These sturdy beauties can handle a little neglect.
Don’t let those fickle fiddle leaf figs fool you. Not every houseplant requires a natural green thumb and extensive gardening expertise. These hardy indoor species can survive and even thrive despite serious neglect.
“Buy something that likes to live the way you do,” advises Gwenn Fried, manager of the horticulture therapy program at NYU Langone. When you’re working with a dark room, give low-light options like pothos, prayer plants, and dracaena a go. If too many rays has shriveled your plants in the past, opt for sun lovers like yucca, jade, and ponytail palm. Peace lilies and Chinese evergreen can handle the well-meaning over-waterer. If you’re the set-it-and-forget-it type, ZZ plant, kalanchoe, and philodendrons might be more your speed.
Get more plant inspiration and care tips below from horticultural experts, but if you’re looking for true no-maintenance foliage, check out the best artificial plants you can buy. Their plastic leaves will never go brown, no matter how hard you try.
Pothos
Calling all black thumbs: This trailing vine has earned the nickname “devil’s ivy” for its ability to withstand nearly pitch-black conditions as well as under- and over-watering.
Aglaonema
If you’re more of a waterer, an excellent plant is a Chinese evergreen Aglaonema can withstand excess H2O, and it comes in a spectrum of colors, including green, pink, white, and red.
Jade Plant
Jade retains water in its round leaves, so it can sometimes survive more than a month without any attention whatsoever. If they do get water, they start to rehydrate and grow, an associate professor in the horticulture department at Cornell University. Position it in a sunny window (south- or west-facing, preferably) and water when the soil feels dry.
Asparagus Fern
This fluffy plant tolerates a lot more abuse than other ferns — thanks to the fact that it’s technically not a fern. Asparagus setaceus adapts to both bright spots and darker corners. Keep the soil moist and it’ll thrive.
Chinese Money Plant
Pilea peperomioides grows best in a shady spot (or winter windowsill) with weekly watering, according to The Little Book of House Plants and Other Greenery. Bonus: You can replant the offshoots that sprout from the base of the stem and give them as gifts.
Yucca
The recipe for a happy yucca is easy: sun, sun, and more sun. Plant in a container deep enough to balance the top-heavy woody stems and water sparingly.
Air Plant
You can keep the potting soil in the shed for this one. Tillandsia grows without dirt altogether. Just dunk them in water for about two or three hours every 10 days or so, expert gardener and author of The Indestructible Houseplant.
