Hung right at a west window, a string of hearts scores 98 out of 100, and a metre into the room it still gets 97. At 1.2 m it drops to 68, and a hook a metre and a half in gets 66. Those are clear-day scores at 22 °C, 50% humidity and medium airflow.
Read on 14 October 2026, the answer box at the top of Google’s results says a west window suits it if the afternoon sun is managed: on the sill behind a sheer, or pulled back three to four feet when the sun is blazing. Below it, the University of Wisconsin’s extension page and The Spruce name west with no caveat. Greenery Unlimited and Plant Addicts both put it a few feet back, Plant Addicts to keep it from burning. House Plant House, a UK blog, kept one about a metre from a west window and reports the hearts growing around 3 cm apart.
Most of that advice assumes a pot you can shift when the sun gets strong. A string of hearts usually hangs, and a hook stays where it went in.
Great fit
This plant should be happy in this spot.
Just the right amount of light
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
How far from a west window can you hang a string of hearts?
About a metre. Past that the score steps down once and then slides. Here is one plant moved back from the glass:
| Distance from the glass | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 m, against the glass | 7,800 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| 1 m back | 6,000 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 97/100 |
| 1.2 m back | 5,470 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| 1.5 m back | 4,762 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| 2 m back | 3,780 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 65/100 |
| 3 m back | 2,381 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 63/100 |
| 3.5 m back | 1,890 lux | Too dim here | Not the best fit right now, 47/100 |
Between 1 m and 1.2 m the estimate falls from 6,000 to 5,470 lux, and that small drop moves the light from just right to a little dim. After that the score hardly moves: 66 at a metre and a half, 63 at three metres. At 3.5 m the light reads too dim and the plant gets 47.
So the answer box’s range has the edge inside it: three feet back keeps the great fit and four feet doesn’t. A hoya at the same west glass loses its great fit at the same point, and its page sets that advice against its own table. House Plant House’s metre is this table’s last great-fit row.
These lux figures are estimates from the window’s direction, the distance and a clear day, not meter readings, so your room will differ. Expect the same profile, though: a narrow strip at the glass and then a long stretch of worth a try.
Is afternoon sun through a west window too strong for a string of hearts?
First, the light other people say it needs, each figure in the unit its source uses:
| Who publishes it | What it says a string of hearts needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| getgrowli.app | 4,000–8,000 lux | Its "Bright Indirect" tier; the site prints the same tier band for several plants |
| getgrowli.app | 400–800 fc | The same tier, given in foot-candles |
| foliage-factory.com | approx. 20,000–40,000 lux | Light rating on a product page: "Very bright / some direct" |
| theplantmanual.com | 1,500-3,000 foot-candles (fc) | The range it calls ideal, under bright indirect light |
| theplantmanual.com | 500 foot-candles | A floor: below it, the page says, the plant becomes severely leggy |
| deepgreenpermaculture.com | 250 to 1000 lux | Its "Medium Light" tier, which it calls the optimal range |
Deep Green Permaculture calls 250 to 1000 lux optimal. In our table the light 3.5 m from a west window is 1,890 lux, nearly double the top of that range, and it already reads too dim for this plant. At the glass, 7,800 lux reads as just the right amount. On light alone, the sill isn’t too strong.
Heat is what marks the sill down. With everything else held, the glass stays a great fit through 27 °C; one degree more and it’s worth a try, and from 31 °C it’s not the best fit right now. A shut west window late on a summer afternoon can run warmer than the room, and a thermometer hung by the pot for one sunny day will show whether yours does.
That’s the real case for pulling it back on hot days: out of the warm air by the glass. From this window it can go about a metre before it starts giving up light instead.
Does a sheer curtain help a string of hearts in a west window?
A light one, at most. Both tables here put the end of the great fit just under 6,000 lux, about three quarters of the sill’s 7,800, so a sheer that takes out a quarter of the light or more puts even the sill past the edge. Fabrics vary, and a curtain isn’t an input here.
A score also can’t know where the plant spent last month. One coming off a dim shelf is better brought to the glass over a couple of weeks.
Should a string of hearts move closer to a west window in winter?
Yes, and on a hook it’s easy to miss. The distance table has no date in it. Here is its one-metre spot on the 21st of six months at latitude 40 degrees, which passes near Philadelphia and Madrid:
| The month | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| March | 5,964 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| April | 6,888 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| June | 7,200 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| August | 6,900 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 98/100 |
| September | 5,982 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| December | 3,501 lux | A little dim, but workable | Worth a try, 65/100 |
April through August it’s a great fit. On 21 September the estimate is 5,982 lux, a hair under the undated row’s 6,000, and the score drops to 68. December brings 3,501 lux and 65. A hook a metre back from west glass is a summer spot.
Closer buys months. Scored on the 21st of every month, the spot right at the glass is a great fit from February to October and worth a try from November to January, when nowhere further in does better. Dry air from heating isn’t the winter problem either: at 25% humidity the clear-day sill still reads a great fit.
Where should the hook go in a west-facing room?
As close to the glass as the frame allows, for the months it adds. Before drilling, take a light reading where the pot will hang.
Go by the number. The meter calls everything from 2,500 lux to just under 10,000 bright, indirect, which in the distance table covers the sill, the one-metre row and the hook at a metre and a half, 98 down to 66. Read it on a clear day, since that’s what the estimates assume.
Measure from the glass to the pot; height isn’t an input. The answer box relays a YouTube grower’s point that light has to reach the top of the pot, which these numbers can’t check for a pot hung above the frame.
A different vine can want the opposite hook. A golden pothos at a west window does better two or three metres into the room than at the glass, so a hook already up mid-ceiling suits it better than this plant.
If the hook is meant to keep it from a cat, note that string of hearts isn’t on our list of hanging plants safe for cats: the ASPCA has no entry for it, so our care data records it as unknown rather than safe.
Which window is best for a string of hearts?
South, if depth matters. A south window holds it at a great fit out to about two metres and west to about one, while at an east window the great strip ends short of a metre, as the east-window page pins down. A north window doesn’t lift it past worth a try even at the glass.
In a west room, keep to that metre, and the nearer the glass inside it, the more of the year counts as a great fit.
Before you put the hook in
None of these rows has an eave or a neighbour’s wall in it, and with the edge this close to the glass, either can cost a verdict. If the strip is too narrow for your room, the west window guide covers what else takes the afternoon sun. The free spot checker scores your actual spot with the weather where you live.
Published October 14, 2026
