3 Low Maintenance Indoor Plants for Your Home
All of these plants are originally from areas close to the equator but will grow really well indoors. Tried and tested on our end, living in the desert of Tucson. We made all of these work, and by we I mean Aaron. Some of it was definitely trial and error.
Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima)
That's right, the traditional Christmas plant can be a beautiful year-round house plant. Every year, my mother-in-law would give us a poinsettia during the holidays. We would keep that plant through the new year and eventually it would shrivel up and die. We always assumed it had just lived its course and we would get another one next winter. Over the years, we started watering the poinsettias more and more, keeping the soil moist 24/7, and noticed the plants really started to thrive. In fact, they kept growing larger and larger and never died as we welcomed the new year. It turns out that you can keep this plant as a living house plant as long as you like. They love indirect light and most importantly, moist soil. We also fertilize ours every so often to introduce new nutrients. We chose to keep a white version of the poinsettia as a houseplant given it matches our home a little better than the red.
Road Kill Cactus (Consolea rubescens)
Originally from the Caribbean, the Road Kill cactus is a fast growing, vertical cactus that can provide a really cool contrast against a wall or a window. Yes, this is a cactus and it does have very few tiny spines that can be irritating if they become lodged into your skin but overall it is a lot less spiny than other cacti. We originally had our Road Kill cactus outside but the rodents loved to eat it during hot summer nights in search of moisture. You will see in the photos where the rodents gnawed one of the cacti in half but like with most cacti, it is resilient and is now growing new arms where the rodents did their damage. That's one of my favorite attributes of this cactus. If a petal falls off or is knocked off by your cat (in our case), you can just plant that petal next to the other cacti and watch it grow new arms. Our cactus is inside now, near a sunny window which is really important. This cactus will tolerate as much indoor sun you can throw at it. I would recommend a more shallow pot than what you see in the photos which will help with stability and watering. Let the soil dry out between watering and your Road Kill Cactus will grow really quickly.
Money Tree (Pachira aquatica)
This plant can become huge in the wild, however, it's also a very popular bonsai or ornamental house plant. You'll often find the Money Tree sold with braided stems which are purely ornamental and are said to 'trap fortune within the braids.' This plant is really easy to take care of. A brightly lit window and watering every two weeks keeps it in great health. We've owned our Money Tree for almost 3 years now and it's doubled in size. We plan to keep ours in its original pot in hopes that its growth slows down some, but not really since the more growth it has the more money it's said to bring in. Otherwise we will need to consider moving it to an area with more ceiling space. We've read that we can expect a mature, ornamental plant to reach 6 feet tall. We've also read that plants like ours with braided stems can run into issues when they age. The stems grow thicker and the braided trunks may start to crush each other over time. Thankfully we haven't run into that issues yet. So far our Money Tree has been really healthy and we love the sense of nature it brings to our home, because it is a really large green plant inside.
Comments
I’ve been looking at Money Tree’s actually! I just bought a road kill cactus and I love it! I have a TON of succulents – they’re everywhere haha!
Lizzie
http://www.lizzieinlace.com