Oh Happy Dirt is designed to mimic your plant’s native habitat – so it’s important to choose the right soil for each plant! Here’s a list of common plants and the soils they belong in. Scroll to the bottom for info on pot size vs. soil amount.
How to use this page
Use the plant lists below to determine what soil to choose for you plant. If that doesn’t work, we’ve provided descriptions of the soils to help you decide. What if your plant isn’t mentioned? We’ve included instructions at the bottom of the page to help you research your plant, determine soil type, and reach out to us if you need to 🙂
New! TURBO Mix
You asked, we answered: this is the One Soil to Rule Them All! 🙂 We’re all about constant improvement, so we created this blend to be our most complete, fabulous mix yet. It has a balance of chunks and fine drainage materials for a wide variety of root types, and is great for most tropical and sub-tropical plants. If you’re looking for the absolute best houseplant soil on earth for a wide variety of babies, this is the mix for you 🙂
Tropical Climber Blend
Perfect for your climbing tropicals, this grippy blend holds enough moisture while giving roots great drainage and texture to grip on to. Environment match: Rainforest/tropical plants that may start on the ground but want to climb up trees, or trees that begin life as an epiphyte and drop roots to the ground, like many ficus varieties.
- Hoya
- Monstera (deliciosa, adansonii, etc)
- Pothos (Scindapsus and Epipremnum)
- Philodendron hederaceum (‘brasil,’ ‘neon,’ etc)
- Ficus benjamina, alii, amstel king, elastica, and lyrata (or use our Rainforest Floor blend!)
- …and any other climbing tropical plants.
Rainforest Floor Blend
This rich blend is full of organic matter and contains our acidic Habitat blend, complete with volcanic and glacial rock dust. It holds slightly more water than the Tropical Climber blend and has a finer texture due to the addition of rice hulls. Environment match: rainforest floor plants that creep along the ground.
- Thaumatophyllum (selloum/bipinnatifidum, xanadu, etc)
- Philodendron (rojo congo, green congo, brasil, etc)
- Syngonium (arrowhead vine, nephthytis)
- Spathiphyllum species (peace lily)
- Pachira aquatica (money tree)
- Aglaonema species (Chinese evergreen)
- Ficus benjamina, alii, amstel king, elastica, and lyrata (or use our Tropical Climber blend!)
- Aralias (Polyscias fruticosa, balfouriana, scutellaria, etc)
- …and any other ground-dwelling tropical plants.
Tropical Succulent Blend
Designed for tropical succulents and other thick-leafed plants when in an appropriate hot, sunny window. Please use Desert Succulent or our ‘Fluff It!’ soil additive if you put a snake plant in low light. Environment match: succulent plants that are NOT from the desert.
- Sansevierias (a.k.a. Dracaena trifasciata: Moonshine, Black Gold, Laurentii, Zeylanica, as well as bird’s nest, starfish, and cylindrical varieties)
- Ric Rac cactus
- Pilea pepperomioides and other pileas (or use our Strings of Things for finer texture)
- Kalanchoe (or use our Strings of Things for finer texture)
- Pepperomia varieties (or use our Strings of Things for finer texture)
- Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter cacti (Zygocactus, Schlumbergera)
- Yucca elephantipes
- …and any other tropical succulent plants.
Grassland Blend
This blend is for your grassland and tropical forest plants. It’s designed to mimic the rich, loamy, rocky soils of the African grassland, complete with volcanic ash and our rich Grassland blend. Environment match: plants that are ‘hard to figure out’ because their root systems include rhizomes.
- Dracaena deremensis, fragrans, and massangeana varieties (Lisa, Janet Craig, Mass cane/corn plant, Rikki, marginata, dorado, Lemon Lime, Hawaiian Sunshine, Malaika, Warneckii, Limelight, reflexa, Florida Beauty, etc)
- Zamiaculcas zamiifolia (ZZ plant)
- Aspidistra elatior and other cast iron plants
- …and any other native grassland/forest plants.
Desert Succulent
This blend is designed specifically for folks who want to water their desert succulents on the same schedule as their other plants. Take the guesswork out of watering with this mix: fabulous drainage, with enough water retention to ensure your succulents get what they need. Includes whole ingredients specific to the organic matter found naturally in the desert. Environment match: dry desert plants.
