I'm a big fan of cacti. I've not managed to kill one (yet). Also anecdotally I found I was killing plants because I overwatered them. Turns out they don't need love as often as I (and I think a lot of people) thought. Apparently a good generic test is checking if the soil is damp - don't water if it is.<p>Anyway, just asked this question to the founder of a start-up I'm working with. She replied "Sansevierras thrive on neglect and low light calatheas are good" - if that helps? As an aside / plug if you're in the UK: <a href="https://bloomboxclub.com" rel="nofollow">https://bloomboxclub.com</a> - she's set up HN10 which will give you 10% off all plants / plant subscriptions for the next few days and want some (more?!) greenery :-)
Pothos is so easy to grow! I started with one last year after a move and have propagated it successfully 8 times... I'm currently trying to get coworkers to accept clippings so I don't have to throw away excess.<p>Snake plants are also easy to grow indoors.<p>When I was first looking around for indoor plants I found the NASA study [0] on house plants for air quality and went with the easiest to maintain of these.<p>To find how "easy to maintain" a plant is, just Google it and most sites that talk about care will let you know.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.greenism.com/nasas-guide-to-air-filtering-houseplants/" rel="nofollow">https://www.greenism.com/nasas-guide-to-air-filtering-housep...</a>
I'm a big fan of Spathiphyllum[0] a.k.a. Peace Lillies. They don't need much light and you practically cannot over-water them. When too thirsty, they start slouching and recover quickly after adding water.<p>They seem to be good for the air quality and here's some anecdotal evidence: I have a room in my flat that had a weird smell about it. My son was sleeping in that room and the smell became very pronounced soon after closing the door. We put a medium-sized Spathiphyllum into that room and the stink is much less noticeable, even at night. My wife was skeptical but now we have them in almost every room of the house.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.thespruce.com/grow-peace-lilies-1902767" rel="nofollow">https://www.thespruce.com/grow-peace-lilies-1902767</a>
Spider plants are basically immortal. I’ve traveled with cuttings wedged in an empty toilet paper tube on the back of a motorcycle before and then forgot about them for a few days.. and then they grew fine.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rare-ZZ-Plant-Zamioculcas-zamiifolia-House/dp/B000PYAGFU" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Rare-ZZ-Plant-Zamioculcas-zamiifolia-...</a><p>It doesn’t need (or prefer) direct sunlight. It only needs water once a month.<p>The best part is it cost less than <$10 on Amazon.<p>I love mine.
I have a few "Mother of Thousands" [0] which started out as a single plant that I was gifted but it grew so rapidly that I now have about 6 pots of them. They produce tiny little baby plants on the edges of each leaf which then drop off. They are also nigh on impossible to kill (I rarely water them). I used to plant all the tiny 'seedlings' but now throw them away as there are just way too many. Be aware though that they are toxic so maybe not a good mix with pets.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryophyllum_daigremontianum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryophyllum_daigremontianum</a>
Spider plants are one of my favourites, you can get them from pretty much any garden centre and they are easy to propagate/maintain. It's almost impossible to kill Mother-in-law's tongue. Dracaenas look great, too
Bamboo and cactus are two easy choices. I keep a pair next to my bedroom window. It's amazing how much impact having a few plants in your house can have.<p>Sometimes I'll bring my bamboo buddy over to the desk and talk to it while doing rubber duck debugging [0]. I'd invite the cactus as well, but it's a bit too prickly. ;)<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging</a>
You can plant a terrarium bottle garden. No maintenance needed. There are bottle gardens that haven't been opened for 40 years. It will develop some algae though, and it does look rather wild. Aquarium plans and ferns are suitable contenders. I have a Progestemon erectus plant in a jar, Hemianthus callitrichoides mixed with Eleocharis pusilla in a rectangular plastic box, Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo' in another box and in an open bowl filled 1/2 with aquasoil that we keep on the bathroom window and mist regularly. There are also more beautiful plants such as Bucephalandra or Cryptocoryne but I've only planted them submersed. Bucephalandra will attach to and grow on driftwood and rocks.<p><a href="http://theaquaticplantsociety.org/world-of-bucephalandra/" rel="nofollow">http://theaquaticplantsociety.org/world-of-bucephalandra/</a><p>With bottle gardens as with tissue culture, your worst enemy is mold.
