Research demonstrates that indoor plants can lower stress levels and enhance air quality. It’s never too late to include some greenery into your room and keep your health (and home decor!) in mind.
In order to breathe new life into your living space this year, Annie Huston, owner and resident queen bee of Birdsall & Co., shared her favorite indoor plants.
If clients want to step up their game a bit, “I’ve included the most popular one plus one that is a little bit more fascinating, in the same family,” adds Huston.
She has included trailing plants and those that have lovely blooms when they bloom, ranging from the easiest to maintain alive to succulents, cacti, and more.
Easiest to Keep Alive
Pothos is Huston’s pick for the toughest houseplant. She claims that a large trailing Pothos is the best thing ever. This plant does well in dark, dry indoor situations, making it ideal for individuals without a green thumb. Pothos vines have a maximum length of 10 feet, and they are easily multiplied from a single plant.
Easiest to Survive on Indirect Light and Little Water
The easiest plant that grows well with minimal water and little direct light is the Sansevieria, sometimes known as the snake plant. According to Huston, the image above “shows you how many various sansevierias may adorn your home. Huston offers two of the best snake plant choices after being being classed as a Draceanas.
Best Trailing Plant With Flowers
“According to Huston, hoya is a simple trailing plant with lovely flowers when it blooms. This tropical houseplant, sometimes known as a “Wax plant is a classic because of its thick, waxy leaves. It produces fragrant flower clusters and grows nicely.
Best in Direct Light
The Peperomia will flourish in your home if it receives ample light. There are more than a thousand identified species, all of which have thick leaves with distinct color and texture variations. These low-maintenance plants are ideal for someone new to indoor plants.
Easy and Fast-Growing Trailing Plant
Large, brightly lit spaces are perfect for spider plants. The attractive patterns on these trailing plants that grow quickly and produce “baby spiders” make them simple to propagate. According to Huston, the spider plant Bonnie has wonderful curled leaves.
The Instagram Favorite
An Audrey Ficus is a fantastic substitute for the well-known Ficus Fiddle Leaf Fig on Instagram. “This plant has delicate leaves and is much less temperamental,” observes Huston.
Annie’s Favorite Plant This Week
Tradescantias are simple to grow indoors. It’s important to pay attention to the soil’s moisture content because these plants prefer damp, not soggy, soil. Depending on the species and variation, blooms might be white, pink, or purple.
Succulents
If I were to get a succulent, the Pencil Cactus would be ideal because of how quickly it grows and how much I adore its structural structure, claims Huston. The Firesticks Cactus is an excellent alternative.
What stores carry indoor plants?
Many of us learn how to garden for the first time with houseplants. Potted plants, particularly in colder climates, add color, beauty, and fresh air indoors when chilly temperatures and wintry weather keep us inside. No matter where you reside, the advice below will help you make the most of potted plants in your house.
How Much Light?
How much light a plant will receive where it will be grown should be one of the first factors to be taken into account while choosing and cultivating it. The majority of houseplants require bright, indirect light, such that from an east-facing window. As long as the harsh sun’s rays don’t touch a plant’s leaves directly, especially in the summer, south and west windows also function nicely. African violets and other popular flowering plants need a little bit more light than ferns or ivy that are kept primarily for their leaves. Light offers the extra vitality that flowers need.
The Most Important Requirement: Water
The most crucial—and frequently most difficult—aspect of growing healthy houseplants is watering. Instead of drowning them to the point where their roots can’t breathe, err on the dry side. In the summer, use water more liberally. It’s time to water when the top 1/2 to 1 inch of the pot is dry. Water the plant thoroughly until the water drains out the drainage holes in the container’s bottom.
Don’t Forget Plant Food
Another crucial aspect in developing outstanding houseplants is feeding the plants. Your houseplants’ roots are restricted to a pot, preventing them from foraging for nutrients in the nearby soil. You have the choice. In general, giving your houseplants a weekly or biweekly dose of plant food made specifically for them, like Miracle-Gro Indoor Plant Food, will result in happy, healthy, long-lived plants that add color and life to your home. The summer is a crucial season to feed indoor plants because this is when they are actively growing and will benefit from the nutrients.
Do they offer live plants at Ikea?
IKEA is renowned for its clever blending of basic essentials and reasonably priced contemporary things, and this reputation extends beyond its assemble-it-yourself furniture.
IKEA’s plant section is here. One of IKEA’s hidden treasures is the live houseplant department, which is tucked away between the market and the warehouse. This entire area is concealed in plain sight and offers everything from a Dracaena cutting for $2.99 to a full-on Majesty Palm for around $15.
