Your Cheat Sheet: Top 3 Unkillable Houseplants!’

Your Cheat Sheet: Top 3 Unkillable Houseplants!’

Test how green your thumb is with these beginner-friendly plants.

If you’re feeling ready to swap your artificial plants at home for some real greens, consider starting small by cultivating a low-maintenance indoor garden. Many popular indoor plants require very little attention each day, and they’ll happily grow and thrive as long as they’re placed in a good spot and get just the right amount of water. You can even place thirstier plants in a self-watering planter to keep them hydrated. From there, the sky (or your square footage) is the limit.

Before you buy an indoor plant, you’ll want to assess the amount of direct, indirect, or low lighting in your home, as you want to make sure that you’re choosing plants that are compatible with the setting. While some plants are versatile and can thrive nearly anywhere, others may struggle if they aren’t getting the appropriate amount of sun or shade they need. Once you have your plant and have placed it in its spot, keep an eye on how it looks from day to day: Is it looking healthy and strong, or getting pale and losing its leaves? You may need to relocate it if the lighting isn’t right.

Watering your plant on a schedule that’s appropriate to its type is also very important, but it’s best to always feel the plant’s soil before you do so — especially if the plant is in an indirect or low-light setting. Overwatering your indoor plant — even if you’re only watering once a week — can cause the roots to rot, and it can be tough to salvage the plant once that starts to happen.

Once you’ve lived with it for a while, tasks like dusting the leaves, pruning the vines, and repotting the plant into fresh soil or a different-sized planter can all help keep it happy from year to year.

These 3 indoor plants are low- to medium-maintenance, and they’re the perfect greens to get you started.

1

PRETTY IN PURPLE

Bloomscape Tradescantia Zebrina

Tradescantias are indoor plants that thrive in a range of different environments.

Displaying distinctive purple-and-green striped leaves, this plant is happy in both direct and low-light areas — although you may want to gently transition it from one spot to another if you decide to move it to a drastically different light setting. Also, it only needs watering about once a week, when the soil feels completely dry.


2

EFFORTLESS ELEGANCE

UrbanStems The Fresco

Pothos plants are fast-growing, resilient greens that are fun to care for because they’re always changing. When placed in indirect light, they only need to be watered about once a week, and they can grow to be incredibly long and vine-y.

I’ve owned this exact pothos planter from UrbanStems for over 6 months and it’s become one of my favorite plants. It has a lush layer of moss just at the surface of the planter that acts as a sponge for excess water. No matter what the temperature or light conditions are in my apartment each season, it looks happy and healthy on my south-facing windowsill.


3

CUTE CUTTINGS

Renmxj Plant Propagation Station

Once you’ve mastered regrowing your scallion scraps, try some more plant propagation on for size. This gift-worthy set from includes a wooden base with three glass bulb propagation vases.

When your vine-y plant needs a haircut, just snip it at the node and place it in one of the water-filled vases: You might start to see roots form within days.

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