Hi!
Love your question!
First of all, AVs are conversation starters, they have unique personalities and folks like us love to talk about our "pet plants." The short answer is, no, not enough light. Over the long haul, it could be the start of spreading the "addiction," so are you ok with that? What starts out as just a few plants and for us looks like "just a few plants" for others can soon look like "too much." Consider what is appropriate in your office and go from there.

The long answer is bring one in to try but the minute it suffers, bring it home and swap it out. They won't die immediately, they will just begin to show the signs of lack of light intensity.

Longer answer, if the peace lily and pothos are doing well, they are low light plants so there is not enough light for AVs. Eight hours is sufficient but the light strength is not. Peace lilies and pothos are naturals for low office light and being quiet and inconspicuous, they blend with the surroundings and are neat and tidy. The Av will eventually stop blooming and the leaves will grow very green and large and get a "bubbly" or quilted look that they get in offices when there is not enough light. Try bringing in one, two, no more than three. No more than that.

AVs going to the office should be well grown and well-groomed, they should be symmetrical and in bloom. Once the blooms fade, them home and swap them out for replacements. Plants in the office are "going to work," so they should be decorative and ornamental. An office is not a true, healthy growing environment. Stale air, for one thing. Also, someone who is "allergic" might stop by your desk with a worried look. Reassure them AVs are ok for people with allergies.

Here is the other consideration.
The AVs are showy and will draw chit chat. Consider if you are ok with that and if you want to share about your hobby. Because soon you will be plucking leaves and they will sprout in glasses of water on co-workers desktops.
Bringing your hobby to work might be considered a distraction. A lot depends on your office, where you live, your boss, your co-workers. (Of course, if you are the boss, you can do whatever you want!)

Also consider weekends, is the office dark all weekend? Is there a night crew that goes around watering plants? If so, you will need to let them know not to water your plants. Do the lights sometimes stay on at night? Often, there is a "night light" so the plants are never in total darkness, which they do need to have the light-dark cycles to blooms.

Where I live, orchids or fresh flowers are considered acceptable on a desk in an office, or one to three AVs, as long as they are in bloom. When they are not in bloom or start to look messy, they are replaced.

I worked for a decade in an office where the owner was an AVSA member, and gradually converted many of us, it was a large office with many employees. We had AVs absolutely everywhere, but that is unusual. It did get out of hand, as they had to be groomed after hours, I lived closest to the office, so that was my job when folks went on vacation.

I also taught part time in a classroom, the kids loved fresh flowers or plants, so I brought them to school, but brought them home on the weekends.

Where I am working now, part time in an office when not teaching, I bring one plant to sit on my desk then bring it home when the blooms fade or give it away to a co-worker who admires it while it is still blooming. The ones I bring to work are ones I can live without. Joanne

This post was edited by fortyseven on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 14:56

I love all the thoughts Joanne shared--great to think about.

I would just add--could you put a lamp on your desk with a fluorescent bulb to supplement the light? I know Optimara has experimented with growing some of theirs that way and they do well.

when i grew AV under lights... the lights were about 4 inches from the plants ...

i bet.. the plants would live.. but rarely flower.. for lack of sufficient light ...

but watering might become a problem ... if the soil get cold.. and you tend to water it like a well grown pot ...

my first thought.. was as above ... just trade them out... take in one just on the edge of flowering... enjoy it for a week or two ... and when flowering turns down ... take it home.. and bring in a few more ...

this would be so easy for you.. as compared to me in MI.. transporting a plant or two in Jan in MI.. when its zero outside .... but i could work around that with a 6 pack cooler or some such.. for a short trip outdoors ...

GO FOR IT !!!!

ken

my 2 cents worth,

be cautious about A/C vents! My work would be great for av's except for the temp/drafts from over head a/c vents...pesky vents :(

Ya'll gave me the answer I was afraid of but was also thinking. BUT it never hurts to run it by others. So my office will have to remain just house plants and AV free. Even a light on my desk wouldn't help the fact that weekends are totally dark. Oh well. It was a thought.

I love Joanne's comment about swapping them out-I do that with streps. My office has lights under my cabinets and while they're not high intensity, they're bright enough for me to work with engineering drawings under. I've a couple AVs that do great there. Streps however, don't seem to do as well, so I swap them out every few weeks. Still pondering that! However, they bloom for such a long time period, that it's all good for me! :-)

Frankly I love having flowers on my desk, and again, Joanne is so correct-they start all kinds of conversations!

When I have taken them home to repot, that starts conversations too! It appears that folk just like to see them there-and worry when they're not there-it's too fun!

I've got a nice bushy ivy on my short bookcase that borders between a hallway and my cube, and people actually (Grin!) like to "pet" it. Isn't that too funny?

Maybe give it a whirl, vivay! It certainly won't hurt anything!

Best,
Judy

Vikki,

I also think the lack of humidity would be a big problem. I would do what Joanne says and bring in a bloomer on Monday and home on Friday. This way you will have a different flower each week!

Linda

You could use a supplemental lamp with a fluorescent bulb.

You could put it on a timer so that the lamp would turn on and off as needed every day (including weekends).

Timers and light all would work, but I'm not sure my boss would appreciate me using the company's electricity over the weekend just so my plants can have some light. I know it's not much money, but it's the principle of of that I think he would object to.

Wow, it's not like you're installing a 4ft fluorescent fixture... still, i can see some penny cruncher frowning at it... sad really.

Ha, if were to do that it wouldn't be a 4 foot light, but maybe a 2 foot one. I think it's more the thinking of 'What if everyone did that'. Lots of people have plants in the office and if I did it, I'm sure lots more would too.

I wish i had a photo of my mother's old office. you'd be jealous ;-p she had a tiny balcony, oodles of plants and a fridge. Yet, most of her time she spent on the road. (Regional newspaper).

To be honest, I think if you have "100s" of plants, you could spare 1-2 to try it out at your office.

Like others said, do it such that when they are blooming, use them in the office. When they're not, replace them with others that are blooming. In effect, it is like you are having "fresh flowers" but they are not cut -- they are growing from the plant.

And then of course, be careful of all the problems that the others mentioned, including the cleaning crew that might overwater.

For weekends, I would suggest a small grow light on a timer.

I might just try it with a few of my Optimaras. I wouldn't be horribly crushed it they didn't do so well.

Actually, your Optimaras should do all right ... even missing a couple days light per week.

Something else to think about is one of those combo plantings with one African Violet. When the AV is out of bloom, you can enjoy the Pothos, Philodendron, Ivy, etc.

I purchased and gave my customer service reps AVs for Customer Service week last year. A few took them home but most left at work.

To my surprise they have done well and bloom well! The local DMV had a lot of them for years which gave me the idea. They only have the overhead lighting and no lights on the weekend. I have become the plant doc for my two offices. Over watering is the most common problem. Two employees were trying to get them to bloom faster so they used their desk lamp also which burned the leaves.

I have 2 extra AVs on my desk now to see if they will like my office which has no natural light and get less light. We'll see what happens!

Lots of great tips here!

There was a witty cartoon on the lyon's FB page on this topic.

joanne