There are many low-maintenance houseplants that you can grow. Many of them are readily available while others are a bit rare. Let’s look at some of the low-maintenance houseplants I have grown successfully.
Philodendron Pothos
From the Scindapsus family. In terms of care, they do like to dry out a lot before being watered again. You should also go through and pull out some of the dead foliage when it’s completely dead.
If you pull them off when they are completely dead, they come right off and you don’t even need pruners.
The plant can get super long and it just keeps going. You can cut it back and easily propagate it to make more plants.
Philodendron Brasil Low Maintenance Houseplants
The plant has spectacular foliage. It’s also easy to take care of because it wants to dry out almost completely before being watered again.
If you notice that some of the foliage is getting a little wrinkly, that is a visual indication of when it needs water. Give it a good soaking.
When you soak your plants, it’s advisable to replenish nutrients. Especially when they’re in the growing season give them some fertilizer occasionally.
Silver Satin Pothos
Super easy to take care of. The plant loves to almost get to a critical dryness. Avoid watering sparingly, water that just reaches the top layers of the soil.
If you do, the plant roots are gonna stay shallow. You want those roots to get down deep and establish themselves. That’s why we want to water thoroughly for most plants.
Ponytail Palms
I love this plant because you kind of set it and forget it. The plants are easy to take care of because they hold so much water in their base. The wide base is built for water retention.
It’s important to note that the little tips at the end of the leaves do turn brown. If it bothers you, you can cut them off using a pair of scissors or pruners. Personally, I don’t cut them, I let them grow as they would out in nature.
Ponytail Palms also don’t really need to be fed frequently. You can top-dress them with worm castings or you can give them a weak diluted complete fertilizer (complete meaning it has potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorous.
Low Maintenance Houseplants
| Philodendron pothos | Philodendron Brasil | Silver Satin pothos | Ponytail Palms | Baby Rubber Plant |
| Rubber Plant | Sago palm | Dragon Tree | Moonlight | Janet Craig |
| Snake Plant | Jaboa | Zenzi | Chinese Evergreens | Wax Plant |
| Parlor Plants | Arrowhead Vines | Dumb Cane | Stromanthe | Swiss Cheese Vine |
| Monstera Delicioso | Cute Succulents | Calathea Vitatta | Rosy Calathea | Rattlesnake Calathea |
Baby Rubber Plant
In general, the Peperomia genus holds a lot of water in its leaves for the most part. Some of the Copper Otto’s need to be watered a little more often.
Actually, they prefer that so they don’t need a lot of fertilizer. If you are saturating the soil and flushing out everything such as the buildup of salt and minerals, you’ll want to fertilize it again.
If you don’t it’ll start looking weak, and light in color and get chlorosis when it’s lacking the nutrients it needs.
The peperomia is fantastic for people who like to have a plant and don’t want to worry about it all the time and don’t want to water them all the time.
Rubber Plant
These are super easy to keep too and low-maintenance houseplants. Avoid saturating them, they need to have good drainage in their soil. They also need a fair amount of light. If you have it in too dark of a spot it’ll lose its color.
Sago Palm
Although the plant doesn’t need a lot of water, it needs enough light preferably indirect sunlight. The more sun it gets the greener it’ll stay.
You can also keep it outside and it can take temperatures as low as 50, below that you don’t really want to leave them outside. If you have low light, this might not be the best plant for you.
The foliage on the plant is also a little hard. So, if you have young children around or hairless cats you might want to keep them away from this plant.
Dragon Tree
This plant wants to be watered when the soil is completely dry that’s why it’s an easy-care plant. It also does not require much fertilizer at all. You can top-dress it with worm castings or organic mulch. You can also add a liquid fertilizer once or twice in a season that’s it.
Be careful not to give it too much fertilizer because it might just grow super-fast and become weak.
Moonlight Dracaena
The Moonlight is a really elegant plant and has tropics vibes. It’s like a tree with beautiful and simple variegated leaves.
Janet Craig Dracaena.
Janet Craig is super cute and super dense. It is easy to maintain just like the other Dracaenas. It is so beautiful it looks like a green sculpture.
Snake Plants (Sansevieria species)
Sansevieria are easy to propagate as well as use for decoration and dividing. They love any kind of light condition but they prefer medium to bright indirect light.
The plants can tolerate low light but that doesn’t mean they want to be in the minimal amount of light you can supply them with.
Try moving it a little closer to a window they will do better and you’ll start getting new growth. If you don’t, they’ll remain a little stunted.
If you notice stunted growth, just provide them with light and you’ll see they will start flashing out new growth. These are some of the well-known low-maintenance houseplants.
Jaboa (Sansevieria trifasciata)
It has a slightly different shape than the most common snake plants. I also love it because you water it to let it dry and put it in the light and it’ll be a good plant for you.
The Sansevieria family is easy because they don’t require a lot of water and they don’t require a lot of light to live in your house. You can go away for a month and not water them and they’re still going to be waiting for you alive.