I grow a lot of plants indoors, and the limiting factor is almost always light levels. If your space for growing has a large west or south facing window, you're in great shape! You will be able to grow most plants.<p>However, East or North facing windows will be able to grow low light plants, or need full spectrum (5000k) lighting.<p>Easy bright light plants include succulents, pony tail palms, avocados, bananas, and most herbs.<p>Plants that tolerate or thrive in low light are pothos, spider plants, parlor palms, the bromeliads, snake plants, and english ivy.<p>Of these, I suggest a spider plant, they're very hardy, nearly impossible to kill, and even don't mind being a little root bound.<p>Succulents require more patience, but are also fairly easy. Be sure to not overwater, and make sure they have enough drainage! Some indoor gardeners grow theirs in a mix of gravel and pine bark, in order to completely drain, and just fertilize every watering.<p>The most important thing is don't try orchids at first. Finicky things.
To answer your question correctly, we'd need to know what's your climate like. But, if you didn't give us that information, I'd of course recommend you a cactus like everyone else.<p>But if you live in an island like me, Devil's ivy aka Money Plant is my choice. Scientific name: Epipremnum aureum.<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Devils-Ivy-Pothos-Epipremnum/dp/B0076ZJ21K" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Devils-Ivy-Pothos-Epipremnum/d...</a><p>It's an excellent plant that you'll quickly fall in love with, while requiring very little maintenance. In asian culture, this plant is considered to bring good luck, prosperity and money. Hence the name.<p>I recommend it not for those reasons, but from a purely plant owner experience point of view. You can control its direction as it can creep. Mine goes around my 27" monitor so it's really a beautiful sight to see.
Depends on your goal, but I got a little succulent plant for Christmas that I've been keeping at my desk at work. I have almost no previous experience with plants, but I water it once a week and it has done pretty well for almost a year now. I gave it a name and it has been a nice little joy in my life.
This is what I used to help cure my black thumb:<p>Cricket chirp when your plant needs water.<p><a href="https://www.adafruit.com/product/1965?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2LuJlaj-3QIVFf5kCh2eSAtPEAQYASABEgIWx_D_BwE" rel="nofollow">https://www.adafruit.com/product/1965?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2LuJ...</a>
This may not be the answer you are looking for, but any plant will grow if you have a good light source and the right amount of water and nutrients. Add a grow light and some vermiculite to the soil and you can grow just about 90% of the plants available at your local gardening store.
Ok, from a brief look into this before (I am in no way an expert) I think you would need to define what you see as a problem with indoor plants. Is it lack of light?<p>As a quick and not too detailed answer, take a look at the typical plants you see around offices - dracaena is one that comes to mind. I think it handles relatively low light and has the benefit of reducing mould particles in the atmosphere. Ficus is another one that I have had indoors and is really difficult to kill, though mine is outdoors now.<p>(As for easily maintained, I have had some dracaena before and they are pretty easy, but in both ended up getting some sort of disease after a couple of years).
Air plants are fun and pretty easy - just dunk them in water every so often.<p>I have a Christmas cactus that is nice. I break off the long pieces and stick them back in the pot and they keep growing. I did this with my aloe plant too.<p>And I have a cactus or succulent that I know of as a Hot Dog plant, though google wasn’t recognizing that name. It might be a variety of Rhipsalis.<p>Also I was given a basket of indoor foliage plants and I replanted them into individual pots. Most of them are still growing strong! Looking at a garden center or a florist’s for a basket like that could give you a nice variety of easy-to-grow foliage that would make a good start.
Fiddle Leaf Fig plants are a great choice.<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=fiddle+leaf+fig&tbm=isch" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=fiddle+leaf+fig&tbm=isch</a>
I've had success with spider plants and "Wandering Jew" plants by growing them in water for a while, and then adding soil at some point, and watering every 3-4 days or when the soil gets dry.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradescantia_pallida" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradescantia_pallida</a>
Grape ivy will tolerate no end of neglect except heavy overwatering or sub 5 deg C. Good for getting lots of foliage, wiithout support it'll trail, or climb with a couple of sticks in the pot. Also very easy to take cuttings from, and will come back from near death neglect.<p><a href="https://www.shrublandparknurseries.co.uk/cissus-rhombifolia-ellen-danica.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.shrublandparknurseries.co.uk/cissus-rhombifolia-...</a>
I have a few orchids inside my place. Most are Phalaenopsis, and one vanilla orchid. After talking with one orchid grower, they told me the key thing when taking care of orchids are:<p>* Do not overwater them (no standing water on the base of the planter). Keep the media moist.<p>* When the root turned white, give them water until they turned back to green (apparently they also photosynthesize).<p>I also have big gardenia in my kitchen and small gardenia propagated from the big gardenia that I put on my work desk.
