House plants are the perfect home decor piece to fill an empty space and add some life to your home. Many house plants also offer health benefits such as improved air quality and lowered stress and anxiety. I have several plants in almost every room in my home, but my favorite plants are the ones I can forget about and they continue to grow and thrive. This post is all about 5 easy house plants and tips on how to keep them alive with minimal effort.
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Easiest houseplants to keep alive
Here I’ve listed (in order) the house plants that I personally find easiest to keep alive. We will dig into more details on each plant later in this post!
1. Snake Plants
2. ZZ plants
3. Ferns
4. Philodendrons
5. Pothos
So now that you know which are the easiest house plants to keep alive, there are a few care tips that you should keep in mind. Let’s get into my tried and true house plant tips!
Plant Care Tips
1. Pots
Before you go plant shopping, I recommend buying the pots that will house your new plants. Once you purchase the pots, place them throughout your house and take note of the amount of light that area receives. Literally, write this down and take it with you to the plant store. Also make sure to measure the height and diameter of your pot to make sure you buy a plant that will fit inside! I recommend taking a fabric measuring tape with you to the plant store.
I prefer to keep my plants in their grow pots for as long as possible, so make sure the size of the grow pot will fit inside of your decorative pot. This will help with drainage and allows your plant to get used to its new environment before changing its soil. Another tip is to buy baby plants because they are so much cheaper than the mature ones. If it’s too small inside of your pot, you can prop it up with things like cardboard, plastic cups, etc. You may need to get creative here!
2. Light
If your house is like mine and doesn’t get very much natural light, I would suggest snake plants and ZZ plants as easy house plants for low light. These are definitely my easiest house plants to keep alive and I have them in low light areas. Ferns prefer indirect light, so they don’t need to be directly in front of a window but close enough to where they are getting exposure to the sunlight. I also recently learned about these grow light bulbs that put off a similar spectrum as the sun and help plants grow inside! Also make sure that your plants aren’t too close to a window that gets direct sun because they can actually get sunburned! This happened with a plant I had on my desk right below a skylight.
3. Water
One way you can tell if you are overwatering your plants is if their leaves turn yellow. I have learned to hold off on watering my plants until I start to notice signs that they are thirsty. For example, philodendron leaves will curl inward and potho leaves will look weak and droopy. It’s amazing how long my plants can go without water! When I finally water them I try to give them enough water until it starts dripping out of the grow pot. This ensures that the water is actually getting to the roots of the plant. Another awesome way to bring back a dehydrated plant is to set it in the bathroom while you’re taking a hot shower. My plants love this and they instantly perk back up after absorbing all of the humidity from the steamy bathroom.
4. Air flow
It’s really important that your plants have room for air to flow around them or else they can suffocate. I’ve accidentally killed plants by placing them under a heat vent or on a shelf that’s too close to the ceiling. Plants need to room to breathe and grow!
5. Fertilizer
I realized that a lot of my house plants were dying in the winter likely for several reasons, but overall I was ignoring the fact that plants go dormant in the winter. So, in the winter you just want to keep your house plants warm and well-lit, but reduce the amount of watering and basically just let them chill.
In the springtime, however, it’s time to fertilize because this is when your plants are actively growing! I like to create my own homemade fertilizers with organic coffee grounds and banana peels. For the used coffee grounds, I just let them dry out and then sprinkle them on top of the dirt. Another organic fertilizer that I’ve seen success with is water infused with banana peels. All you have to do is put banana peels in a jar of water and let it sit for a couple of days. Remove the banana peels and use the water to hydrate your plants.
To clean the dust off of my plant leaves, I use Thieves household cleaner because it’s made with completely natural ingredients and my plants actually love it! It’s important to occasionally wipe off the leaves of your plants because the dust can prevent them from being able to breathe and absorb sunlight.
I hope this post was helpful in suggesting easy house plants and gave you tips on how to keep them alive! Thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog! I write a new post each week, so make sure to come back and check out next week’s post!
Xo, Ciara
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