Top 5 easy-care indoor plants

Indoor plants are really in fashion. Everyone has just understood (finally) the benefits and advantages of having little green friends at home. Indeed, plants have several beneficial effects for health and for the home.

List of benefits of indoor plants;

- It's beautiful

- It makes green where it is white or beige

- It reduces stress and anxiety

- It improves creativity and productivity

- It helps develop your gardening skills

Would you also like to join this wonderful world of indoor plants, but your apartment still bears the corpses and remains of your old attempts? Well, don't worry. Here is the list of 5 easy-care indoor plants.

1. The Sansevierias

Sansevierias are "baby fafa" to maintain at home. Available in several varieties and more beautiful than the others (pencils, starfish, mother-in-law's tongue), these plants could easily live in a wardrobe and do not need a lot of water since they are part of succulents and cacti.

However, the growth of this variety is rather slow. Therefore, it is interesting to obtain a specimen that is already of a satisfactory size for you.

It can live in a closet!

Okay, I'm exaggerating again! However, it is possible to place your sansevierias in rooms without light as long as you move them to a bright place from time to time (e.g.: 2 months in the "noère" bathroom and then 2 months near the living room window).

These plants also make the perfect gift for housewarmings, birthdays, or bereavement, because no matter the gardening skills of the person receiving the gift, sansevierias are rough and tough !

2. Zaméoculcas or ZZ plants

A delicious green, an original and chic shape...in short, if I had to give the merits to the easy-care indoor plant I would offer it to the ZZ. A little less known than the famous mother-in-law's tongue, these plants will allow you to stand out in terms of interior decoration (the perfect type of plant to be able to do your "fresh")!

Like sansevierias, zameoculcas can live very well without too much light and water. On the other hand, once again the growth of zz is very slow. Therefore, you have to be patient.

3. The spider plant

Ok, I'm not completely original, I know!

Spider plants are indeed super easy to care for plants. They need average to good light and a reasonable amount of water.

If this type of plant were a person we would probably say that the spider plant is nice.

The secret trick of spider plants is that they store a lot of nutrients and water in their rhizomes underground. This allows them to cope with your forgetfulness, your exam rush or your trips to the south.

It is very important to repot spider plants once a year to encourage their growth, because unlike sansevierias or ZZs, spider plants have a rather fast growth. Especially if you give them seaweed fertilizer in spring and summer (this is like when you "grab" a Mario Kart mushroom and a fast arrow plate).

Tips and tricks for being original with spider plants;

• Mix a variegated plant and a green plant in the same pot.
• Get the Curly Spider variety which is actually a spider plant that got a perm from Mother Nature ( she's sexy and she knows it!).

4. Cacti

There you're probably going to tell me... mine are all dead!! Well, the thing with cacti is not to give them water!

Personally, I water my cacti once a month (maybe twice in the summer if they are really dry and the soil is coming off the containers). I try to forget about them as much as possible in a sunny place where they live their cactus life to the fullest.

5. Artificial plants

AH AH AH! YOU ARE SO FUNNY!

Well, this is no joke!

I believe that the perfect mix of green plants and artificial plants (quality!) gives a more than perfect trompe l'oeil look.  In the store, I wanted to have plants stuck on the window, but the sun, the radiator and the cold of winter gave me a lot of trouble. Therefore, I opted for some high-end artificial plants for a gourmet, rich and abundant look . This allows me to have a sexy window no matter the time of year, to pair different textures of greenery and to create the urban jungle effect so sought after.

Quiz question. Is this cactus a real or fake cactus?

Other easy-to-maintain indoor plants that I didn't put in my top 5 but which were among the nominees:

• The Potos,
• Phylodendrons (monstera, mini-monstera)
• Crotons (NOT CRETON! crOton) for bright places,
• Ficus, if you never move them again once they are installed because otherwise they give you tantrums and they lose a lot of leaves,
• Aloe, the perfect plant for small and big aches and pains. The stems used can be kept for 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator. Aloe is my favorite baby shower gift with the sweet little bunny….
• The fishbone cactus, original, drooping, perfect for the sunny planter.

List of plants that are not super easy to maintain (in my opinion)

aka burn baby burn!

• Ivy, they are always sick and "not happy"! Too much water = red spiders, not enough water = red spiders, too much sun = red spiders, not enough sun = red spiders.
• Ferns are beautiful! But they are a full-time job; you have to mist them, keep their soil moist, but not too much, and give them light, but not too much….

In short, you now know the easiest plants to maintain in my opinion. I wish you a lot of fun with your jungle at home and if you have any questions, problems or bugs, I invite you to join the group Docteur Plante; Madame Alice on Facebook. This group is the perfect place to discuss indoor plants and share your successes and concerns.

Kiss kiss

Madame Alice, plant doctor and fern killer.