This past Sunday, I snuck into the live houseplant department and was astounded by what I found. Families were rushing to choose their purchases in the correct warehouse aisle, while couples were arguing over whether to hire a TaskRabbit to construct their new lighting fixture. Not only were there succulents of every size and form, but there were also Golden Pothos, Peperomia, numerous species of Sansevieria, and a plethora of healthy Palms, all at incredibly low prices.
IKEA’s decision to offer wholesome, affordable houseplants fits in well with their philosophy and aim.
IKEA’s U.S. Business Leader for Home Decoration, Jenna Scherson, argues that houseplants are a simple way to bring the outside in. “In today’s world, everyone can benefit from creating a green sanctuary in their home to make it feel more serene and vibrant.”
Visit Environmental Organizations and Garden Clubs
Seasonal sales are a great way to acquire plants for a discount or maybe nothing at all. These sales also provide inexpensively uncommon and exotic plants. Depending on how you approach the topic, you might even be fortunate enough to score a couple lovely specimens for nothing!
Request for a Plant as a Gift
On your special day, if your family or friends ask you for a present recommendation, suggest a plant. Additionally, you can accompany them to the nearby garden center and let them choose the plant for you that is within their gifting range.
Seeds
Seeds are inexpensive and are often even free. A genius technique to cultivate plants for nothing is to use pantry seeds. You may quickly grow your own plants by simply adding soil to a container, planting seeds, watering frequently, and placing the pot in a sunny location.
Look for Seedlings, Pups, and Offsets
Watch out for puppies and plant offsets when at a friend’s property. To start a new plant in your house, you can get them for nothing. Similar to this, you can get cheap seedlings of indoor plants like pothos, philodendron, and anthurium from various nurseries.
Christmas Functions
Churches often use potted plants as decorations for Christmas and Easter. Plants are given out to regular churchgoers when the celebrations are over. Therefore, you can ask for these potted plants without charge if you are a parishioner or a member of the congregation.
Estate Sales
Plants are less sought-after at yard sales and estate sales than jewelry, furniture, and household goods. Price drops significantly and some shop owners even give items away for free as they try to get rid of them before closing up shop and moving on.
Start from Cuttings
Cuttings are a fantastic method of propagating your own free home plants. You might ask your friends and neighbors whether you can take a cutting from their plants.
Some of the greatest plants that grow quickly from cuttings include English ivy, pothos, monstera, spider plants, and philodendrons. You can distribute the cuttings to other gardening enthusiasts too!
Which indoor plant purifies the air the best?
The 20 Best Indoor Air Purifying Plants
- Ivy in English. Hedera spiral.
- Palm Bamboo. the Chamaedorea seifrizii.
- Asian Evergreen Aglaonema humble.
- Daisy gerberas. Jameson’s gerbera.
- draconian tree Marginata dracaena.
- Chrysanthemum morifolium, or pot mum.
- Spathiphyllum ‘Mauna Loa’ peace lily
- Scorpion Plant. ‘Vittatum’ Chlorophytum comosum
How are indoor plants cared for in Colorado?
Winter in Colorado can be a long, arduous, and depressing time for gardeners. We rely on our houseplants as a means of release from those wintertime blues as we move indoors for the next chilly months.
However, in order to survive the challenging fall and winter months, indoor plants require a little additional care. The dry air, shorter days, and temperature changes of winter may be quite stressful for houseplants because they are typically tropical in nature.
Here are some suggestions to keep your indoor plants as content as you do:
Indoor humidity levels drastically decrease when the seasons change and heaters are turned on. For indoor plants, this dry air might be hazardous. The majority of indoor plants are native to tropical regions and require high humidity to thrive. If your home has a humidifier, move your plants there so they can benefit from it. If not, you’ll need to find another way to increase the humidity.
Organizing your plants into clusters is a wonderful place to start. Grouping plants will make the most of the moisture that they all naturally lose through their leaves, or transpire. The bathroom or kitchen, if there is room, is the greatest spot to set up your plants because the steam from showers and boiling water keeps the air there more humid than in other parts of the house. Your plants can also be placed on a shallow tray that is packed with pebbles or gravel to increase the moisture level around them. If you wet the pebbles, the humidity will rise as the water vapor evaporates. In order to prevent your plant from being overwatered, the water level should be below the pot.
For plants like ferns, rex begonias, prayer plants, and calathea that are especially sensitive to dry air, you can buy cloches, which are tall, bell-shaped glass covers that can be placed over the plants to capture any transpired moisture. Contrary to popular perception, spraying indoor plants does not increase the relative humidity. It might provide your plants with short-term comfort, but it disappears too rapidly to have a significant impact. To gain any benefit, you would need to mist frequently throughout the day because your heater’s dry air will soon vaporize the moisture.