Cherry tomatoes (because they're smaller and lighter they don't require much support), chili peppers, maybe strawberries (mine ended up getting aphids though).<p>I've written a bit about this back when I played with indoor gardening: <a href="https://sdfjkl.org/blog/starting-hydroponics/" rel="nofollow">https://sdfjkl.org/blog/starting-hydroponics/</a><p>For obvious reasons I was only interested in food plants :)
Chlorophytum comosum (spider plants) are good air-filtering houseplants that are also easy to take starts of:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum</a><p>Houseplant: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseplant" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseplant</a>
Devils Ivy.<p>Leave it in water for years, or plant it and forget to water it for weeks.<p>It can grow quite long, so cut it, stick the cut-end back in the water and it will root and keep going.
Dracena are attractive and easy to care for. Water them twice a month and feed them a couple of times a year.<p>They are a good indoor plant for beginners and they come in a lot of striking colors that you can mix and match in the same pot.<p><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/iarapraude/dracena/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pinterest.com/iarapraude/dracena/</a>
There's a lot of things already suggested so I don't have a ton to add, but I didn't see green onions anywhere. You can grow them from the roots you cut off of the ones from the store. They'll grow in just a cup of water if you really want. Though they start to get kinda flavourless and mushy after a while that way.
My wife received an orchid as a gift. I know nothing about gardening, but I've managed to keep it alive and growing for about 6 months. Just water it when the soil feels dry and re-pot it every other year is about the extent of the care instructions a DDG search turned up.
Here is the list of house/indoor plants which promote cognitive function in order of ease of maintenance:<p><i>Areca Plam</i> (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens AKA Dypsis lutescens) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dypsis_lutescens" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dypsis_lutescens</a><p><i>Mother-in-law's Tongue</i>/<i>Snake Plant</i> (Sansevieria trifasciata) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria_trifasciata" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria_trifasciata</a><p><i>Money Plant</i> (Epipremnum aureum) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipremnum_aureum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipremnum_aureum</a><p><i>Boston Fern</i> (Nephrolepis Exaltata) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrolepis_exaltata" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrolepis_exaltata</a><p><i>Peace Lilly</i> (Spathiphyllum) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spathiphyllum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spathiphyllum</a><p><i>Gerbera Daisy</i> (Gerbera jamesonii) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerbera_jamesonii" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerbera_jamesonii</a><p><i>Spider plant</i> (Chlorophytum comosum) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophytum_comosum</a><p><i>English Ivy</i> (Hedera helix) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix</a><p>Take the list of plants to your local plant nursery to see how many of them they have in stock.
Buying them already established is much cheaper/easier than growing them from seed/cuttings.<p>According to Allen et Al 2015 (see link below), having pure/fresh air in your working environment <i>significantly</i> improves cognitive function. i.e. having indoor plants makes you smarter!<p>> Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments ~ <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924...</a><p>> <i>Conclusion</i>: Office workers had <i>significantly improved cognitive function</i> scores when working in Green and Green+ environments compared with scores obtained when working in a Conventional environment.<p>> We’ve been researching this for: “home” <a href="https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues/8" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/dwyl/home/issues/8</a><p>Relevant YouTube videos on this topic:<p><a href="https://youtu.be/gmn7tjSNyAA" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/gmn7tjSNyAA</a><p><a href="https://youtu.be/lPNYdSZRSdg" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/lPNYdSZRSdg</a><p><a href="https://youtu.be/9dG9K8IQo7s" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/9dG9K8IQo7s</a>
This depends on how much light you have, what you mean by "easy", and what country you live in.<p>My personal opinion is that HN isn't a good forum for the question, especially when it's been written about on countless websites for specific locations/conditions.
I'm growing Genovese basil on my windowsill. I water it irregularly, yet it grows quite well. I'm hoping to do a nice pesto from it, but the smell alone is very nice.
In the Northeast, I would recommend boxwoods, I have 4 and they are super low maintenance.<p>I have a large variety of rose bushes, but they require a ton of work.
I have a fig tree and a blueberry bush growing indoors with a 65w lamp and 70F constant temperature.<p>The fig tree is dying and the blueberry bush is fruiting :)<p>Kind of the opposite of what I wanted though lol :(