Score an Ocean spider plant sitting on a north sill, in a 22 °C room with 50% humidity, and the verdict is 100 out of 100 at 3,640 lux. One metre in it’s 99, and at a metre and a half it’s 98. Half a metre further, at two metres, the light is down to 1,764 lux and the score falls to 68.
Read on 14 October 2026, the first page of results for this query agrees a north window works, and several of those pages are growers saying so. A Houzz reply from around 2007 reports one doing well in a north window, and a 2021 r/houseplants poster bought one because north was all they had. Soltech calls north and east windows excellent spots for it. None says how far back from the glass that holds. Planters Etcetera comes closest to giving a reason: the plant can survive low light, so a north window will do.
That reasoning is where it slips. A north sill isn’t low light for this plant; the part of the room that is starts a couple of metres back.
Great fit
This plant should be happy in this spot.
Just the right amount of light
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
Is a north window low light for a spider plant?
Not at the glass. Here is what published guides give as this plant’s light need, each in its own units:
| Who publishes it | What it says a spider plant needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| growlightmeter.com | 5 – 10 PPFD / DLI | Spider Plant |
| extension.arizona.edu | 75–150 foot-candles | listed under the heading "Medium Light (75–150 fc)" |
| houseplantjournal.com | 200 FC (40 µmol) foot-candles | minimum indirect light level |
| houseplantjournal.com | 400 FC (80 µmol) foot-candles | good indirect light level |
| houseplantsnook.com | 100–200 foot-candles | chart fc level |
On the sill our estimate is 3,640 lux, and the card above has the light marker inside its band with nothing else flagged. A north window almost never sees the sun directly, so there’s no hot beam to back away from. That’s why Joy Us Garden, which tells you to keep this plant near a window rather than in it, makes an exception for north and east.
How far back from the glass can a spider plant go?
A metre and a half, which is about five feet. Here’s the same plant at six distances from that north window, with the room held still:
| Distance from the glass | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 m, against the glass | 3,640 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
| 1 m back | 2,800 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
| 1.5 m back | 2,222 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| 2 m back | 1,764 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| 3 m back | 1,111 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 65/100 |
| 5 m back | 441 lux | Too dim here | Not the best fit right now, 47/100 |
From the sill to 1.5 m the score barely moves. Between 1.5 and 2 metres the estimate goes from 2,222 lux down to 1,764 and the light marker tips from just right to a little dim, which costs 30 points in one go. After that the slide is slow, 65 at three metres, until five metres back reads 441 lux and the verdict becomes not the best fit right now.
That five-metre row is what low light looks like in a north room, and it’s the only row here where this plant falls out of the workable band.
All of these lux figures are our clear-day estimates, calculated from which way the window faces and how far back the pot is, so a meter in your room will disagree with them. A dimmer room hits the step sooner and a brighter one later. It still shows up as a single step, because it marks where this plant’s light band ends.
When should I move my spider plant closer to the window?
In late October, if it sits a metre and a half back and you live near 40 degrees north, about the latitude of Denver or Naples. Give the engine a date as well as a place and it scores that same 1.5 m spot through the year:
| The month it is | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | 1,817 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| March | 2,209 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| June | 2,667 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
| September | 2,216 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| October | 1,796 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| December | 1,297 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
From March to September the spot holds a great fit. By the 21st of October it reads 1,796 lux, close to what the first table gave two metres, and the score has slipped to 68. December is darker again at 1,297 lux, and February hasn’t recovered yet. The first table behaves like an equinox, for what it’s worth: its 2,222 lux at 1.5 m is within a few lux of the March and September readings.
So for about five months the 1.5 m spot reads like two metres back, or darker. Bring the pot within half a metre of the glass from October to February. At this latitude that close spot holds a great fit through every month, and the plant can go back out once March comes round. Further north the sill isn’t safe either: at 51 degrees, the winter guide’s spider plant drops a band on a north sill in December.
Is a north sill too cold for a spider plant in winter?
It can be, and that’s the snag with moving it in. A north sill gets no sun to warm it during the day, so after dark in winter the air there is often the coldest in the room. Our care data puts the bottom of this plant’s comfortable range at about 17 °C. Below that the warmth reads a little cool and the spot drops a band while the light stays exactly where it was. The minimum temperature guide works through the same cold north sill for a peace lily, where the light is ideal and the warmth alone sinks the score.
The engine only knows the temperature you give it, so it can’t tell how much colder your glass makes the sill. A thermometer left there overnight can. If it reads in the low or mid teens, keep the leaves off the pane, and don’t draw the curtains between the pot and the room at night, which shuts it in with the cold glass.
What should go on the far shelf instead?
Something from the low-light end. A ZZ plant at the same north window is still a great fit three metres in, well past where this plant steps down. The north window guide runs 42 plants from six published lists at the sill and at two metres. At two metres the spider plant drops with the rest of the medium-light group, while twelve low-light plants hold.
If you have more than one wall to choose from, a west window gives this plant enough light at every distance scored and costs it points on hot afternoons instead. The north sill swaps that heat for a short reach into the room, and a south window gives it the most floor of the four, from about a metre back. The free spot checker can put your own window, with its own view and weather, through the same scoring.
Published October 14, 2026
