It’s easy to assume that kitting out your house with greenery would mean breaking the bank. After all, it’s no secret that houseplants can be expensive.
Luckily, there are many wonderful yet inexpensive and unfussy plants that I have, over the years, used to effortlessly green up my home.
I think many budding houseplant journeys are cut short because folks start off with a plant that may be above their experience level, and then get put off (sometimes for life) when it dies. What a shame.
These plants are not only affordable, but easy to grow and care for. Success is basically guaranteed.
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This is my go-to plant that I love recommending (and gifting) to beginners. I love the way they cascade and really grow into the space that you place them in.
They are particularly useful for darker corners where some other plants might not thrive. When given more light, they will grow quite a bit faster, but fast growth is not always the objective (it means more care is required).
My golden rule for pothos is to only water them when the soil is totally dry; I tend to only water mine when I see them wilting. Put your finger into the soil until at least the second knuckle to test the moisture of the soil.
As with all plants in this list, pothos can withstand a lot of neglect, but struggle with being overwatered (when the soil is too wet for too long).
Pothos comes in many varieties, but some of the more affordable varieties are:
No list of easy houseplants will be complete without the infallible monster. If I had to pick only one plant to give to a beginner that I was hoping to convince about the glory of indoor plants, then this would be it.
They handle just about any amount of abuse with ease – constantly wet soil, impossibly dark corners, overly bright light, you name it.
I water mine when they are dry (or when the leaf edges start curling in slightly) and try to remember to repot them once they have outgrown their pot. When they are happy, they will put out many beautiful leaves in a growing season.
They can (and do!) get rather large. Typical specimens sold in stores are quite small, sometimes the leaves don’t even have fenestrations yet!
I have one in the garden and I eat its highly fragrant and delicious fruit every year.
The quintessential plant that most of us got to know in our grandmother’s houses. They go by a few other names, including schlumbergera or Thanksgiving cactus.
A few years ago I ordered a few cuttings of different colours from Trade Me, paying about $5 per cutting. Each cutting was just a few segments long. Now I have a beautiful lineup of Christmas cacti in hanging baskets. I love how subtly different their foliage is, and they are extremely easy care. I also love their lovely growing and cascading habit.
Usually I grow my plants exclusively for foliage, but seeing their beautiful flowers once a year is a real bonus. The flowers are ethereal and shimmery, and usually blooming in the middle of winter – a welcome sight in the coldness and drabness.
I have an easy test of knowing when to water them: I feel them. When the lovely little segments no longer feel firm to the touch, I know it’s time for a drink. They typically go weeks in between wanting water.
These tend to be available seasonally, but if you’re after a lush, healthy and easy-to-grow plant – and you happen to see it in a shop – snap it up. They look exquisite in hanging baskets and can make quite a statement.
When given less light, the growth will be longer (with longer internodes) but with direct light they grow a bit more compact, and can even take on a tinge of purple. Water them when they’ve dried out.
They are amazing, lush, fast growers when the weather is warm, but by the end of the growing season they can get quite leggy. They need a little more care than some of the other plants on this list because of this eventual scraggly habit and winter dormancy.
I just regrow a fresh, vibrant plant in spring from cuttings every year. This is super easy and rewarding since they grow so very fast.
An unsung hero! What a remarkably unfussy and beautiful plant. If you want a plant to breathe life, healthy greenery and character into your space, without ever needing to fuss, then this is the plant for you.
They are easy to train up or down, and new growth is beautiful and delicate looking (though I’ve found nothing delicate about this plant).
I’ve never seen an unhappy grape ivy, even ones that are clearly kept by very ungreen thumbs. I’ve never even seen mine wilt. I water when I remember and I’m sure the pot is four times too small for it.
I’ve seen incredible specimens at wedding venues (where they had a stem the size of an actual grapevine) where they grow practically in the dark.
So this is a versatile plant and I love mine. I tend to think I neglect it a bit on purpose – if I had to give it more it would probably take over my house in an instant.
I picked mine up for a whopping $9 on Trade Me and it is one of my favourite plants in my collection.
With its large, tropical foliage, it definitely adds an amazing vibe to my space. My plant room would feel empty without it.
In a little more than a year it has grown a tremendous amount. It has been vibrant and happy, and has given me no issues whatsoever, just beautiful, large, floppy green leaves.
It laps up water quite eagerly, but it is in a high light spot and in quite a small terracotta pot. It’ll droop ever so slightly when it needs water. Even a single specimen of this plant will transform an indoor space, inviting the tropics in.
I got mine as a wee cutie at Kings Plant Barn when it literally looked like just a blade of grass and I had no idea what I was buying.
It took a few months (or maybe years) before it started developing the typical bulge of a ponytail palm, but its care has been so easy – unfussy, with character to boot and not such an aggressive grower. Eventually, they do grow quite large, but it’ll take many years.
I water mine when I remember, sometimes going months between watering. Much of the water is stored in the bulge so it’s not a train wreck when you forget to water.
They can withstand direct sun so I put mine outside from time to time.
Ficus elastica is probably the most expensive plant on the list, although their prices have come down quite a bit over the years.
They are lovely, glossy, easy care plants and are great for darker corners. I only water mine when the soil has completely dried out.
They come in different colours so you can pick the one you prefer.
My favourite variety is ‘Ruby’, with every new leaf comes gift wrapped in a pink sheath. When given more light, the colours tend to pop more. Other varieties are:
This plant has drifted in and out of popularity over the past few decades (arguably peaking in the 1970s) but on a list of cheap and easy plants, it earns a mention.
Mine once went probably about six months without watering and it was potted in basically clay soil (at the beginning of my plant-keeping days) and lo and behold, it is still with me.
They can grow quite big and look particularly nice in hanging baskets. The white and green form is the most well known one for spider plants, but there is also a lesser known pure green which may appeal to some.
Typically calatheas won’t make any list of easy plants, but my Calathea makoyana has been such an easy and stunning plant, that I felt it deserved a spot.
Calatheas tend to be rather fussy when it comes to their humidity levels and soil moisture, but I’ve treated mine like a normal plant: I water when I notice that the soil is dry and it is in the plant room along with all my other plants, with no particular effort on my part to boost humidity.
It has had minimal browning on the leaf edges (a typical calathea problem) and has grown from a tiny plant to a beautiful monster of a plant in the space of about three years (I do repot her to a bigger pot every year).
To put it into perspective, I’ve given up on most other calatheas (I can’t stand it when their leaves go brown), but not this one.