ZZ Plant
I love the Zenzi plant because it has a herringbone type of shape, it looks like a living ladder reaching up to the skies. It also has a cute little bulbous base. Easy low maintenance houseplants to take care of and also very beautiful. They can tolerate infrequent watering.
Chinese Evergreens
The Chinese Evergreens are incredibly colorful easy-care plants. An example is Silver Bay, a really stunning subtle beauty.
Another example is the Sparkling Sarah which has a lot of pink in it and has beautiful soft pink stems. It also has this really intricate variegation and it has a slight gloss to the leaf it’s actually quite impressive.
The plants can get quite big and can make beautiful floor pot plants. However, they take a long time to become big and, in the meantime, you can use them for your office, your desk or for your bathroom.
Another Chinese Evergreen that you can also check is the Aglaonema Tigress. If you want the
foliage to grow more just take the flowers off.
Wax Plant
I love Hoyas because they are easy to care for because they don’t require a lot of water. They do want a lot of light so you need to have sufficient light to have a happy Hoya.
One of the misconceptions is that Hoyas likes super dry soil but you have to water it because the more light it gets the more it’s going to use water.
It’s going to need much more frequent watering than you might want to give it. Think of it like this, if your plant is getting a lot of Sun especially if you have placed it in a hot spot, it dries up quickly.
Parlor Palms
In general, palms do require a lot of light, the good thing about parlor palms is that they don’t. They do need a little bit more water especially when they’re getting more light. They are slow-growing so they’re perfect for tabletops or for your bedside.
Wherever you want to put a plant these palms are probably a good choice. They don’t grow that fast and they just give you this crazy tropical feel. You can have some little ones or some big ones.
Arrowhead Vines
They are pretty easy to care for, they can handle any kind of light but they do need more water. Once you see it’s partially dry, give it some water because you’ll start losing lower leaves.
If you do, don’t worry about it remove the leaves and you’re going to have much more growth coming up on the top.
The plants get to be like giant vines or you could stake them up. I love to watch them just crawl over and spill over the sides of their pots.
Dumb Cane
It’s called dumb cane because if you get this sap in your mouth. it’ll close your throat and you won’t be able to speak. Be careful, wash your hands after you handle this plant.
Also, keep it away from pets, and kids. This is a low-maintenance houseplant that is unfortunately toxic to both humans and pets.
However, these plants are easy to take care of. It can take a wide range of light and again you water them when the soil is partially dry.
Basically, the thinner the leaf is and the larger the surface area the more water the plant needs compared to other plants that are more succulent and hold more moisture in their leaves.
When they are not getting enough water; the Dumb Cane will start drooping and will start losing lower leaves. This doesn’t require a lot of light; medium light is probably the best for it.
It can, however, handle long periods of time of low light but move it closer to the light if you see the beautiful variegation starting to fade.
Stromanthe
This sanguine is actually really easy to take care of. You can let it just sit and almost dry out the water. It will forgive you if you forget it. Keep it in a medium-light area.
Philodendron
The non-vining philodendron family is quite easy to manage. It grows best in medium-low bright in-direct light.
It also likes to dry out between watering it really does. The more you water it, the more you will promote root rot. You’ll get yellow leaves and brown spots, so just back away with the watering,
Swiss Cheese Vine (Monstera adnsonii)
The Swiss Cheese Vine doesn’t like to be overwatered it likes to dry out. The plant makes a perfect hanging plant.
The plant also loves to be fertilized throughout the growing season. I fertilize it every two weeks with fish fertilizer with a fish emulsion and a little bit of chelated iron and it responds very well.
It is one of the rare low-maintenance houseplants but you can easily handle it.
Monstera Deliciosa
This is probably the easiest cool low-maintenance houseplant you can have. It just wants to grow when it’s getting the right light and when it’s hot in summer, it just like takes off.
They are easy to propagate. Just put the cuttings in a soil mixture that has proper drainage but still holds moisture and then water it when it’s completely dry.
You can water it more often during summer but in the winter back way off and let it get bone dry to that critical point.
Cute Succulents
I have written so much about succulents so I will just mention them here. There are lots of cute succulents that you can grow as low-maintenance houseplants. I personally love to experiment with these hard-to-kill plants.
I try all sorts of succulents, the common ones such as echeveria as well as the rare succulents. I love succulents because you can propagate them easily and they also have minimal watering requirements.
Calathea Vitatta Low Maintenance Houseplants
Calathea is easy to take care of although some people might disagree. I believe you can find the Calathea that works for you.
If the Calathea vitatta doesn’t work for you, try the Rattlesnake calathea (Calathea lancifolia). You can also try the Rosy Calathea (Calathea roseopicta ‘Rosy’. A beautiful plant with spectacularly colored leaves.
You can keep them in the office as well as in different rooms in the house. Let it dry out, almost completely and I think that is the key to success with the Calathea.
The water that sits in the bottom of the pots when you overwater them rots the roots. Avoid overwatering at all costs.
Interesting Posts:
Most of the houseplants I discussed in this post are available for sale here at Bloomscape, feel free to check the latest prices and discounts.
Final Thoughts
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