How to Choose the Right Indoor Plants for Your Space
Are you a plant person? I’m hoping if you’re reading this then the answer is either yes or a resounding sort-of, to which I say, welcome to a life of green-thumbed bliss. While ‘growing green things’ as the Pharos once preached may not have been high on your list of new resolutions, it’s hard to go wrong with doing more of it.
Whether you’re a seasoned spathiphyllum schleper (and I hope so) or just green around the ficus, knowing how to choose the right plants for your indoor space and your lifestyle is key. Every interior is different, with different light, space, location or wear-and-tear issues to consider when selecting which greenery to buy, so, as with much of interior design, the situation is unique and varied. But there are a few ‘bare bones’ tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way that have really helped me transform interiors through the magic of the leaf.
Why Go Green Indoors?
Hang on a minute, though. Before we get down to the gritty details about what to plant, let’s stop and think a little: why are you growing plants indoors in the first place? Sure, they’re beautiful, but they can do so much more than that. They can help you breathe easier, think more clearly, de-stress, and make your indoor space not just more attractive but also healthier.
Understanding Your Space: A Deeper Dive into the Green Sanctuary
Start to create an indoor green world by becoming an expert in your space. And when I say ‘space’, I don’t just mean where you’re going to put that plant you desperately want or need but, more importantly, whether your home environment is one that your chosen plants will thrive in. So, excise that first layer of what might lie at the base of ‘understanding your space’.
Light It Up: The Spectrum of Sunlight Needs
Then there’s light, which too much or not enough of can make the world of the houseplant miserable. Pay attention to where your windows face and what kind of light streams through.
Sunny southern-facing windows: the ideal option for plants that love sunlight. If you’re lucky enough to have those sun-kissed windows, then … Sunny southern-facing windows: the ideal option for plants that love sunlight. If you’re lucky enough to have those sun-kissed windows, then you should think about putting those sun-loving plants that are so perfect for this windowsill arrangement, like herbal bright Hibiscus or tough and inventive Jade Plant.
East and West Windows: Moderate light. These two directions are just that: moderate. Just bright enough for sun connoisseurs but without the scorching rays of midday. The light dappling this part of the room is just what the doctor ordered for African Violets, Boston Ferns, and other lesser light lovers. The soft afternoon glow, hitting the west window, is ideal for Spider Plants and Begonias.
The Nurturing North: Windows oriented to the north will receive the least light available, and so is an ideal place for low-light plants. That doesn’t mean a grey landscape of diminished plant life – quite the opposite. Any species of Peace Lily, the photogenic Snake Plant or the ‘ZZ’ Plant are ideal inhabitants for it.
Space Matters: Size, Layout, and the Future
each plant has not just a colour but a complex growth plan, a full itinerary, and understanding this can inform your acquisition to a significant degree. It is a matter of salad versus salad, as it were, of beautiful dining today versus accommodating farce tomorrow.
Room to grow: A Monstera’s unfurling leaves can fill a corner with jungle house dreams, but probably not in a small space where it will have nowhere to go. Or, where you won’t allow it to go. Smaller spaces benefit from the dainty elegance of a Peace Lily or the uplift of a Snake Plant. Even if it looks dainty now. More importantly than the space it takes up now is room for it to do what it does.
Layout notes: Oversized plants in large, open-plan living areas can make a dramatic design statement, functioning in a sense as walls in their own right. Smaller spaces with multiple discrete areas might be better suited to plants that complement furniture and the space around them, rather than dominating it.
The Climate Inside: Humidity, Temperature, and Your Indoor Garden
Indoors, the invisible climate of your home is a bit of a teller when it comes to your plant’s health.
Humidity Levels: Plants that are tropical in nature such as ferns and orchids are naturally used to high humidity that your home would offer. Tropical plants like humidity, and for this reason often find ideal conditions in humid rooms such as your kitchen or bathroom that provide moisture without you having to do anything. Plants that require less water, such as cacti and succulents, are often found in drier household environments such as living rooms or bedrooms away from the kitchen and bathroom where the air is less moist.
