PlantFiles: Cast Iron Plant
Aspidistra elatior

i had always seen this plant in the malls around seattle, and just thought it was a tropical. then they remodled this one mall and planted it out side. thought for sure someone didnt know about the plant and it would die. ended up that i was the one who didnt know anything! they have been there for a coupple of years now and are doing great looking green, and spreading. i see this now at nureries and plan to buy some, but have noted that it is never out side and kept inside with the tropicals.... i find this odd now given the knowledge. must be a common misconseption?

We just moved into an apartment with a wild yard that was well cared for many years ago but has suffered flooding from Hurricane Katrina and years of neglect. The Cast Iron plants are thriving. I even found some in pots hidden behind the overgrowth and they are green and lovely though crowded. I've trimmed away the mangy, ripped leaves and much new growth is springing up in the shady, as-yet unfertilized courtyard garden I am trying to improve. The Cast Iron plants will be a nice backdrop for whatever I decide to put up front. Many leaves are two feet tall. They certainly deserve their name!

I keep this one as a house plant and it definitely lives up to its name! I sometimes forget to water it for several weeks, I never fertilize it (really, NEVER), I basically neglect the darned thing, and yet it survives. A wonderful plant for brown thumbs!

. . . or maybe I should have posted "positive." I found this plant growing in a neglected (shaded, never watered, or tended) area near my house in Z6. I've lived here 8 years and never knew what this plant was until last year. This summer I bought several at a garden center in Tulsa. I'll keep you posted as to whether they survive or thrive in my Z6 garden.

I bought two half-gallon plants from the houseplant section of a local nursery this past spring to plant outside as an experiment. During the past summer, they went through a 2 month long, record-breaking drought with no ill effects, and actually kept growing. During the same time period, I had to water all my other recently planted perrenials, trees and shrubs at least once a week to keep them from dying.

This winter, both plants have taken two weeks of temps below freezing (as well as multiple frosts and freezes before this latest one), and two nights of temps near zero (the official temp on my indoor/outdoor thermometor was 2.5 and 3.5 degrees, but they are in a shady spot under my bamboo grove in the woods, which is undoubtedly colder) with NO damage at all, so I can confirm that they are at least leaf-hardy to zone 7a, and they should be rood hardy throughout zone 6.

I'm planning on buying some more this spring to plant in some annoying dry, shady spots where other plants just won't grow, and I find that the ones I already have outside, once they spread, will make a nice ground cover under my bamboo grove.

According to my information this plant may be grown as a die back perennial in zone 6 if well mulched and maybe even zone 5.

Many folks here on the gulf coast use this to surround their oak trees. It looks nice and fills in all the gaps if left untendered!

These plants are evergreen here in my zone 8b garden near Gainesville, Florida. I was slow to warm up to this plant, as my parents had a clump in their garden that always looked ragged. I have since learned that the trick to keeping them looking neat and attractive in areas where they do not die back naturally is to cut them back to the ground every 2-3 years.

I would also like to mention that while the solid-colored variety is most common around here, there are rarer varieties with white splotches or white striation in the leaves. In my opinion, these are far more interesting, which goes against my general dislike for variegated foliage.

This plant is very tough and durable in my garden. Unfortunately the previous owners of my house planted the cast iron plant in an area of full sun instead of partial shade as they prefer. They're sunbleached and burnt looking at the ends. The clumps I've moved into shade look much better - greener, healthier, no brown leaf tips. I'm slowly but surely trying to give away or relocate the plants exposed to full sun.

Tough plant that seems to do better in loose-dry soil in shade to semi-shade. Has endured snow, frost, wind, etc with ease. root-bound plants seem to do better than plants with lots of growing space.

I have a Cast Iron Plant collection, i currently have 14 different types of cast iron plants. I have been collecting for 2 years, and i want to share some things about them with you. They are very easy easy to grow, i have not seen any pest's on them at all. I water them about once every two weeks. I have them all in clay pots in Scotts Cactus Mix, it does very well for inside plants and keeps them very dry, unlike other potting soil that keeps inside plants soaking wet. I try and water with botteld water, because tap water may have lots of salts that burn the tips of the plants. I keep the window in the room " a room inside my house that has all my cast iron plants in and nothing else" open sometimes at night. Right now some of my Cast Iron Plants are blooming! I never knew of anyone that had them bloom inside. If you grow yours inside, take some advice from what i have typed and maybe you will get yours to bloom too. There are about 34 different kinds of Cast Iron plants.

UPDATE(12-16-05)
Forgot to add that cast iron plants love organicly enriched soil. Dr. Earth All purpose fertailizer mixed in with the soil has always kept mine looking great! Cast Iron plants arnt picky, but it is always good to achive the needs of the plants. I had one in an 18 inch pot, it was very root bound, the rhizomes were exposed and the roots had taken up the whole pot, It was actually pushing itself up and out from the pot. I had a choice to divide this huge plant and get 4 plants our of it, or leave it. I left it the way it was and just found a 20 inch pot and re planted it. It has over 60 leaves and is very tall about 3 feet. It takes them a long time to reach that size and i didnt want to wait on it to grow back. Its very lush and dark green, i will upload a photo soon.

