including quick care tips.
I think of houseplants as a necessity and not a luxury. If you’re a beginning houseplant gardener this list of easy-care floor plants is a good place to start.
I’d recommend starting smaller and try 1 or 2 of these tabletop or hanging plants first. They’re much less expensive and will help you build up your confidence when it comes to houseplant care.
Some Of Our General Houseplant Guides For Your Reference:
- Guide To Watering Indoor Plants
- Beginner’s Guide To Repotting Plants
- 3 Ways To Successfully Fertilize Indoor Plants
- How to Clean Houseplants
- Winter Houseplant Care Guide
- Plant Humidity: How I Increase Humidity For Houseplants
- Buying Houseplants: 14 Tips For Indoor Gardening Newbies
- 11 Pet-Friendly Houseplants
The list below is tried and true based on my long standing love affair with houseplants.
7 Easy Care Floor Plants
Floor plants are larger and taller so most people place them on the floor. They can be elevated even higher with a plant stand.
You’ll see that some are tall and narrow, while others are shorter and wide. In houseplant terms, these are usually 10″, 12?” and 14″ grow pot sizes.
Specimen houseplants come in larger pots but you need to have lots of room (and spare change!) for those.
I’m going to list 6 runner-ups along with the 7 picks listed below.
I chose these houseplants not only based on my own horticultural experiences but also on comments and questions I’ve received from readers and viewers.
Know that all of the below plants, when bought in 6″ or 8″ pots, can be used as tabletop plants. Eventually, they’ll grow into floor plants.
Snake Plants
Low to medium light (I explain light levels in a nutshell down below so be sure to check that out ). Snake Plants (Sansevierias, Mother In Law Tongues) are about as tough & easy as it gets. They come in a range of leaf patterns, shapes, sizes & forms. The common taller growing ones are S. trifasciata zeylanica & S. trifasctiate laurnetii.
ZZ Plant
Medium light. ZZ Plants (Zamioculcas, Zanzibar Gem) have beautiful foliage & have become quite popular in the last 5 years. As a floor plant, this one spreads & the leaves arch out with age. There’s a variegated form but it’s much harder to find.
Dracaena Lisa (& Janet Craig)
Low to medium light. When I was an interior plantscaper, this plant was billed as the ultimate low light plant and was seen in almost every office & lobby in town. Dr. Janet Craig was the variety on the market in those days but now Dr. Lisa & Dr. Michiko have since appeared on the seen. Dr. Lisa is great for areas in your home where you want some height but you’re short on width.
Rubber Plant
Rubber Tree, Ficus elastica. Medium to high light. If you have a lot of natural light & space for this plant to grow, then here’s the indoor tree for you. It’s much easier to grow indoors than the Ficus benjamina & the Ficus lyrata. The Rubber Tree is a great value – it’s inexpensive compared to many floor plants because it grows fast.
Kentia Palm
Low to medium light. Howea forsteriana. If you have a room with lower light levels in your home & want an elegant plant to liven it up, then the Kentia Palm’s the one for you. It arches gracefully & fans out so it’s not for tight corners but if you have the room, you’ll love it. One drawback: this plant isn’t cheap.
Corn Plant
Medium light. Dracaena fragrans massangeana. This leaves of this plant actually looks like the leaves of corn which you’d find in a vegetable garden. This perennially popular houseplant will loose the central chartreuse variegation & revert to solid green if the light’s too low.
Spineless Yucca
High light. Yucca elephantipes. This isn’t a soft & fluffy plant but it works well with modern decor. It’s very tough & suited to high light, warm environments. Spineless Yuccas are great for people who travel a lot because of their low maintenance requirements.
Bonus Plants
I just had to! These plants were very close runners up. Maybe I should have done 13 instead of 7 but sometimes too many choices can be confusing. Overwhelm can prevent us from starting in on anything.
I find these 6 plants easy to grow & care for: Dracanea Art, Dracaena Lemon-Lime, Cast Iron Plant, Ponytail Palm, Song Of India & Song Of Jamaica.
Light Levels
I have no experience with artificial light so what I’m referring to here is natural light. Be aware that light levels vary with the seasons so you might have to move your plants closer to a light source in the winter months.
Very few houseplants can take strong, direct sun so keep them out of hot windows or else they’ll burn.
Conversely, a few of the plants above will tolerate low light, but they won’t do too much if any growing. Medium light levels are better.
Low light – Low light isn’t no light. This is a northern exposure with no direct light.
Medium light – This is an east or west exposure with 2-4 of the sun coming in the windows per day.
High light – This is a west or south exposure with at least 5 hours of the sun coming in per day.
Just know that you can have a low light plant in a medium or high light room but it needs to be at least 10-15’ feet away from the windows. I use my instincts when it comes to light and houseplants.
If a plant isn’t doing as well as it should, then I move it. You can find more detailed information on light and houseplants here.
Large ZZ Plants at The Plant Stand in Phoenix.
Tips For Growing Floor Plants
Use these tips before buying any floor plants so you’ll know how to grow and maintain them.
Start Small
Start with smaller tabletop or hanging plants first. Floor plants aren’t any harder to care for, they’re more expensive experiments.
Do Your Research
Know what the requirements of the plant are & where it’s going before buying it.
You wouldn’t want to put a Kentia Palm in front of a hot, sunny sliding glass door. Conversely, a Spineless Yucca in a dimly lit room would get very thin & spindly over time.
Buy a Healthy Plant
I buy the majority of my houseplants at independent nurseries & garden centers where I know the stock is well taken care of.
I’ve bought a few plants at Home Depot & Lowe’s but I rummage through the inventory to see if I can find a good-looking, healthy plant.
Move Them Around
Plants grow towards the light. You’ll want to rotate a floor plant every couple of months so it gets exposed to light evenly on all sides. That way it won’t look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
I’ve seen all these floor plants, except the Kentia Palm, available in smaller 6″ & 8″ grow pot sizes & sold as tabletop plants. Don’t think they’re going to grow to 6′ in a hurry.
These plants will grow much slower in your home than they would in a greenhouse. If you want a 6′ Dracaena Lisa for that spot in your family room, then buy a 5-6′ plant; not one that’s 3′.
Avoid Overwatering
This is the most common cause of houseplant death. It’s better to keep the majority of houseplants on the dry side rather than constantly moist.
The roots also need oxygen & will die from root rot. As I say, “go easy with the liquid love”.
I’ve had great experiences with all of these easy care floor plants. I hope you find this list to be helpful and give at least 1 of these houseplants a try. You’ll be living surrounded by a gorgeous green jungle in no time!
