Since we moved into our house around 4 years ago, I have become obsessed with houseplants. I’ve always had one or two throughout my home, but never enough to earn plant lady status. That didn’t happen until I had a home with the right lighting and space to make my dream set up.
It has taken a while for me to figure out what plants are good for our space and which ones I can easily keep alive since I have a tendency to either overwater my plants or ignore them completely, with very little in between.
I’ve also recently discovered the importance of plant food, which has been an absolute game changer for most of my plants; most importantly for my Pilea and Hibiscus, which went from a total of 3 blooms a season max to over 20 this year! The plant food I use for the majority of my plants (pilea included) is TPS NUTRIENTS Indoor Plant Food*. And I use the TPS NUTRIENTS Hibiscus Fertilizer for Tropical and Flowering Plants* for my hibiscus. Both are ones I would highly recommend.
Onto the plants!
The following six houseplants are my absolute favorite and have been the easiest to grow and maintain.
1. Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is in the succulent family and the gel inside the leaves can be used as a natural remedy for burns and cuts. It’s a low-maintenance plant that thrives in bright, indirect light and requires less watering than you think.
Aloe vera was one of the very first plants I ever got because, as my mama said, you never know when you’re going to need it. I’ve had one since moving into my very first apartment when I was 21 and has been a staple plant in my home ever since. Sometimes, the only plant in my home.
It has definitely come in handy for all of the times I’ve burned myself (either from cooking, rubbing up against a hot iron, or from the sun).
2. Inch Plant
Inch plants, AKA Tradescantia, grow well both indoors and out. They are incredibly easy to grow and can be easily propagated to make more and more plants as they start to grow wild. They can be considered invasive depending on your region, so make sure to grow them in pots or containers so they don’t take over or push out other native species.
A friend gave me a clipping several years ago from one of her potted plants and we have had at least three to four pots with inch plants in our home ever since. If you scroll up to the photo above Aloe Vera, it’s the purple looking plant behind the giant Aloe. I snip my plants every few months and offer the clippings to folks in my local Buy Nothing Facebook group and they are always a big hit.
More information here and here on how to care for Inch Plants and to learn how to propagate them.
3. Kalanchoe
I got my first Kalanchoe from Trader Joe’s several years ago in one of those Sugar Skull pots that they offer around Halloween. It great so well that I have had to repot it twice now and have been able to propagate it into a whole new plant. The flowers bloom on my all year round, so it’s always a fun little burst of color in our window.
Kalanchoe come in red, pink, yellow, orange, and white, though I’ve always had yellow ones. They love bright light and are pretty forgiving when it comes to watering, requiring water about once every other week.
More care instructions can be found here.
4. Pilea
Pilea was one of those plants that I always killed. I would get them with high expectations and then one by ones, the leaves would fall off and the plant would just wither away. So I stopped buying them and resigned myself to admire them from afar.
When a friend gifted me a cutting last year, I knew I had to give the lovely little pilea another try. We did great together for a few months; the plant was looking happy, new leaves were popping up and I thought, I’ve got this.
That is, until the leaves started turning yellow and I realized that I didn’t got this.
After a bunch of research online, I saw that yellow leaves was a sign of several things, including watering issues (over or under), lighting problems, and lack of proper nutrients. Since nothing else had changed with the pilea, I decided to give plant food a try. I used the TPS NUTRIENTS Indoor Plant Food* and the difference has been night and day. After two weeks of using the plant food, the leaves began to turn green again and new leaves started to sprout.
A few months in and the plant has never looked better or fuller. There are so many little baby pilea leaves at the base of the plant and that makes this plant mama’s heart happy. Moral of this story: when in doubt, try plant food.
More care instructions for Pilea can be found here.
5. Alocasia
Alocasia, AKA Elephant’s Ear, is a gorgeous plant with large heart-shaped leaves. I found mine at IKEA of all places, and have loved adding it to our plant family. The large dark leaves are striking and it’s always fun to watch when new leaves sprout.
One thing I have struggled with when it comes to the Alocasia is keeping more than 6 leaves on the plant at any given time. The use of plant food has definitely helped, with several new leaves growing this Summer, but we are still losing leaves.
Looking to add this beauty to your plant collection? You can learn more about them here and here.
6. ZZ Plant (Zamicoculcas zamiifolia)
One of the very first plants I got was a ZZ plant. We found it on a list of plants that grow well in apartments, especially with low light, because we wanted some greenery in our bedroom that got minimal light. ZZ plants can grow in most environments (low light being one of them) and often thrive on neglect, making them a great plant to have in any home.
While our plant did just fine in that dark bedroom in our previous home, it has THRIVED now that it’s in a new space with bright diffused light. We often get 2-3 new leaves popping up at a time and it’s been super fun to watch it grow.
Next up in our ZZ Plant journey: propagation. I’ll probably be using clippings for mine since some of the stems are super long, but you can also propagate it from leaves and/or rhizomes (the root balls at the base of the plant). A great video about it can be found here.
General plant care instructions can be found here.
And there you have it. Six of my favorite houseplants that are ridiculously easy to maintain and keep alive. They add so much color to our day and bring everyone in the house joy. Here’s to embracing more plant joy and achieving master plant lady status in whatever way is meaningful to you.
X+O,
Emily
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