We have this growing in our yard for over 40 years and it is doing very well. But it has never bloomed.

I'm just here to tell you what I have learned from the Agriculture department, about Cast Iron Plant tip die back(leaf burn). Do you have a Cast Iron plant, and notice at the tips, that they are brown? Ever wonder what causes this? Well I took some leafs into the Ag. Department, come to find out, salt in the water/soil is the culprit. They suggested that I water now with drinking water that I can find at Wal-Mart/Albertsons/Von's, and so on.. Do not use distilled!!!! The salt in the tap water is what causes the burning edge's, and also stays in the soil.. So when you go get drinking water from the store, and you water your Cast Iron plant, make sure you water enough, so that the extra water comes out of the bottom of the pot, this will help leech out the salt in the soil.. If you can afford it, re-pot your Cast Iron plant with new soil and start him/her(Cast Iron plant) off with drinkin water, that will be a sure way to help him/her(Cast Iron plant)stay leaf burn free!!!

This plant is GREAT!!! WOW, i love it soo soo soo much, it is very nice looking in a terracota pot! I just love it, its so easy to grow, and it does respond well to fertalizer too.. I have it inside, next to a north facing window.. and its growing like crazy, well, its not that fast, but it sure is sending up new shoots.. I am thinking about buying another one for outside in the garden. If the soil isnt rich, and you dont water alot, it will turn varigated! Thats cool too, will live for many years in the same pot!

We had two problems mowing the yard (in San Antonio) - difficult to mow between live oak trees growing close together and areas with roots, stumps and rocks protruding from soil. Planting iron plants in these areas solved the problems. We give them lots of water for about a month after dividing and replanting. Then just forget them.

I live in central Ontario in Canada (zone 4a to 6b). I realize that an aspidistra would be unlikely to survive our winters. However, I have read that in Victorian times it was an extremely popular houseplant, although I can't find one here.

I have two Aspidistra elatior - one is 'Asahi', and the other is an unnamed variety I found at a nursery in Sacramento. They have done well since I planted them this spring.

Whether they will make it through the winter I don't know; my hardiness zone ranges from 6b in the more exposed parts of the garden to 8a in the sheltered areas (which is where I put the Aspidistras). They do well where little else grows.

Winter 2004 update: Aspidistra elatior DEFINITELY survives single-digit temperatures in a location sheltered from the wind with only minimal damage to the very tips of some leaves.

San Antonio, TX
An excellent shade plant that requires little effort, the cast iron plant provides a tropical look to any shady setting. Disease abd insect free, it just keeps on growing and multiplying. Sunlight will burn the leaves so be sure it is not exposed at any time of the day in order to ensure its attractiveness. It is an evergreen here. A severe freeze (survived 20 degress in pots with little ill effects) will scorch some of the leaves, but just cut them off. If just the tip looks discolored, the ugly area can be trimmed leaving the rest of the leaf.

Use it in masses and as a contrast to fern, hosta, caladium, dwarf Mexican petunia, coleus, dwarf plumbago, impatien and begonia.

Cast Iron Plants have grown in my grandparents' yard, (which is now my 97-year old aunt's yard), in southern Georgia (U.S.) since the 1950's. They are located under a large Oak tree and in front of Azaleas; they're attractive and virtually maintenance free.

I am currently looking for some Cast Iron plants to grow in my yard here in northcentral Florida (Zone 8b), as I have some areas of heavy shade, and the plants should stay evergreen here.

October 30, 2003: Finally found a big pot of cast iron plant last week, and planted it in front of 'Fashion' Glen Dale hybrid azaleas, which have pretty salmon colored flowers both in the Spring and the Fall, and under a large, spreading, native evergreen holly tree. I hope this plant will spread and make a nice, tall, deep green groundcover under this tree over the years. The leaves of my plant are quite tall and broad, so it must be an improved variety--I have never seen any cast iron plant so large, so I'm quite happy with it.

For a stunning effect, plant these around the trees in your yard. They are very attractive when planted very close to each other around a tree, so easy to grow and make quite a show.

I live in Zone 7b near Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.) and find that this plant does well year-round, it does not die back for me. The leaves grow to about 30" and add interest to my Hosta/shade garden.

About 10 years ago, I took some rooted cuttings of Cast Iron Plant from my father's garden in Jackson, Mississippi (U.S.)

The plants there grew to 4-5 feet and had magnificient foliage on the huge twisting leaves. The plants in my garden in central Arkansas grow no taller than 24" and usually die back to the ground in winter. I have a large black plastic planter (36") crammed with plants that I take into a protected area for the winter and these plants make a nice accent piece in summer.

The Cast Iron Plant is named for its tolerance for poor growing conditions. It spreads in clump and is a good plant for those very shady spaces.

Propagation: Division in late winter, early spring.