5 Easy To Care For House Plants
Most of my plants.
I love house plants. My obsession began about 3 years ago and since then I’ve kept quite a few plants. It hasn’t been always been easy though - due to multiple moves and less than perfect care at times I’ve lost more than a few. My collection currently sits at around 50 plants (and always growing). I may have a problem but I truly believe everyone should have more house plants!
I put together a list of five of the easiest plants I’ve had personal experience with.
Snake Plants
Snake plants are a great beginner plant. They are drought tolerant and very forgiving about irregular watering. I accidentally neglected a small snake plant for a few months at the office and once I began watering it again it produced a couple new plants called pups! They like bright light and prefer a pot that allows the root system to become crowded.
My little snake plant with a couple of pups.
Some snake plant varieties can grow up to 2’ - 3’ tall. Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Pothos
Pothos plants are also known as Devil’s Ivy. These plants form have long trailing stems that look amazing hanging down from a high shelf or on a bookcase. These plants can handle all levels of light but grow fastest in bright light. Pothos can be planted in soil but can also be kept in water which makes them super easy to care for. There are many different varieties of pothos with different levels of variegated leaves.
My pothos plants. I keep the plant on the right in a glass of water that I change out weekly.
ZZ Plant
I have a confession. I’ve never actually kept a ZZ plant. I decided to include it here because of my mother’s success with it. She has a notorious black thumb but I had heard how easy this plant was to care for and gave her one. It’s been alive for a couple years now. This plant grows from thick rhizomes that look like potatoes. These rhizomes hold water and make the plant very forgiving with irregular watering. ZZ plants also filter toxins out of the air and improve air quality. One drawback is that all parts of the plant are poisonous - make sure to keep it out of reach of curious children and pets.
Jade
Succulents are allegedly some of the easiest plants to keep but I never have any luck with them. My excuse is that Cleveland (ranked as the 23rd least sunny city in the US) doesn’t get enough sun to keep them happy and it has nothing to do with me personally. These plants want as much light as possible and water only when the top inch or two of soil dries out. They let you know they aren’t getting enough water when the leaves begin to shrivel - but tend to bounce back quickly with regular watering. The stems of jade plant turn woody with age.
Peperomia
Peperomias are easy for some of the same reasons as Jade plants. These plants have thick, succulent leaves that tolerate irregular watering pretty well. In fact it’s better for these plants to have too little water than too much. Peperomias are slow growing which means they won’t need to be re-potted for years which helps make them a low maintenance house plant. These plants come in a few different colors and varieties with different textures.
These are just a couple of my favorite easy to care for plants. Almost any plant can be “easy” as long as you understand its care requirements. There is a ton of information on the internet about the care requirements for different plants. I find myself looking up plant care information just about every week. As long as you do your research and provide the plant with the care it needs you should have pretty good luck!