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Bringing your first houseplant home can be intimidating. If you’ve never cared for a plant before, you might have no idea which one to choose. However, there are houseplants are fairly easy to care for, no green thumb required, and no need to worry about them dying despite your best efforts. You’ve got this!
Have you ever felt like you could kill a plant just by looking at it. Even if you’ve struggled to keep your plants alive, you don’t necessarily have to switch to artificial plants. There are plenty of houseplants that are shockingly easy to take care of.
If you’re busy, forgetful, or just don’t have a green thumb, give these houseplants a closer look. Every one of these 18 plants is dead easy to take care of.
1. Cast-Iron Plant (Aspidistra relation)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
As you might be able to tell from this plant’s name, it’s virtually indestructible. Even if you neglect the plant for long stretches of time, it will continue to survive. Although the plant does best when it gets a moderate amount of sunlight and water, it will stay green even if you keep it in the shade.
There are several different types of cast-iron plant, including Lennon’s Song, which has yellow-striped leaves, and Hoshi-zora, a plant with speckled leaves! No matter what variety you choose, this is a plant that can survive even if you’re prone to killing your houseplants.
2. Snake Plant (Sansevieria)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Low
If you’re the type of person that can forget to water your plants for weeks, you’ll love owning a snake plant. These bright green plants can easily go for a month or more without any water. They also tend to do well in pots of all sizes, which means you can keep this plant small or let it grow to be large.
The only thing you have to worry about when caring for a snake plant is the temperature. As long as you keep the plant indoors, where it won’t be exposed to frost, there’s basically nothing that can kill it.
3. Paddle Plant (Kalanchoe thyrsiflora)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Low
This cute plant gets its name from its leaves, which are rounded like the end of a paddle. It was bred to be drought-resistant, which means the plant does very well even when it doesn’t get watered for a while. Paddle plants can also thrive in many conditions and do well under heavy and moderate sunlight.
You may want to keep your plant out of indirect sunlight when the sun is at its peak during the summer, but aside from that, you won’t have much to worry about when raising one of these plants. If you take great care of your plant, it may start to develop a rich red color at the edges of its leaves.
4. Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
Sun Needs: Low to Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
Spider plants are highly adaptable and are very easy to care for, making them a popular option for people that are new to growing houseplants. The plant can do very well when kept in shade or moderate sunlight. Just be aware that the more sunlight the plant gets, the larger it will grow.
When caring for a spider plant, the only thing you really have to worry about is the level of fluoride or chlorine in your water. If you live in an area where fluoride is added to your drinking water, you may want to use bottled, distilled, or rainwater for your plant. You can also leave tap water sitting out for 24 hours before you give it to your plant, which will give the chlorine a chance to evaporate.
5. Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sandersl)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
You don’t have to be lucky to keep this ornamental plant healthy! Lucky bamboo can grow in water without any soil at all. It’s a popular option for container gardens in urban areas, but it can also do very well indoors.
Despite its name, this plant isn’t actually a bamboo plant at all. It’s a part of the Dracaena family, which includes other easy-to-grow houseplants like dragon trees. If your plant starts to wilt or brown at any time, you can easily bring it back to life with a little bit of water.
6. Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Low
Many tropical plants are challenging to care for, but that’s not the case for peace lily. While these beautiful flowering plants tend to do best in humid climates, they can adapt to other environments as well. In the wild, these plants grow in the shade, but they do best with moderate sunlight when kept indoors.
This is a very popular houseplant, and because of that, you’ll have the chance to choose from many varieties of peace lily when bringing this plant into your home. The Mauna Loa Supreme variety, which has a mature size between three and four feet, is one of the easiest types to care for.
7. Aloe (Aloe vera)
Sun Needs: Lots
Water Needs: Moderate
This succulent has a long history of being used as a medicinal plant! Aloe vera is a hardy houseplant that can easily be revitalized if the plant starts to wilt or brown. It’s also an easy plant to propagate if you want to share your plant with friends!
It’s best to water your aloe plant regularly for most of the year, but in the winter, you can forget about your plant for a few months or so. This is an excellent houseplant for people that spend a lot of the holiday season away from home.
8. Coffee Plant (Coffee Arabica)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Lots
While you won’t be able to harvest coffee beans from this indoor plants, it’s still a fun and easy-to-care-for plant that coffee lovers are sure to enjoy. This is actually a dwarf variety of the coffee trees that grow in the wild, and the plant was specifically cultivated to be kept indoors.
Since this plant loves water, it may not be a great option for you if you have a hard time remembering to water your plants. However, aside from that, you won’t have to do much to keep your plant in great shape. It’s also one of the easiest houseplants to grow from a seed!
