Think you’re ready to grow something green and be responsible for foliage? Everyone’s doing it and now you want in on some indoor plant action too? Here’s five indoor plants for beginners to get you on your way!
Plants are an investment. Both in cold hard cash and time so you want to get it right from the get go with hardy, easy to maintain plant species. And by ‘easy to maintain‘ I mean difficult to kill off. Just to be clear. And if you are a serial plant killer, don’t despair, I have an option for you too.
Without further ado, here’s the low down on the growing trend of keeping indoor plants, especially those great indoor plants for beginners!
Why should we have indoor plants?
Apart from turning our homes into epic green wonderlands worthy of Instagram and Pinterest at a push, indoor plants are actually very good for our HEALTH. So remember that next time you bring home another green baby and your partner rolls their eyes at you. #GOODHEALTH
5 Indoor plants for beginners
1. Swiss Cheese Plant (Monstera Deliciosa)
First things first, Monstera plants – like children, begin their life cute and dainty, a cluster of beautiful green holed leaves. But before long they turn into long limbed leggy plants which while EPIC, isn’t great for the lamp table between couches. A quick grower, this baby needs ROOM to move guys!
FUN FACT: Monstera Deliciosa DO bear fruit – but mostly only the wild outdoor growing type – so put your vegetable peeler away guys.
2. Mother in Law’s Tongue (Dracaena Trifasciata)
One of the hardiest indoor plants of the lot, this guy is built robust. Mother in Law’s Tongue helps filter the air opposite to most – it releases oxygen into the air at night – so be sure to have one in your bedroom for sweet, healthy slumber!
FUN FACT: Mother in Law’s Tongue is considered to be a lucky plant to have in your home by Feng Shui experts. So fill up the car at the nursery and bring that luck home!
3. Rubber Plant (Ficus Elastica)
Beautiful dark, thick leathery leaves the Rubber Plant is always a handsome show stopper. These guys will drop their leaves when not happy but they’re resilient buggers – just when you think they’ve knocked on death’s door one too many times, they bounce right back.
FUN FACT: The “rubber” aspect of its name comes from the “rubber” white sap that drips from the plant’s glossy leaves and woody stems if they’re scratched or cut, so wash your hands after handling!
4. Devil’s Ivy (Epipremnum aureum)
The best creeper ever! Devil’s ivy loves mild light which makes them a go-to house plant because they can live practically anywhere. Beautiful heart shaped leaves in varying shades of green make them a beauty to look at too.
FUN FACT: These fellows will trail on forever, so buy one with lots of trails if you want the creepiest of creepers!
5. Fiddle Leaf Fig (Ficus Lyrata)
The grand-daddy of them all, there’s no greater prize than the fiddle leaf fig. He can be a fickle so and so but when he’s happy, OH EM GEE, he’s bloomin’ glorious. Find his happy spot somewhere with bright, indirect light and no breezes and he’ll reward you with big, fat glossy green leaves. Just a warning though – toddlers love to rip them off which will end in tears. Yours, not theirs, mostly.
FUN FACT: A Fiddle leaf fig tree can grow up to 15 metres tall outdoors. Indoors, they have a much more stunted growth but can still reach up to around 3 metres tall.
Being a good plant mum
It’s not enough to just buy a plant, bring it home and hope for the best. Just like kids, puppies and kittens… you have to LOOK AFTER IT. Ugh. So if you need to develop some plant mum skills STAT, check out our post on how to care for indoor plants. You’re welcome.
For the lovers…
If like me, you’re someone who loves to fuss over your plants, there’s every chance you’re also an avid waterer too. Because to water is to love, right? WRONG. You’re going to drown those suckers. So, with all that finger pointing aside, I suggest you buy one of these – a Gardman Soil Moisture Meter. You can pick them up for around $12 from Bunnings. Just poke it into your plant pot and if it points to DRY – go ahead and water. If not, step away with that watering can.
And the haters … fake it
Of course, among us lovers, there’s going to be the serial plant killers. The ones who love too hard or not enough. Or those who just can’t be bothered tending to plants and all their needs. For you lot, there’s some wonderfully deceiving, artificial indoor plants to be had at places such as Adairs and Kmart. So you can totally fake it until you make it.
We’d love to hear if you’ve been nailing your green thumb (or faking it until you make it), let us know what you think are great plants for a beginner!
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