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Collection · 42 species

Easy-care plants

For beginners or low-maintenance homes: these species forgive a forgotten watering or less-than-ideal light. “Easy” does not mean “no care”: check the light and the potting mix before watering.

Selection: species rated “easy” by our sources.

Aloe vera rosette in a glasshouse: long, fleshy gray-green leaves with pale flecks and small teeth along the edges.

Aloe vera

Aloe vera

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted Syngonium podophyllum with dense green arrow-shaped foliage at the Skopje botanical garden.

Arrowhead plant

Syngonium podophyllum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Low, spreading clump of Asparagus setaceus in a botanic garden greenhouse: feathery light green sprays held in flat horizontal tiers, a few thin upright stems, and a plant label on the left.

Asparagus fern

Asparagus setaceus

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense mass of Peperomia obtusifolia with rounded, thick, glossy leaves, reddish stems and slender upright cream flower spikes.

Baby rubber plant

Peperomia obtusifolia

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Basil plant in a terracotta pot on a sunny lawn: upright stems bearing large, glossy, bright green oval leaves that are slightly puckered.

Basil

Ocimum basilicum

Light: Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Buddhist pine shoots with long, narrow dark green leaves bearing bluish-green seeds set on fleshy red receptacles.

Buddhist pine

Podocarpus macrophyllus

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Cascade of trailing burro's tail stems densely covered with small, plump blue-green leaves, with a few faded dark red flowers, below its botanical label in front of a brick wall.

Burro's tail

Sedum morganianum

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense cluster of orange Clivia miniata flowers surrounded by broad dark green leaves at Tallinn Botanic Garden.

Bush lily

Clivia miniata

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense clump of Aspidistra elatior in a shady botanic garden bed: large, glossy, dark green lance-shaped leaves standing upright then arching, with a label at its base.

Cast iron plant

Aspidistra elatior

Light: Low light – Medium light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

A bed of Pilea peperomioides at the Dresden Botanical Garden: round, dark green leaves attached at their center to long stalks, next to a botanical label.

Chinese money plant

Pilea peperomioides

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Common boxwood clipped into rounded balls on several trunks in an arboretum: dense foliage of small bright green leaves in front of a purple Japanese maple in autumn.

Common boxwood

Buxus sempervirens

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Whole Dracaena fragrans with two ringed canes and rosettes of long green leaves in a botanical garden.

Corn plant

Dracaena fragrans

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Heptapleurum arboricola branch with glossy dark green leaflets arranged like umbrella spokes and clusters of cream flower buds.

Dwarf umbrella tree

Heptapleurum arboricola

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

English ivy climbing a tree trunk: dark green juvenile leaves with three to five lobes and pale veins, on thin stems clinging to the bark.

English ivy

Hedera helix

Light: Low light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

European hornbeam twig with light green oval leaves, finely double-toothed and marked by prominent parallel veins.

European hornbeam

Carpinus betulus

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Dense clusters of small, four-petaled red-orange flowers and buds of flaming Katy above rounded, fleshy leaves.

Flaming Katy

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Golden pothos climbing a tree trunk, with green heart-shaped leaves marbled with yellow, growing larger toward the top.

Golden pothos

Epipremnum aureum

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Curtain of trailing heartleaf philodendron stems covered in green heart-shaped leaves, in a conservatory.

Heartleaf philodendron

Philodendron hederaceum

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Drooping cluster of red Nandina domestica berries surrounded by lance-shaped green leaflets, some turning red.

Heavenly bamboo

Nandina domestica

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Mature Crassula ovata shrub with thick, branching trunks, fleshy oval leaves and clusters of small white flowers.

Jade plant

Crassula ovata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Labeled Fatsia japonica at Koishikawa Botanical Gardens, with an upright trunk, large green palmate leaves and a pale flower cluster.

Japanese aralia

Fatsia japonica

Light: Low light – Medium light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Mat of creeping juniper 'Nana' between rocks, with its plant label, in an arboretum.

Japanese garden juniper

Juniperus procumbens

Light: Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large Japanese zelkova standing alone on an arboretum lawn, with a broad, dense canopy of young light green leaves and low branches reaching almost to the ground.

Japanese zelkova

Zelkova serrata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large kentia palm with long arching, drooping fronds, cultivated at La Concepción Botanical Garden in Málaga.

Kentia palm

Howea forsteriana

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Clump of Rhapis excelsa with glossy green fan-shaped leaves divided into narrow segments.

Lady palm

Rhapis excelsa

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted money tree in a botanical garden: trunk swollen at the base, slender green stems and palmate leaves with five leaflets.

Money tree

Pachira aquatica

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Rounded oleander shrub covered in pink flowers on dry, stony ground, with mountains in the background in Turkey.

Oleander

Nerium oleander

Light: Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Clump of Chamaedorea elegans with light green pinnate fronds and slender leaf stalks growing in a greenhouse.

Parlor palm

Chamaedorea elegans

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Flowering Spathiphyllum wallisii at the KIT Botanical Garden, with an upright white spathe surrounding a cream spadix.

Peace lily

Spathiphyllum wallisii

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Clump of Aglaonema commutatum with dark green elliptical leaves patterned in broad silvery gray bands.

Philippine evergreen

Aglaonema commutatum

Light: Low light – Medium light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Close view of oval Hypoestes phyllostachya leaves broadly splashed with pink over dark green.

Polka dot plant

Hypoestes phyllostachya

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted Beaucarnea recurvata: swollen bottle-shaped base, slender stem and a tuft of long, narrow, drooping leaves.

Ponytail palm

Beaucarnea recurvata

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Rubber plant growing in a garden on La Palma: dense crown of large glossy leaves with reddish new shoots, and aerial roots at the base.

Rubber plant

Ficus elastica

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Trailing stems of Tradescantia zebrina spilling from a terracotta pot, with pointed leaves striped green and silver and edged in purple.

Silver inch plant

Tradescantia zebrina

Light: Medium light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted snake plant with upright, sword-shaped leaves banded in dark and light green with yellow edges, against a brick wall.

Snake plant

Dracaena trifasciata

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Variegated spider plant in a hanging basket in a greenhouse: a rosette of green-and-white strap-like leaves and long trailing stems covered with dozens of plantlets.

Spider plant

Chlorophytum comosum

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Large Yucca gigantea planted in a botanical garden: several trunks topped with rosettes of sword-shaped leaves above skirts of dry leaves.

Spineless yucca

Yucca gigantea

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Long trailing Ceropegia woodii stems bearing silver-marbled heart-shaped leaves with purple undersides.

String of hearts

Ceropegia woodii

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

Potted Schlumbergera truncata in full bloom: flat, segmented stems with toothed edges, bright pink flowers and buds at the stem tips.

Thanksgiving cactus

Schlumbergera truncata

Light: Medium light – Bright indirect light
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Trident maple shoots with bright green leaves bearing three pointed, forward-facing lobes and small clusters of greenish-yellow flowers.

Trident maple

Acer buergerianum

Light: Bright indirect light – Direct sun
Water: Moderate watering
Difficulty: Easy

Umbel of Hoya carnosa flowers, pinkish-white stars with red centers, among thick glossy leaves and twining stems.

Wax plant

Hoya carnosa

Light: Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

ZZ plant in a terracotta pot: upright stems bearing glossy, dark green leaflets.

ZZ plant

Zamioculcas zamiifolia

Light: Low light – Bright indirect light
Water: Infrequent watering
Difficulty: Easy

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Related advice

WateringWater houseplants by observation, not by the calendarWhy fixed watering schedules fail, how to check the potting mix, water well, choose your water, and recognize too much or too little water.Reviewed September 29, 2026