Henna, lawsonia inermis, is a small desert tree, but you can grow it as a houseplant.  You can grow it outdoors if temperatures never drop below 50F or 11 C.  If it is indoors, keep it in the sunniest place possible, and plan on it getting about 8 ‘ tall in five years.

When you get a new henna plant, put it in a large pot of potting soil, and give it one drenching watering, then put it in your sunniest window.  It may drop its leaves from the shock.  If it drops its leaves, prune it back and let it shoot out new growth.


Henna prefers a hot climate with long droughts. Let your henna plant’s soil get dry, then give it plenty of water all at once.  Henna is used to drought/monsoon cycles. Do not water it a little bit every day!   Henna in constantly moist soil suffers from aphids, root rot and scale.  If your henna houseplant gets aphids or scale, powder it with cat flea powder, or spray it with pet flea spray.

From time to time, a young henna plant may shed all of its leaves.  If your plant drops its leaves from a sudden chill, a pest attack, or just because it feels like it, it is probably just sulking and not actually dead.  Prune the branches back, repot the plant, mix up a little fertilizer into water, and give it a fresh start.  In a month, your plant should put out vigorous new growth.

You can sprout and grow henna from seed.  Read Mark Foster’s “Henna: Germinating Seeds”

For more information on cultivating and using fresh henna, see:

Return to the Index of Henna: Lawsonia Inermis

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*"Henna, the Joyous Body Art" 
the Encyclopedia of Henna
Catherine Cartwright-Jones c 2000 
registered with the US Library of Congress
TXu 952-968