9. Anthurium (Anthurium spp.)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
Anthurium plants are stunning to look at, but they’re also very hardy and don’t require a lot of specialized care. In the wild, anthurium typically grows on other plants, which means it can thrive in all kinds of environments when you keep the plant indoors.
Whether you choose to grow your plant in peat moss or in soil, you shouldn’t have a hard time keeping it in good shape. Even if you forget about your plant for a while, you can easily refresh it by giving it the water and the sunlight that it needs. It’s an especially great option for people that live in more humid climates.
10. Prayer Plant (Maranta)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
This is one of the most popular types of houseplant, in part because it’s easy to take care of. While this plant struggles in frost and cold temperatures, you can expect it to do very well as long as it’s kept indoors.
You won’t have to do anything very complicated to keep your plant in good shape, but it’s a good idea to use warm or room temperature water on your plant. There are many types of prayer plants to choose from, which means you’ll be able to pick out a plant with a look that you love!
11. Calathea Freddie (Calathea connica)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
Some types of houseplants need to moved to a new pot every so often, which can be a hassle. If you’d prefer not to do any re-potting, calathea Freddie is a wonderful option. It’s a visually appealing plant that is happy to stay in the same pot for very long stretches of time.
While this plant can struggle in extreme temperatures, it’s very easy to care for when it’s kept indoors. You may see its leaves start to brown if it’s not getting enough water, but you can easily fix the problem and keep your plant healthy by misting its leaves.
12. Dragon Tree (Dracaena marginate)
Sun Needs: Lots
Water Needs: Low
This plant can be intimidating because of its large size, but it’s actually a very low-maintenance plant. It’s an adaptable plant that doesn’t require specific conditions in order to stay healthy. Even if you keep it in the shade or give it a little too much water, the plant should be fine.
Although this is a simple plant to grow and care for, you’ll want to avoid it if you have pets in your household. Dragon tree is highly toxic to both dogs and cats.
13. Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema commutatum)
Sun Needs: Low
Water Needs: Moderate
This decorative plant, which is native to Asia, is a slow-growing plant that’s easy to care for. Generally speaking, plants with lighter leaves need more sunlight, so you should choose a variety with darker leaves if you want to keep your plant in the shade.
Chinese evergreen is toxic to cats and dogs, which means it isn’t the best choice for pet owners. However, if you don’t have any pets in your household, this is a beautiful, stable plant that is easy to care for all year round.
14. Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Moderate
This tropical plant needs a little more water than your average cactus, but it’s still quite simple to care for. It needs moderate amounts of water during the warmer months of the year, but in the winter, the plant can go without water for several weeks at a time.
It’s called Christmas cactus because the plant tends to bloom during the holiday season. Depending on the variety you choose, your plant should have flowers around Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you have holiday guests, it’ll look like you’re an expert gardener, even if you don’t actually know what you’re doing.
15. Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvate)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Low
Even indoors, this plant can grow to be three to five feet tall, but it can take as long as five years for the plant to reach its full size. This plant may be slow to grow, but it tends to live for a very long time, even if the person caring for the plant doesn’t have a green thumb.
The plant only needs to be watered about once every one to two weeks, making it a nice choice for people that struggle to remember to water their plants. Even though it’s a tropical plant, it can survive in temperatures as low as 50 degrees fahrenheit.
16. Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Low
It’s hard to find a plant that’s easier to take care of than pothos.This plant is actually healthiest when it’s not watered for long stretches of time. It does best when its soil is able to fully dry out between waterings.
Not only is this a fairly low-maintenance plant, but it’s also an easy plant to revitalize. If you see your plant drooping, or if the edges of the leaves start to brown, the plant needs water. Give it the water it needs, and you’ll be able to nurse the plant back to health in no time!
17. Panda Plant (Kalanchoe tomentosa)
Sun Needs: Moderate
Water Needs: Low
While this plant doesn’t look much like a panda, it does have a fur-like fuzz on its leaves. It’s a succulent that’s native to the dessert, and because of that, the plant is at its happiest when it’s not getting that much water. The plant can handle humidity, but it tends to do best in dry conditions.
This isn’t a cold-hardy plant, but as long as you keep it indoors, that shouldn’t be a problem. Since the plant requires less sunlight than other types of succulents, it’s a viable option for people that live in places that don’t get as much direct sunlight.
18. ZZ Plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
Sun Needs: Low
Water Needs: Low
Sunlight and water are essential to the health of most plants, but the ZZ plant doesn’t need much of either! This waxy-leafed houseplant can thrive when kept in the shade, and it only needs to be watered every two weeks. When you have this plant in your home, it’s easy to forget that it’s not artificial!
These plants can be mildly toxic to pets, so you’ll want to proceed with caution if you have animals in your household. Since the plant grows to be three to four feet in height, it can be difficult to place the plant in a safe area that your pets can’t access.
