14 Easiest Indoor Plants for Beginners That Are Hard to Kill

Every list of easy houseplants assumes the same failure mode: forgetting to water. In practice beginners fail the other way, watering attentively and often, in a room darker than the plant would like. The plants below survive that combination, which is what makes them genuinely forgiving.

The most forgiving fourteen

1. Snake plant. Survives low light, dry air and six weeks without water. The only reliable way to kill one is to keep it wet.Sansevieria trifasciata · toxic to pets
2. ZZ plant. Stores water in underground rhizomes and shrugs off a dark hallway. Water once a month and leave it alone.Zamioculcas zamiifolia · toxic to pets
3. Pothos. Fast, cheap, roots in a glass of water, and visibly droops before it is in trouble, which makes it an excellent teaching plant.Epipremnum aureum · toxic to pets
4. Heartleaf philodendron. Everything pothos does, with softer leaves and slightly more tolerance for low light.Philodendron hederaceum · toxic to pets
5. Spider plant. Grows in almost any light, tells you when it is thirsty, and produces plantlets you can pot up for free.Chlorophytum comosum · pet safe
6. Cast iron plant. Named for a reason. Deep shade, draughts, neglect. Slow, so buy it at the size you want.Aspidistra elatior · pet safe
7. Chinese evergreen. Handles low light and irregular watering, and the patterned varieties look far more demanding than they are.Aglaonema · toxic to pets
8. Rubber plant. Wants bright indirect light and little else. Wipe the leaves occasionally so it can actually use the light.Ficus elastica · toxic to pets
9. Jade plant. A succulent that thrives on being ignored in a sunny window. Water only when the leaves start to lose their firmness.Crassula ovata · toxic to pets
10. Aloe vera. Bright light, gritty soil, water rarely. Wrinkled leaves mean thirsty, mushy leaves mean far too much water.Aloe barbadensis · toxic to pets
11. Peace lily. Dramatically wilts when thirsty and recovers within hours, which is unusually clear feedback for a beginner.Spathiphyllum · toxic to pets
12. Parlour palm. One of the few palms that genuinely accepts indoor light levels, and safe around animals.Chamaedorea elegans · pet safe
13. Monstera. Grows enthusiastically in bright indirect light and forgives an erratic watering routine once established.Monstera deliciosa · toxic to pets
14. Hoya. Waxy, near-succulent leaves that store water, happy to be pot-bound, and eventually rewards you with scented flowers.Hoya carnosa · pet safe

Two that are on every beginner list and should not be

Fiddle leaf fig. It needs a lot of bright indirect light, hates being moved, and drops leaves in response to almost any change including a draught from an opening door. It is a demanding plant with excellent marketing.

Calathea and maranta. Beautiful, and genuinely difficult. They want consistently moist soil, high humidity and soft water, and they show every lapse as crisp brown edges. Worth owning once you have a routine, not as a first plant.

Setting up so the easy ones stay easy

Two decisions at purchase matter more than anything you do later. First, put the plant where the light suits it rather than where the room needs decorating: a plant in the wrong light will never thrive no matter how attentive the watering. Second, make sure the pot has a drainage hole. A great many decorative pots do not, and a plant sitting in a sealed container has no way to shed excess water. If you love the pot, keep the plant in its plastic nursery pot and drop that inside.

Then leave it alone for a month. New plants are adjusting to a change in light and humidity and usually drop a leaf or two doing it. That is not a signal to repot, feed or move them again.

Check what you already own

If you inherited a plant or lost the label, identify it before you settle on a routine. Nearly every care mistake in this article starts with treating a plant like a different species. Photograph a leaf with the stem visible, run it through Identium, and you get the species, its toxicity to cats and dogs, and a care plan built for that plant rather than for houseplants in general.