I thought we’d start with quite a sore point among beginner indoor gardeners. When you buy an houseplant it becomes more of a ‘baby’ to you than a plant you’d put outside in your garden. I think this is because it is all alone in a seemingly strange environment for plants.
It is sitting in an isolated pot, with only your care to give it food and water. In return, it is expected to be beautiful and make your home look Instagram-worthy.
So when, after a few months perhaps, it starts to wilt and turn brown you feel all the more sad about having let it get to this. You thought you’d done a decent job, although you don’t really have the time to look after it wholeheartedly.
This leads to you thinking you’re a plant killer and have no indoor gardening skills. This is nonsense! You might have just chosen the wrong plant in the first place.
Yes, indoor gardening can be tricky, but make sure you start off on the right foot with a plant that you just cannot kill!
Let’s have a look at the best houseplants you can’t kill. Bonus that there are lots of Instagram-worthy ones in here!
Monstera Deliciosa (Swiss Cheese Plant)
My favourite! We have one of these in our bathroom. Our bathroom has very little light and because we are in there so infrequently it is hard to remember to water this plant.
That has not stopped it thriving though! You only need to water it when the top inch or so of soil has dried out, usually about once a week or so. Keep it out of direct sunlight.
It’s such a gift that this plant is really easy to look after because it’s gorgeous. It brings a bit of a tropical feel to our bathroom and has become part of the family.
Sansevieria (Snake Plant)
The Snake Plant is even more tolerant than the Monstera. It can be positioned in even less light (although not total darkness, let’s not get carried away!) and needs even less water.
You can leave this beauty for up to a month without water, but check the soil to see if it’s dry. Water around the edge of the pot so that the base of the plant is not sitting in wet soil too often.
This is a gorgeous, structural plant that could form part of a group of plants as a display in any room.
Yes, the Snake Plant is a great converter of CO2 to oxygen, but you’d need a whole heap of them to make any real difference!
Hello Vera (Ok, Ok….Aloe Vera)
Another great structural plant for your collection is the Aloe Vera. It’s pretty indestructible, needing a drink only every couple of weeks (give it a good soak though).
This plant looks stunning up against strong, vibrant colours so think about where you place it. Actually, it just looks great anywhere, but there’s something about it sitting in front of a nice vivid pink or turquoise that really makes it come alive!
Keep an Aloe Vera out of direct sunlight.
Bamboo
You can grow Bamboo indoors? Yes! And it’s a brilliant, low maintenance plant.
You just sit it in water and away it goes. Just replace the water every jow and then. It doesn’t even need much light.
Be careful though, Bamboo grows quickly so you will need to keep it trimmed!
Now, a little bonus info about Bamboo. Chinese tradition has it that the number of stalks of bamboo you have means you will be lucky in these areas:
- Two stalks represent love.
- Three stalks represent Fu (happiness), Lu (wealth), and Soh (long life).
- Five stalks represent the areas of life that impact wealth.
- Six stalks represent good luck and wealth.
- Seven stalks represent good health.
- Eight stalks represent growth.
- Nine stalks represent great luck.
- Ten stalks represent perfection.
- Twenty-one stalks represent a powerful blessing.
Golden Pothos
Apart from a great name, the Golden Pothos is another hardy indoor plant you will find hard to kill.
This little beast will take a ton of neglect before giving up the ghost. Of course, you could avoid the risk by actually looking after your indoor plants, but one step at a time!
Like many other plants on this list, just check whether the soil is dry and water when needed. It prefers bright areas but doesn’t require them.
The great thing about a pothos is that you can place it on a high shelf and it will trail a line of gorgeously shaped leaves like a waterfall towards the floor.
Boston Fern
I am a big fan of ferns and am building a fern garden in my recently-landscaped back garden. Having them indoors too is a big bonus!
The Boston Fern is the perfect candidate due to its robust nature. You do need to keep the soil moist with this one though and it helps to keep it in a humid environment, so it’s good for a bathroom.
To recreate humidity elsewhere you could add a few stones to a shallow bowl and fill it with water, then place your Boston Fern on top. The water will evaporate and keep it humid around the plant.
Jade Plant
These little succulents used to be all the rage, and are coming back around again. They are particularly good as low-maintenance plants due to the amount of moisture they keep in their leaves.
This is another one of those ‘water if the soil is dry’ plants so it’s not taxing to look after. Make sure you don’t make the soil too damp though so that the roots don’t start to rot.
These are known as ‘Money Plants’ due to the allegedly coin-shaped leaves…hmmm. Ok. Team them with your Lucky Bamboo (five stalks!) and you’ll be rolling in it soon enough.
Air Plant
Come on, these don’t even need soil! What could be easier!
Air Plants are pretty cool looking. You can put them anywhere and they will thrive. Just give them a misting with a spray bottle a couple of times a week and give them space to breathe. Every two weeks give them a soak.
There are some pretty wacky ways to display your Air Plants, they don’t just need to sit on a window sill. Think macrame hangers, embroidery rings, driftwood displays. Well definitely do a post on Air Plants soon!
Money Tree
Not satisfied with your Lucky Bamboo and your Money Plant, well the Money Tree is here to save the day!
What is this obsession with plants and money!? Whatever it is, they all seem to be pretty low maintenance plants, so maybe that has something to do with it!
The Money Tree needs the old trick of watering when the soil is dry, about once a week. It likes full or partial sun.
Bonus that it will add to your money-making lucky plant scheme!
ZZ Plant
I like to think of this as the ZZ Top Plant. Just because.
One note of caution with this plant, I wouldn’t have one if there was any risk of it being eaten by little ones as it can be poisonous. But if you don’t have kids and are careful with how you handle it then you’ll be fine.
The ZZ Top Plant can be kept almost anywhere, just not complete darkness! It needs the good ol’ dry-soil check for watering.
Aspidistra Elatior (Cast Iron Plant)
This is one of the best-looking indoor plants you can get, so it’s great to know that it’s really hard to kill.
We love the tall, large leaves that give great presence in a room. We’ve got one of these up against a dark blue wall in our living room and it looks proper good!
Similarly to other plants, this does not need a lot of light and you can go for the dry soil test for watering.
Schefflera Arboricola (Umbrella Tree)
These things can grow up to 15 metres tall so they are perfect as an indoor plant (just kidding, you do need to keep a check on its growth!).
If allowed to grow to a decent indoor height thought, it will reward you with a stunning display of fanned-out leaves that will look great in any setting.
The Umbrella Tree is pretty tolerant of low-levels of care if you forget to water it now and then. It prefers to dry out between waterings and doesn’t need a lot of light.
Houseplants are a great way to add a bit of nature into your home. They reward us with a heightened level of oxygen and are great for our mental wellbeing.
We were never designed to be stuck in buildings for the majority of our lives, so having a few plants around can help make us feel more relaxed.
With this in mind, it is great to know that you don’t have to be a wonderful gardener to keep some indoor plants alive with these houseplants
Just don’t go out of your way to try and prove me wrong about not being able to kill these plants, OK?