds its markings from about 1,000 lux.
- Red and pink Aglaonema, such as 'Siam Aurora' and 'Lady Valentine', need 1,000 to 2,000 lux.
- Polka dot plant, Hypoestes, goes leggy and loses its spots under about 2,000 lux.
- Dracaena marginata 'Tricolor' fades its pink edge under about 2,500 lux.
- Croton, Codiaeum, keeps its reds only in a spot with 4 or more hours of sun on the leaves.
The gap between the top and bottom of that list is large. Croton wants outdoor level light. Silver Aglaonema is content with what reaches a sofa across the room.
That's why an interior designer asking for colour in a dim Dubai corridor or an inside corner of a living room ends up with Aglaonema almost every time.
How to water Aglaonema in an air conditioned home
Water Aglaonema when the upper third of the mix has dried, giving enough that water escapes through the base, since its thick stems hold some water between drinks. In a 17 cm pot in a dim cooled room that works out to every 10 to 14 days. Brighter spots dry the pot faster, in about a week.
Low light and slow drying go together. A plant getting 500 lux uses very little water, so the dimmer the position, the longer the gap.
Sink a wooden chopstick right down to the base of the 17 cm pot and leave it for a minute. Dark and damp at the tip means wait.
Tip out any water left in the saucer within 20 minutes. Aglaonema stems rot at the soil line faster than the roots do, and water standing in the saucer is the usual cause.
From October to May, give a quarter strength feed every four weeks. Stop through the summer months, when growth slows in the heat even indoors.
Common Aglaonema problems
Four problems account for most Aglaonema complaints in the UAE: yellowing lower leaves, a red cultivar turning green, brown curled leaf edges and mealybugs in the leaf bases. Each has a different cause, and only one of them is about light.
Yellowing starts at the oldest, lowest leaves and spreads upward when the mix stays wet. A single old leaf yellowing every couple of months is normal turnover.
A red or pink cultivar going green is the light floor at work. Move it closer to the window and the next leaf comes out coloured.
Brown, curled edges point at chill. Aglaonema marks below about 15C, so keep it off a cold marble ledge on winter nights.
Mealybugs sit where the leaf sheaths wrap the stem. Check there when you water.
The sap contains calcium oxalate crystals, which irritate the mouth of a cat or dog that chews a leaf. Place it out of reach of pets that nibble.
Brown tips on an otherwise healthy plant trace back to the salts in desalinated tap water, a UAE wide cause that the UAE plant care guide explains alongside heat and AC, since it affects every plant in the home.
Choosing an Aglaonema for a dim room
For a room with no direct light, choose a silver or green cultivar and keep the pink and red ones for brighter positions. That single choice decides whether the plant looks the same after a year as it did on the day it arrived.
Shoppers comparing aglaonema against other shade tolerant plants will find it sits in the same group as snake plant and ZZ plant, and it's the one in that group with patterned leaves.
FAQ
Most questions about Aglaonema come from owners of pink leaved plants, since those are the ones that change most in a dim flat. The two below cover what happens without any window at all and how fast the plant grows once it has settled in.
Can Aglaonema grow without a window?
No, not for long under ordinary room lights alone. A green Aglaonema holds on for three to four months under ceiling lights, then stops producing leaves. A daylight LED bulb 50 cm above the plant, left on 10 hours a day, keeps it growing in a windowless office.
How many new leaves does Aglaonema grow in a year?
An Aglaonema in good indirect light produces around six to ten new leaves a year, mostly between October and May. In a dim position the count drops to three or four. At that pace it rarely needs repotting more than every two years.