Every Autumn we dedicate at least one weekend to giving our houseplants a little refresh. Each one of our houseplants gets an over the top assessment from my husband. During their annual check up, he will determine if they are being under or over watered. He'll let me know if it's time to upgrade their pot to something bigger. Sometimes his assessment will even come with a medical diagnosis and a prescription. No, I'm not kidding.
I remember when I was pregnant with my first baby and I decided to get a plant. We walked into the nursery and I asked "Which plant is the hardest to kill? Great. I'll take the one." I named it Sam after Sam Winchester, obviously. I really loved and cared for that plant. When it got sick five years later, my husband bagged it AND BURNT IT. I was devastated, but he didn't want the contagion to spread. Ever since then, I take the health of my houseplants seriously and haven't had anymore unexpected losses.
Despite our traumatizing loss, I love to have a house filled with plants. They naturally purify the air for us, give the kids a fun chore to do, and make the house look pretty. While this is all true, I try to only house low maintenance plants because I don't want my man's brain to explode.
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Ten low maintenance houseplants.
This plant was my first ever houseplant. This is also the plant that I mentioned in the story above. While Sam sadly perished, we now have Sam Jr. who is way passed his toddler years! This plant is nearly impossible to kill. It thrives in almost any condition, doesn't need much light, and can survive with being watered only twice a month. It does grow quickly and may need to be repotted each year.
Note: When our original plant got sick, it was infested with spider mites. If caught early enough, this safe insecticide would have saved it. Unfortunately, we didn't catch it early enough. Now I always keep a bottle of the insecticide handy under the sink and use it often on my HIGH maintenance lemon tree and roses.
Similar to the ZZ Plant, this low maintenance houseplant requires almost no care. We have two of these in our basement to act has natural air purifiers. They survive despite living in a dark space and only being watered a couple of times a month. As an added bonus, this plant is super sleek and goes very well with modern house decor.
We have this low maintenance houseplant in a gorgeous teal green pot hanging from a rope in the kitchen. It loves the sun from our large, four panel glass door and numerous sky lights. While it's thriving with all the sunlight, it's survived two previous moves which included some dark places. It grows like a weed vine because it is one and needs to be constantly trimmed. It's already spawned several children from it's clippings and is displayed throughout my office at work!
Note: If you trim this plant by cutting it mid stem and immediately planting it in fresh dirt with lots of water, it will grow into it's own gorgeous plant. Just remember to give it extra water as it's roots are starting to form from a cut stem.
While this plant looks super chic thanks to it's pink coloring, I promise that it's low maintenance. All it takes to prosper is some indirect light, bi-weekly watering, and some polite conversation. Although, fair warning that we've had this plant for five years and have already repotted it twice. Next year it will need a third, very large pot. While it's low maintenance to care for, you'll need to be ready for it's growth spurts. This is also the second houseplant on our list that actually flowers although the flowers don't smell all that nice.
Another plant that you can find throughout my home are little succulents. They are low maintenance houseplants with no special treatment required. My only complaint is how quickly they grow. Part of their appeal is their small size, but don't be fooled by it because they grow rapidly.
Note: My husband came up with a great idea of what to do with our succulents! We're going to get a shallow but wide planter to put them all in together. It will be a succulent arrangement that looks pretty and saves us some space. I'll make sure to share some pictures when my all knowing houseplant master is done.
Bamboo is a super invasive plant that is nearly impossible to kill. It's so invasive that it's literally illegal to plant on Long Island. While it's not good to plant in the ground, it makes for a resilient, low maintenance houseplant. A few years back my husband gifted me a bamboo plant trained to shape it's trunks into three hearts. It's been years and it's still flourishing in it's little pot filled with pebbles and water!
Growing up, Madre always had an aloe vera plant on hand. It not only looked pretty, but she would break off a leaf whenever we got a minor burn. The gel inside of the leaves is soothing and great for your skin. Our plant is doing extremely well with high levels of sunlight and limited water. I only water it about twice a month.
This lovely little, pink trimmed plant livens up my little office at work. I'm lucky enough to have an office window, which this plant loves! I nestle her between my filing cabinet and window so that it doesn't get full sun. I make sure she's watered once a week. This low maintenance plants seems to be very happy with her simple life.
Note: During our annual houseplant maintenance, my daughter's job is to polish the leaves of the plants. She uses one washcloth to delicately dust off the leaves and then sprays the plant with this so that the plants stay shiny and looking healthy. When my husband first met me, I used to do this chore with mayonnaise which he quickly put an end to.
I saved this one for last because it's my favorite of all of the houseplants. We currently have two of these that have both more than quadrupled their size. They are now living in pots so large that they only way to repot them again would be to break the flower pots. They flower several times throughout the year this pretty, white, cup shaped flowers that make me squeal every time! They've lived through dim light conditions and full sun conditions, and never complained about either. They get watered about once a week. If you do forget to water them, they will droop their leaves as a reminder that they're thirsty.
Note: The Peace Lily plant makes for a lovely gesture to send to someone as a sympathy gift. When my close friend's grandmother passed, we sent him a little plant that he uses as a memorial for her. It's appreciated and appropriate for the occasion.
Do you have any houseplants?