Even though indoor plants need a lot of humidity in the winter, they only need a tiny bit of water. Even tropical plants must hibernate throughout the winter since they cannot otherwise grow. The majority of houseplants prefer absolutely dry soil while dormant, thus watering intervals should be as long as possible. The leading cause of houseplant mortality is overwatering. The secret is to only water them when necessary. Put your finger 2 inches deep into the ground to test this. The plant needs water if you poke it and it comes out dry. Thoroughly wet the area with tepid—not cold—water, and then let the water drain out entirely. After about an hour, drain any extra water if the plant has a saucer. Some plants may require more moisture than others, so if you’re unsure what yours requires, research it online or give your neighborhood garden center a call to speak with an expert.
The sun enters the sky at a lower angle during the winter, in addition to the days being shorter. Your houseplants might need to be moved to a brighter location or even given more light. A window facing south or west would be ideal because they receive the most sunlight. Just make sure they aren’t placed too close to a drafty window.
Rotate your plants once every two weeks or such to ensure even growth. Artificial grow lights can be utilized to improve low-light conditions if there aren’t enough sunny windows in your home. If you are giving your plants too much or too little light, they will let you know. Too little water will cause plants to grow long and leggy, produce lesser leaves, and become a yellowish-green tint. Too much light causes spots on the leaves of plants to become white and bleached out, as well as scorched or burned areas.
Regularly check your indoor plants for new pests, especially if you buy a new plant. When houseplants are placed closely together, pests like mealy bugs, aphids, spider mites, and white flies can spread swiftly and become epidemic.
Additionally, you need to keep dust and other debris off of your plants’ leaves. This keeps the plant looking its best and aids in its ability to “breathe.” Every few weeks, use a moist towel to wipe the leaves of your plant.
Wait until your plants have broken dormancy and are starting to exhibit new growth in the spring before repotting them.
Your houseplants will undoubtedly remain with you with a little tender loving care, providing you with a small taste of nature’s beauty during the chilly, gloomy winter months.
Should indoor plants be placed near a window?
Houseplants are not only attractive and decorative but also provide many advantages for your home. Your indoor plants can boost your health, remove toxins from the air through air purification, and, if you have them in an office or classroom setting, they can help you concentrate better.
How can you maximize the potential of your plants? The positioning of your houseplants within the home is one of the secrets to keeping them healthy.
In general, plants can endure warmer or colder conditions, as well as short-term water surpluses or shortages. However, if you want the finest results from your plants, you must put them in an environment where they will have access to water, nutrients, and the proper climate to survive.
How then can you imitate their natural environment? In order to get the most success out of your houseplants, our guide will show you which plants to place where in your house.
Which rooms work best?
Your indoor plants all share the same trait. Each plant will require a different quantity of sunlight, but they all require it.
Place your indoor plants carefully; don’t just set them down. It doesn’t necessarily follow that a plant is best for your houseplant just because it matches the decor of a particular room in the home.
Consider the following: Which room in my home receives the greatest sunlight? What side are my windows facing? My heaters aren’t here. What is the inside temperature in my home on average?
With that, you can begin to determine which regions are ideal for placing your houseplants.
Types of plants
Your plants will need sunlight, as was already said. Some species will benefit from as much shade as possible, but others may require continuous partial or full shade.
Keep in mind that your plants do not require direct sunshine at all times of the day because this can burn the plant’s leaves and roots.
The majority of plants will thrive in a window that faces west, east, or south. Therefore, avoid placing too many plants in front of windows that face north.
Of course, some plants need full or partial shade for the most of the day.
For instance, flowering and foliage plants, including some fern and lily kinds, typically do well with both artificial light and little direct sunlight.
Therefore, if you position your foliage plant a few feet away from your South-facing window, it will be in the best possible position. Make sure your foliage plant is kept out of the midday sun or when there is direct sunshine in the room if your windows face west or east.
Large, thick, meaty leaves on plants have a tendency to thrive in the shade. These plants include, but are not limited to, jade, stonecrop, and zebra plant.
Plant care
Your indoor plants could require more maintenance than your garden. It’s always best to do a little study on your plants, whether it’s to find out how frequently to water them or what kind of environment they want.
Around 70F (20C) is a good temperature for most houseplants, however others only do well in colder climates. For instance, cyclamen like it between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and 15 degrees Celsius), and Cineraria much cooler. You may need to maintain a steady temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit if you have a bonsai tree or other tropical indoor plants (20C).
When positioning your plants close to a heat source, exercise caution. The majority of home heating systems create an environment that is too dry for most potted plants. In the winter, central heating will produce a warm, arid environment. For indoor plants, this will be nearly inhospitable.
You can either periodically mist your plants with tiny water droplets or pack or group moss between the pot and its attractive container to create a microclimate around their leaves. The warning indicators will be seen when your leaves are completely dry or discolored and the soil appears to require watering.