What it is
ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) is in the Araceae (Arum) family. Glossy and tough enough for a dark office corner - stores water in fat rhizomes and forgives neglect.
How to grow it
It wants low to bright indirect, water it very low, and give it any potting mix soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0-7.0. Space plants about Pot apart. Expect roughly Slow; leaf cuttings. Tender houseplant.
How it's used
ZZ Plant is used: houseplant.
🔎 How to identify it
- Glossy dark waxy leaflets
- Upright arching stems
- Potato-like rhizome
Not for eating
How to grow & propagate zz plant
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate zz plant
The arum family is propagated vegetatively, not from seed. The edible types (taro) grow from cormels — offsets you break off the parent corm. The houseplant members (pothos, philodendron, monstera) root from stem cuttings taken at a node; drop them in water and they'll root in a couple weeks.
Beginner's path: take more cuttings than you think you need. They're free, they cost you nothing but a few minutes, and the ones that take more than make up for the ones that don't. This is how a single plant becomes a hedge, a row, or a gift for every neighbor on the street.
Growing zz plant in Texas
Give it low to bright indirect and any potting mix soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly slow; leaf cuttings before you're harvesting. Pick herbs in the morning after the dew dries for the strongest oils, and harvest little and often — regular cutting keeps a herb bushy and stops it bolting.
Making more for free
If you want more, let your healthiest plants mature fully and collect the seed once it's dry on the plant — then store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry until next season.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.