The best houseplants for a healthy home
Bring the outdoors in and liven up your home with fresh green foliage
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Whether it’s a sprig of green here and there or a tropical jungle taking over every bookshelf, mantlepiece, nook and cranny of your home, houseplants are a wonderful way to refresh and elevate your living space. Adding instant colour, texture, style and interest to a room’s aesthetic, as well as bringing a host of mental and physical benefits along with them, plants can transform and revive your humble abode, no shovel required.
Houseplants are designed to thrive indoors. Different from their outdoor or garden counterparts, they require less water, less light and generally less maintenance, making them easier to keep alive, no matter how green-fingered (or not) you are. Welcoming beautiful greenery in can add a touch of the natural world to your home, as well as up the style ante of bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms. As Morag Hill, co-founder of The Little Botanical, explains, “Houseplants are perfect for softening a space and generating relaxing vibes.”
The Little Botanical
While a corner cabinet with an ivy plant cascading elegantly down looks artsy and effortlessly chic, and a bathtub with an aloe vera plant on its side is very feng shui, houseplants do more than just please the interior lover’s eye. Hill continues, “A selection of botanical powerhouses also provide a host of proven health benefits, including purifying the air and inducing feelings of calm and contentment.” Many varieties remove certain toxins, like carbon dioxide, from the air and release oxygen for a purer, cleaner environment. This, in turn, benefits both our physical and mental health by, for example, improving mood, reducing stress levels and encouraging better breathing.
The Little Botanical
Our favourite houseplants
Spider plant
Long, spindly leaves that stretch out like a creepy crawly give the spider plant its name, and offer a characterful, lively silhouette to add to your home. Full of personality and interesting colouring (often featuring white and yellow stripes across the vivid green), spider plants grow best in bright, indirect light, making them perfect for living rooms and kitchens.
Snake plant
The spiky-looking snake plant is a great option for busy households or for known plant killers. Almost unkillable, requiring minimal maintenance, place it in a medium-to-brightly lit space, leave Mr Independent to his own devices and allow its structured, sword-shaped leaves to add some modern flair to your home.
Aloe vera
A type of succulent native to Africa that stores water in its stems, the aloe vera plant loves warm and bright spots (particularly those with indirect sunlight) and requires little attention. Perfect for windowsills to add some contemporary style and self-sufficient greenery, they also multi-task as effective sun burn soothers should the need arise. Simply snap a stalk off and apply the gel directly to your skin.
Peace lily
A popular houseplant for a reason, the peace lily makes for an attractive-looking home accessory with its deep green leaves and distinctive, pretty white petals when in bloom. Its usual home is tropical rainforests, so somewhere warm, slightly humid and with indirect light is where it will thrive.
English ivy
This climbing evergreen vine will bring a lovely natural feel to your living space, almost as if you’re outside. Known for its angular leaves and air-purifying properties, it will look good and do good all at once. Prop it on a top shelf and watch it cascade elegantly.
Boston fern
A very full, luscious houseplant that enjoys humid and moist environments, the Boston fern is ideal for decorating kitchens and bathrooms. Adding a beautiful, feathery, fountain-like silhouette to your space, the vivid green plant is one for nature lovers who like to make a statement.
