The five easiest houseplants for beginners

There are so many different houseplants out there, you can very easily get overwhelmed. Which one should you get? Which one is easy to take care of? In this post, I’m trying to answer the question “What are the easiest houseplants to take care of?”. These are all aimed at beginners who are looking into taking care of plants but don’t really know where to start. I’ll only describe the plants I’ve personally taken care of because it allows me to get into detail about what the plant likes and doesn’t like.

In this guide, we'll go over these plants:

1. Sansevierias (snake plants)
2. Chlorophytum comosum (Spider plants)
3. Zamioculcas zamiifolia (ZZ Plant)
4. Dracaena
5. Palms

You can click on these links to take you to the right section.

Sansevierias (snake plants)

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Sansevierias or snake plants

One of the easiest and also one of the first plants I’ve taken care of is the Sansevieria. It’s such an easy plant that you can forget about it for weeks and it will not die. You can place it in many different brightness levels as well, so you’ll always be able to find a great spot for it. As an added benefit, besides looking beautiful, is that it purifies the air of the space it’s in. So it’s a great plant to put into any space that you are in a lot, like the bedroom or the living room.

Is this plant for me? Well I’ve created a set of questions you can ask yourself and if you answer yes on any of them, this plant is great for you:

• Are you forgetting to water plants all the time?
• Don’t you know or don’t you want to fertilize your plants?
• Do you not have a lot of bright places in your home?
• Do you have a lot of bright places in your home?

Propagating it is also very simple, just cut off part of a leaf and stick it in the soil.

Chlorophytum comosum (Spider plants)

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Chlorophytum comosum or Spider plants

Spider plants are very easy to take care of because they let you know what they need. Are you giving them too much sunlight? They will turn a lighter color. Do you give them too little sunlight? They will turn yellow. Do you give them too little water? They will start to droop. Do you give them too much water? They will turn brown. This makes them perfect for the beginning plant owners. You won’t really have to guess what the plant likes because it’s very clear about that.

If you take good care of them for long enough, they’ll also reward you with a lot of new spider plants. Who doesn’t like free plants? These new plants will hang down, so you have the opportunity to hang this plant on your ceiling or let it hang down the side of a shelf. Spider plants, like the sansevieria’s, purify the air. So place them in a space you are in a larger portion of your day.

Zamioculcas zamiifolia (ZZ Plant)

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Zamioculcas zamiifolia or ZZ Plant

The ZZ plant is a beautiful looking plant with deep green leaves. It’s a great plant in any environment and it doesn’t take a lot of effort to keep them healthy. The ZZ plant can be placed in a wide variety of brightness levels, from shady to bright indirect light levels. Don’t place them into direct sunlight, however. This will burn its leaves. You can, like the Sansevieria, forget to water it for weeks and it’ll still be fine. Like the two previous plants, the ZZ plant also purifies the air, so it does well into often visited spaces in your home.

Dracaena (any variety)

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Dracaena Marginata

My first big plant was a Dracaena Marginata and wow, what an easy plant that is. It loves to dry out, so forgetting to water it is not a problem at all. It doesn’t need a lot of fertilizer and can be placed in indirect sunlight, so it’ll do well in most situations you put it through. You just have to remember to not overwater it, because it doesn’t like that very much. It’s not a great plant if you have pets that like to eat plants though, because it’s quite toxic to them, unfortunately. So place it into a spot where your pets won’t get to it, or select another plant. Like the others, this plant also purifies the air, so it’s great for a living room or bedroom.

Palms (Parlor palm or an Areca Palm)

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Parlor palm

Palms are great. There, I said it. Palms aren’t very exotic to most people, but I love the way they look in all kinds of different places. They’re quite easy to take care of as well. You can place them into bright indirect light and sometimes even full sunlight. They do need a lot more water than the other plants on this list, but that’s easy to compensate for by getting soil that retains a lot of moisture. This soil will still allow you to forget about the plant for a week or 2, sometimes more. As you’d expect by now, this plant also purifies the air.

These are some of the easiest houseplants I've taken care of. All of them purify the air, so if you take care of the plant, it'll take care of you. They all require very little maintenance in the right circumstances, but creating these right circumstances isn't very difficult.

Thank you for reading this post! I hope it helps you to keep your plants healthy and beautiful! If you're looking for more guides on specific plants, you can always request a plant guide to get a guide for the plant you have trouble with.

Tags: sansevieria, snake plant, spider plant, zz plant, dracaena, palm, parlor palm, areca palm