Temperature Constancy: The vast majority of houseplants are most comfortable in relatively consistent temperatues and light, similar to that in their native climates. Fluctuations in environment can stress plants, especially near windows or doors. Finding a place with consistent temperatures will mean a place where your plants can grow comfortably.
In other words, it involves gaining an intuitive understanding of your space that goes well beyond the exhilaration of plant shopping. It means thinking in terms of mutual benefit, attuning the plants you choose to the specific qualities of your space.
Choosing Your Plant Companions: Nurturing Harmony in Your Indoor Oasis
What exactly to buy is like choosing housemates with whom you will have to live. It is a decision that needs to take into account your lifestyle, your aesthetic predilections and, if you have animals, your pets. How to choose your indoor plants in harmony with your living environment?
Low Maintenance or High Love?
Even more than how much sunlight comes in, your daily habits play a determining role in what plants are ultimately likely to thrive in your care.
For the Busy Bees: if you have an overcrowded schedule or are prone to forget a watering here and there, opt for plants that are drought-tolerant and low maintenance. For those looking to ease their way into indoor gardening, or are just plain busy, plants that slay the forgetfulness game and boost the air quality are snake plants (Sansevieria). Not only do these plants tolerate neglect, but they also kill it by purifying the air. Similar to the snake plant, ZZ plants (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) are resilient in an overworked or lowlight household due to their dry-soil requirements.
For the Plant Enthusiasts: If you love to care for plants and do this with some degree of regularity, or you don’t mind the extra care anyhow, ferns and calatheas are more for you. Because this type of plant enjoys a bit more humidity and predictable watering schedules, it rewards you with glossy, rich-green foliage.
Air-Purifying Champions
Among the many plants that can help us to provide a healthier home, some are especially good at reeling in toxins from the air.
Fabulous Filters: Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is an all-time favourite Nature’s filters. Recommended by NASA’s Clean Air Study as one of the top plants that purify indoor air, it efficiently removes pollutants like formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds from the indoor environment. This plant is easy to maintain, and propagates quickly so it soon multiplies, making it a favourite go-for when you want to up your indoor air quality game.
Pet-Friendly Foliage
In addition to us humans, our domestic companions too need to be taken into account when introducing plants into the shared home environment. Some plants can be harmful to pets if they are chewed or eaten, so safety is important.
Safe Greens: Spider plants are again a winner here, non-toxic for cats as well as your pooch. Other pet-friendly picks include the Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) and the parlor palm (Chamaedorea elegans).
Aesthetic Alignment
Plants are not just living beings that you can include in your decorating.
Minimalist designs: Aloe Vera fits with a modern architectural look, playing a minimalist role without taking away the spotlight from the rest of the room. Medical benefits: an added bonus to the sleek look.
Tropical Vibes: And if you’re seeking a splash of tropical greenery, a Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) is a big statement plant, with dramatic leaves and the potential for pointed orange-and-blue flowers. For a big-impact plant, this is a good one.
Picking your plant friends is about finding sensible compromises between your own capacities and lifestyles and the aesthetics you desire and the needs of your immediate home environment. Ensuring that your selections help create harmony between ecological and human boundaries – and that your plants flourish because of this – will make an indoor garden a place for vitality and beauty in your life.
Troubleshooting and Care: Keeping Your Green Friends Thriving
You’ve found the best green friends and brought them home. Finally, your plant parenthood journey can begin. Like any relationship, there is nourishment and aspiration: some pain and a lot of problem-solving. Let’s explore some top maintenance tips to keep your indoor garden happy.
The Right Pot: Home Sweet Home
It might seem like the most boring detail but, in many ways, the pot is a plant’s home. Its size, material and drainage can all make the difference to its longterm health and happiness.
