Easy Care Houseplants For Home Aloners

If you love gardening but find yourself living alone in an apartment, the next best thing is to fill your home with lots of houseplants.

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Beautiful green plants will brighten up your spaces the same as carefully chosen artwork that you like.  And the different shapes of this live growing art adds a diversity that calms the eye.  A helpful guide to growing plants is Living With Plants by Stephanie Lee, which covers in more detail the following information. 

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Houseplants have a health benefit in that they clean the air by reducing carbon dioxide levels, reduce some pollutants like formaldehyde, benzene, and nitrogen dioxide. 

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And according to First For Women, the Spider plant does this by having "microscopic openings in its leaves that absorb traces of carbon monoxide and formaldehyde to guard against wheezing, headaches, and brain fog." 

 

The Aloe plant is well known to warn of this poor quality air in a space by developing brown spots on its long vertical leaves. It also oozes sap that can soothe burns so a good plant to grow in the kitchen.

 

Healthy plants also help keep down dust levels and the general air temperature.  More about this in the book, Wild Plants by Hilton Carter, lover of all growing things green.

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According to NASA, they remove up to 90 percent of toxins in the air.

So, this indoor gardening effort is a plus for both beauty and health.

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If you have no plants now or just want more, then click this website, Plants.com and find green beauties for your home.

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Several plants are especially easy to grow and maintain on a busy schedule, especially if you are still holding down a fulltime job.  

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Boston Ferns and Philodendrons do not require much other than an indirect light and water once a week.  Easy to keep and propagate.  No extra at-home work for someone living solo.  

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A Lemon Button Fern is so easygoing that it can survive occasional neglect and still thrive.  It has a slightly lemony scent coming from its little rounded leaves lined up on long stems, a ferny look. I have one of these and its frothy greenery lightens up the sunroom.

 

It is a toss-up which is my favorite plant in my home, this fern or the Ponytail Palm whose name I just love. Info I've found says that the Ponytail is not a palm at all, but a member of the lily family.  Indoors, they won't grow more than 3 feet tall.  They need bright sun and water only when the soil has dried, usually every two weeks.  Easy care.

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The aptly named Jade Tree is a sturdy plant that requires very little attention.  A succulent that needs infrequent watering, it will do well in indirect light and grow for years into a huge beautiful living piece of art if you tend it with re-potting when it outgrows its home. 

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I found a pretty little plant called the Trailing Elephant Bush, originally from Africa, marked as drought resistant, needing indirect lighting, and comprising 80% of the elephant's diet.  No elephants here, but it does well without them, with small triangular leaves on long sprawling stems.

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And the Christmas Cactus, which  never looks or acts like a cactus but more like a tropical plant.  It needs watered thoroughly and thrives in indirect light.  I found out the hard way that this cactus needs its roots exposed to a temperature below 45 degrees for a day or two in order to flower during the winter season. 

 

Its show of flowers are worth this temporary move of a heavy pot.  I've always thought of the hanging white flowers as Flying Angels as mine did bloom during the Christmas season.  Just beautiful!

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One more flowering plant that was a mystery for a while.  This one was propagated by a neighbor's elderly mother from a stem she stole from our local city greenhouse years ago.  So no knowledge of what it was.

 

By the time I owned the plant it filled a small barrel and bloomed huge red flowers protected by tiny thorns.  My grandson, when tiny himself, called it the Pokey Plant and carefully walked around it in our sunroom.

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Research gave us photos of a family of Cacti from South America that looked like this beauty so we followed the instructions of infrequent watering and lots of direct light.  It lived with us for over ten years before it slowly died out.  Still not sure why.  But beautiful, huge red blooms, and thorny while here.  

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There are many house plants that are easy to keep alive with a little knowledge of their care.  Another book for help is How Not To Kill Your Houseplant by Veronica Peerless. I should have had this for advice. 

 

But these gorgeous dependable houseplants I have kept and loved and know that they are worth the little time and attention they require.  

 

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The beauty and the warmth that houseplants can add to the comfort of a home can't be exaggerated.  They are less expensive than a hefty investment in paintings or posters.  And the pots the plants live in also add to a home's decor. 

 

There are many styles to choose from, everything from the basic gardener's brown pot to a piece of ceramic art of modern minimalist simplicity, to seagrass baskets, to macrame hangers reminiscent of the sixties' handcrafts.  And even self-watering hanging pots for ease of care without leaks on the floor.  Easy buy, of course, from Amazon, just click pink.

 

If loving growing plants or flowers and living alone, you can't do better for quiet green company than to surround yourself with some in unique plant holders adding additional color and style.   

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There is something about looking at a living thing that needs air and water just like we do that is encouraging. I always find myself smiling at my Ponytail Palm when walking past. 

 

It is almost like having a pet in the house, but one that does not need a litter box or let out for a bathroom break that will need cleaned up!  And its food is much cheaper.

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I once had a pastor whose secretary swore that his huge potted palm's leaves perked up a half inch higher when he got back home from a church conference.  It stood in a corner of his office and he spoke to it daily, often practicing his sermons on the palm. 

 

Guess it missed him when gone.  True story! 

 

Make your living alone home beautiful and more healthy by adding these green growing gorgeous houseplants.  Click Plants.com for suggestions.  

 

Breathe easier.  Talk to them.  They probably would like that and thrive even more.  I do that.  

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Let them be your undemanding pets.

 

Go green!

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