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5 Easy Houseplants for Beginners

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Indoor houseplants serve many purposes. Aside from being nice to look at, they have many surprising benefits.

Among their perks, indoor plants have excellent health benefits. Being around nature boosts your mental and emotional health. People who work from home could undoubtedly use the serotonin boost plants provide.

The list of benefits of having plants in your home is quite extensive. Let’s look at easy houseplants that are perfect for beginners.

Anthuriums Easy Houseplants for Beginners
Anthuriums – via Wikimedia

Easy Houseplants for Beginners

1. Anthuriums

Anthuriums, also called the tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf, are native to the Americas. The flower’s heart shape represents hospitality and inspires happiness in everyone who sees it. Anthuriums come in several colors, including pink and lavender. However, it is their red blooms that are most common.

They make excellent indoor houseplants, particularly in cooler areas. Anthuriums are ideal for landscaping in USDA 10 or higher zones when planted outdoors. Plants that thrive in hardiness zones from levels 10 through 12 are typically tropical.

Anthuriums prefer indirect light, as direct sunlight causes burns on the plant’s leaves. As your anthurium receives more light, it will produce more flowers.

Because they’re usually grown in hardiness zones intended for tropical plants, anthuriums do well in humid environments. If you live in a place with cold winters, you’ll want to invest in a humidifier to keep your plant happy.

Anthuriums grow best in temperatures that average between 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t place your anthurium near air conditioning or fans, which will make the air dry.

It’s time to water your anthurium when its soil is dry to the touch. To ensure your plant has enough to drink, water it until it begins to leak out of the drainage hole. Be sure to discard any water accumulated in the dish under the pot.

Anthuriums are evergreen perennials, so you can enjoy seeing their green foliage year-round.

2. Orchids

Orchids Easy Houseplants for Beginners
Orchids – via Wikimedia

Orchids are perhaps the most well-known houseplant. You can find them everywhere, from specialty garden shops to your nearest big box store’s garden section.

There are many different types of orchids—over 100,000 varieties, to be exact! Their flower shapes and colors are varied. You can find orchids in white, blue, pink, deep purple, spotted, and more!

Orchid hardiness zones range from 8 to 10. Zones with an eight-hardiness rating have temperatures as low as 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Once you choose an orchid for your home, you’ll need to look up its hardiness zone to know how to care for it.

Orchids like bright but indirect light, so it’s ideal to place them adjacent to windows. Don’t place them directly in sunlight as it will cause both the leaves and the flowers to burn. You will know if your orchid isn’t getting enough sunlight when it doesn’t bloom.

As for watering your orchid, you have to make sure that it’s moist enough. Orchids don’t like sitting in water, but you don’t want to let their soil completely dry up.

Orchid flowers can last up to 6 months with proper care. Once they wither, you can trim them off, and a new flower will grow in three to nine months.

3. Peace Lily

Peace Lily Easy Houseplants for Beginners
Peace Lily – via Wikimedia

Peace lilies, also known as Spath lilies, are native to tropical regions in the Americas and southeastern Asia. There are about 47 species in its genus. This plant is considered one of the easiest houseplants to grow.

These plants grow in hardiness zones 10b to 11. Peace lilies grow best if you live in southern Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or California.

However, as they’ll be indoor plants, you don’t have to worry about bringing them inside during the winter months. The caveat is if you put your peace lily out on the porch or patio, you will need to bring it in on cold days.

When watering your lily, you should wait until the soil is dry. Typically, once a week is enough. If your lily appears wilted, watering it will be enough to help it perk back up.

Peace lilies are low maintenance. They are drought tolerant and evergreen, meaning that you can enjoy their beautiful foliage all year.

4. Hibiscus

Hibiscus Easy Houseplants for Beginners
Hibiscus – via Pxhere

Typically considered an outdoor plant, the hibiscus thrives indoors as well. The hibiscus is part of a large family with several hundred species. This plant is from subtropical and tropical areas, like Hawaii.

With so many varieties, this plant comes in many colors and shapes. You can find this plant in yellow to red to what feels like every shade in between.

The hibiscus is a reasonably resilient plant that can survive in hardiness zones from 5 through 11. As indoor plants, they need as much sunlight as they can get. Direct sunlight and humidity will help your hibiscus thrive indoors.

Hibiscus plants bloom in the spring, and their flowers last until the late fall. When it comes to watering, you’ll want to keep them moist. They don’t require much water when they aren’t active in the winter months.

As perennials, you’ll be able to enjoy regular blooms from your hibiscus flower.

5. Guppy Plants

Guppy Plants Easy Houseplants for Beginners
Guppy Plants – via Flickr

We’ve said it before, but guppy plants are easier to care for than guppy fish. This plant is also called the goldfish plant.

Its blooms resemble fish, which is likely how it got its name. Guppy plant blooms come in reds, oranges, and yellows. This plant is found in hardiness zones 10b to 11b. Because they grow under canopies in nature, they do better in cooler temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you keep this adorable plant exposed to full sun, it has the potential to bloom year-round. Because the guppy plant is an epiphyte, it is an excellent candidate for growing in a hanging basket or next to a trellis.

The guppy plant gets most of its nutrients from air and energy from photosynthesis. Unlike other plants, the guppy’s roots anchor it rather than provide it with nourishment.

You don’t need to worry much about watering this plant—in fact, it’s better to err on the side of caution to prevent overwatering.

The guppy plant is a perennial and goes dormant during the winter. New flowers will blossom when it emerges from hibernation in the spring.


Summary

While it may sound like these easy houseplants require a lot of care, it isn’t true. In practice, the level of care these plants need is relatively low.

The easy-to-care-for plants on this list are so low maintenance that they won’t impact your daily life, yet you’ll still get to enjoy all the perks that come with having houseplants!