Above all, it’s got to have good drainage: First law? The pot must have draining holes. No, this isn’t a suggestion – the drain holes in your pot are there for a reason: to get rid of excess water. Overwatering is the prime reason indoor plants die. And if there’s no way to get rid of the excess, the roots will sit in soggy, oxygen-starved water, which can cause root rot. A plant with good drainage is a happy plant.
Pot Matters: Your pot can make a difference too: from terracotta to plastic, the material your pot is made of can affect soil moisture and temperature. Terracotta pots are porous, more breathable, which can allow your soil to dry more evenly – perfect for plants that like their soil to dry out a little more. Plastic pots hold water more, which can benefit plants that like the soil to stay moist for longer. They are also lighter and more flexible, easier to shuffle around and poke through, which can work better for plants that like the soil to stay consistently moist.
Feeding Your Friends: A Balanced Diet
Plants, too, need a balanced diet. Just like us, they will respond to fertiliser as food, providing nutrients that might not be there in high quantities in their soil, especially indoors.
Stick to a Feeding Schedule: Overfeeding your plants is just as dangerous as neglecting your plants. Use a fertiliser formulated for the type of plant you have and follow the directions on the package. Many houseplants appreciate reduced feeding when growth naturally slows in fall and winter.
Watch and tweak: Give your plant a few days to respond to the fertiliser. Symptoms of over-fertilisation are a build-up of salt on the surface of the pot or yellow, limp-looking leaves. If you see either of these symptoms, hold off on the fertiliser and water your plant to flush it of the salts.
Know When to Repot: Growth and Change
It is part of your plant’s life cycle that growth will bring change, and that some parts that were most precious will have to be uprooted. At this stage we repot, so that your plant can flourish once again.
Points to watch for: more than one or two roots poking out of the bottom is a clue that it’s time to pot up, as is water running straight out of the bottom of a container (another sign that the plant is root-bound), and slowed growth during the growing season.
Picking the Next Home: When you’re taking the plant to the next pot, size up another one full size larger than the present one. Too much soil space will cause waterlogging, as water will be retained much longer than your plant roots can use it up. Use this time to refresh the soil and inspect the root health, cutting off the dead or rotting roots.
But caring for even an indoor plant is an ongoing project and you’ll eventually need to level up – with the right pot, good nutrition, fitting out a new home when the time is right – to keep your investment healthy and alive for many years to come. Plants, like most living things, also do well with a little attention and TLC.
In Conclusion: Cultivating Your Personal Indoor Eden
Journeying towards greener walls is about more than interior decoration: the right indoor plants can help you to create a living, breathing ecosystem that will do more than simply improve your surroundings: it will enhance your overall wellbeing. It might seem like a leap, but there is more to it than just aesthetics, as rewarding as carefully tended greenery can be. The journey is fundamentally about co-existence, and building a place where you and your plants can benefit from each other.
This is a relationship, and the first skill to cultivate is learning the specificity of your space, in terms of light, humidity, and room to stretch. Plants have personalities, like people, and finding the right match for your indoor garden is all about learning how to direct those personalities toward a mutual and peaceful way of thriving.
Resilient, easy-care green heroes such as snake plants and ZZ plants. Or the air-cleaning features of spider plants; the non-toxic safety of pet-friendly foliage; or the simple aesthetic, which may or may not be consistent with your personal style – all your decisions contribute to a sense of your home’s personality and wellbeing.
But that is not where the real alchemy lies. The magic of care happens in the daily ritual of interaction – picking the correct vessel, when to feed and how much, when it needs to come out of its pot – these are all expressions of care that allow your plants to not merely survive but thrive.
And, realising that with each plant came improved indoor air and loveliness, I’d not only be sprucing up the decor, I’d be benefiting from a higher-quality environment, my life enriched by more beauty, a closer connection to nature, and fresher air. I’d be creating that ‘living thing, filled with colourful flora’. Our indoor gardens would be the living embodiment of our care and personalities.
Good luck! Have a happy plant, a healthy plant and a plant you reap the rewards from, which means you know you did a good job creating a great home for your plant-friend. Happy planting!