Caution is advised for folks with shellfish allergies, as this blend contains insect chitin.
- Echeveria species
- Pachyveria species
- Aloe species (Aloe vera/barbadensis miller, Lace aloe/aristaloe aristata, etc)
- Haworthia species (Zebra plant/Haworthiopsis attenuata, Haworthia cooperii, etc)
- Cactus types (Mammillaria, Echinocactus, etc)
- Desert-dwelling euphorbias (African milk tree)
- …and any other desert-dwelling succulent plants.
Strings of Things
Perfect for all of your ‘strings-of’ succulents, this blend holds a balanced amount of water and air, perfect for these plants. This is also a great choice for desert succulents if you see them ‘firing’ leaves (lower leaves dying off – an indicator of under-watering). Environment match: somewhat dry-climate plants that like a regular – but small – amount of water.
Caution is advised for folks with shellfish allergies, as this blend contains insect chitin.
- Senecio varieties (Senecio rowleyanus/string of pearls, S. peregrinus/string of dolphins, Curio radicans/string of bananas, etc)
- Pepperomia varieties (P. prostrata/string of turtles, P. tetraphylla ‘Hope’/Pepperomia Hope, etc)
- Pilea pepperomioides and other pileas (or use our Tropical Succulent)
- Kalanchoe (or use our Tropical Succulent)
- Upright pepperomia varieties (or use our Tropical Succulent)
- Ceropegia varieties (C. woodii/string of hearts, C. sandersonii/parachute plant, etc)
Pray for Us Blend
Prayer plants have a reputation for being drama queens, but we decided to fix that. This blend has special moisture-retentive properties, so it holds extra water but keeps it away from the roots until your plant needs it. The special properties of this soil will actively increase the humidity in the air as moisture evaporates, too! Also contains a special blend with extra neem seed meal. Environment match: picky fusspots that never want to dry out OR drown.
- Fabulous for all of your prayer plants (Maranta, Calathea, Ctenanthe, Stromanthe)
- Alocasia species (Regal Shield, African Mask/Polly, etc)
- Colocasia species (elephant ear)
- …and any other thirsty, issue-prone drama babies 🙂
Zombie Maiden Blend
This blend is specifically formulated for the needs of maidenhair ferns. It also works great for other moisture-loving fusspots ferns, though we have several other fern blends in development as well.
Heavenly Fluff Begonia Blend
Our begonia blend is made specifically for your begonias, with a fine texture and extra neem. Great for all varieties of begonias: cane, rex, tuberous, etc.
Coming soon:
PNW Low Light Blend (for any plant in very low light)
Treehouse Blend (for tropical epiphytes)
Canopy Fern Blend (for tree-dwelling ferns)
Ground-Dwelling Fern Blend
Nursery Blend (for rooting in soil)
Chompy Boi (for carnivorous plants)
Thirsty Boi (for lazy waterers – holds extra water, but keeps it away from the roots!)
What if I don’t see my plant on the list?
If you don’t see your plant on the lists above and can’t figure out what soil to choose, follow these easy instructions to learn a bit more about your plant.
Each soil blend has a general description of the characteristics of the soil, general characteristics of the plants that match this soil, and a description of what the soil is intended to mimic. If you don’t see your plant listed underneath this information, googling “[your plant] native habitat/climate” and “[your plant] growth habit in the wild” will give you what you need.
For example, inserting Pilea pepperomiodes into those phrases returns these results: it is native to shady forests in southern China, where it grows on limestone boulders. We already know that it is a succulent plant, and a further search of “southern China climate” tells us that southern China is semi-tropical.
With that information, we can look at the soil descriptions and choose Tropical Succulent for our pilea: it is a succulent, likes a free-draining rocky mix, and lives in a semi-tropical environment so we know it likes easy access to moisture, too.
Still confused? Just reach out! We’re happy to help you choose a soil 🙂 Feel free to get in touch via Facebook, Instagram, or email.
How much soil do I need?
Our ‘generous quart’ bags fill:
One 6″ pot
or
Three or four 4″ pots
Our 2-gallon bags fill:
One large 10″ pot
or
Three 8″ pots
or
Six 6″ pots
or
Eighteen or more 4″ pots