Best Indoor & Apartment Plants
If you are reading this blog, it is probable that you would agree that adding plants to your home is a fantastic way of improving your living space, but what plants should you go for? What can survive in limited space and sunlight? What can you expect in terms of maintenance? Whether you are green-thumbed or not, here are some of our favourite indoor plants that you can use to liven up any indoor apartment and watch thrive.
Herb Gardening:
Herbs are some of the easiest of all plants to look after and require very little space. If you have a window ledge wide enough for a small pots that will get at least 2 hours of sunlight per day, you can easily have herbs such as basil, thyme, cress, tarragon growing right from your kitchen. Fresh herbs not only make your kitchen look more professional and refined, but also will spice up home meals. Yum!
- Easy to grow & maintain
- Excellent when paired with home cooking, better than dried equivalents
Cacti & Succulents:
Cactus are ideal for small indoor apartments, they are incredibly small in stature and need very little watering. After all, they don’t get much water in their natural habitat which is full of sun. Cacti thrive most in sunny areas such as window sills, balconies or even a conservatory.
Cacti & succulents grow incredibly slowly, at a rate of 2-3cm per year, so you won’t have to worry about replanting your cactus any time soon out of fear of it outgrowing its planter.
- Grows well in poor quality soil
- Inexpensive
- Small & easy to maintain
- Resistant to draughts
Bonsai tree:
An entire tree? Indoors? Yes! A Bonsai tree is well known for being small in stature, even mature ones and it won’t look out of place on a coffee table right in your living room.
Bonsai tree growing kits have grown in popularity over the years although they do take an awfully long time to develop. Buying a mature bonsai may be the way to go if you are not the most patient of gardeners.
The bonsai tree is one of the trickiest plants to look after mentioned in this blog and will need a lot of care and attention. One of the most common reasons of bonsai trees dying off is under-watering due to the incredibly shallow layer of soil. This can happen rather quickly and so should be watered when the top of the soil feels dry to the touch. Over watering can also occur for the same reason and will result in the leaves yellowing.
To get the balance right, try to get out of the habit of watering on a routine and just check the soil dryness every day.
- Grows slowly / mature plants are expensive
- Eye catching
- Difficult to maintain
Snake Plant:
The snake plant gets its name due to the unique marbling on its leaves that are leathery in nature. Its striking looks can look great in any indoor space and is extremely manageable due to being low in maintenance – as long as it gets plenty of sunlight.
- Requires lots of sunlight
- Low maintenance, no pruning required
Ceylon Creeper (Pothos):
The Ceylon creeper, otherwise known as Pothos or even the devil’s ivy, is a creeping plant that is ideal for hanging in planters & making use of vertical space, particularly indoors or in sheltered areas of your garden. This plant can grow up to 8 metres in length so some pruning will be necessary. This should be require often as it can take up to 20 years for the plant to reach that length, hence the name ‘creeper’.
- Ideal for hanging & making use of vertical space
- Copes well with partial shade
Artificial plants:
If you don’t have the time to maintain real plants indoors & need to liven up your indoor space you can always use an artificial plant if all else fails. Artificial plants are much more realistic than they have been in years gone by, even to the touch and of course will require no sunlight or water. They will however need dusting every now and then.
- Boring & uninspired
- No maintenance
