Pests don't seem to bug ming aralia, Chinese evergreens

Houseplants come and houseplants go, but one in particular has performed amazingly well for a surprisingly long time.

It's my ming aralia. I love its frilly foliage as well as the trunk, which has such an artistic shape that I'm sometimes asked if the plant is a bonsai specimen.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than the patience needed to painstakingly train a bonsai plant, I just let nature shape my aralia.

My ming aralia sits on a counter in the kitchen, where it prospers with the extra humidity. The kitchen gets bright light from east and south windows, although no direct sunlight reaches the counter where the aralia sits. This indirect light seems to suit my plant just fine.

Weekly watering, feeding when I think of it and occasionally using my fingers to rake a few dead leaves out of the foliage is all it takes to keep the plant looking fine. I repotted the plant once when it outgrew its pot, and made a single pruning cut when the plant threatened to bump into the overhead cabinet. That's it.

While other houseplants require me to do occasional battle with scales, spider mites, aphids, mealybugs or whiteflies, no pest has ever paid my ming aralia a bit of attention.

The ming aralia is a fine easy-care houseplant for a bright room but, if you're looking for an easy plant for low light, a Chinese evergreen would be a good bet. The number of varieties is big and growing, with your choice of plants with variegated green leaves handsomely marked with silver, white or yellow.

Unlike the ming aralia, which you may have to hunt for, Chinese evergreen plants are widely available wherever indoor plants are sold.

Perfect for those who tend to neglect their plants, a Chinese evergreen won't balk if you let the soil dry out slightly between waterings, and it doesn't require much fertilizer. Better yet, insect pests seldom bother a Chinese evergreen.

I wish all my houseplants were as pest-free as ming aralia and Chinese evergreen, but that is not the case. These preventive steps help keep pests and other problems under control:

• Use room-temperature water and occasionally flush minerals out of the soil to help prevent brown leaf margins.

• Hose potted plants off once a week in the sink to thwart spider mites, which otherwise tend to multiply rapidly indoors in the dry, heated air from the furnace.

• Use a bright-yellow sticky trap to signal when whiteflies or aphids are present; spray insecticidal soap to control.