Small, brightly veined and safe around cats and dogs, hand delivered same day in Brisbane
A fittonia is the one to send when the household has a cat or a dog, or when there's no room left for anything bigger. It's a low, spreading plant that rarely gets taller than 15cm or so, which means it fits a desk, a bathroom windowsill, or the shelf everything else has already been pushed off. The veining does the work a larger plant would do with sheer size.
That makes it an easy get well plant for a bedside table, where something tall would only be in the way and a curious pet is no concern. It reads well as a thank you plant for a colleague's desk, and as a birthday plant gift for someone whose place is already full of green.
Yes, fittonia are non-toxic to cats and dogs. That matters more than it sounds, because a lot of the plants people reach for first are not: philodendron, pothos, peace lily and the rest of the Araceae all carry calcium oxalate in the sap, and a chewed leaf leaves an animal drooling and off its food for a while. A fittonia in the same room is a non-event.
It's not the only safe option we deliver. Calathea gives you patterned leaves with purple undersides and copes with a dimmer room, and peperomia obtusifolia is thick-leaved and close to a succulent in feel. All three are safe around pets, so the choice comes down to the light in the room and how much space there is.
A fittonia collapses flat when the soil dries out. Every leaf goes limp, the whole plant lies down, and it looks finished. Water it and it stands back up within the hour, usually with nothing to show for it.
This is the plant's one alarming habit and it's worth knowing before it happens, because the search people run after a week of owning one is "fittonia drooping". The faint is a warning system rather than damage: the plant is telling you it's thirsty in the most obvious way it can. Let it happen repeatedly and the oldest leaves will crisp at the edges, so the aim is to water before the collapse, not after it.
Medium indirect light and no direct sun, which scorches the thin leaves fast. Keep the soil evenly moist rather than letting it dry between watering, and check it every couple of days in summer. Humidity is the other half of it: fittonia come off a rainforest floor and they want air far damper than a Brisbane winter indoors provides. A bathroom, a kitchen windowsill or a closed glass container all suit them. Pinch the growing tips out now and then and the plant stays bushy instead of going leggy.
Dry air, nearly always. Brown, papery leaf edges on a plant whose soil is moist is the classic sign of humidity that's too low, and air conditioning or winter heating is usually behind it. Move it somewhere damper, group it with other plants, or stand the pot on a tray of pebbles and water so the air immediately around it stays humid.
Yes, and it's arguably where they do best. A closed glass container holds the humidity a fittonia wants and keeps the soil from swinging between wet and bone dry, which removes both of the things that make the plant sulk. Keep it out of direct sun, since glass magnifies heat, and pinch the tips back when it starts crowding the sides.
Here's the short version of what the genus wants and where it comes from.
Choose a pot on the product page before you check out, along with any giftware or a greeting card. A fittonia arrives small, so it's the smaller sizes in our indoor plant pots range that suit it, and something plain lets the veining carry the colour. The card message is one you write yourself at checkout.
Order before 12pm on a weekday, or before 10am on Saturday, and your fittonia goes out the same day. Our own couriers start their run in the early afternoon, and we aim to have homes delivered by 6pm and business addresses by 5pm, Monday to Saturday. Delivery is a flat $19.95 and there's no Sunday run. Check the address against the suburbs on our Brisbane delivery areas page before you order. We run the inner east through to the bayside and the Redlands, so a fittonia can land in Cannon Hill, Balmoral or Alexandra Hills on the same day you order it.
Delivered by our own couriers
Flat $19.95 delivery
Gift wrapped as standard
Same day before 12pm
