A low maintenance plant is a simple way to beautify your patio and apartment for a fairly low cost. As a budding adult, I like to test my nurturing capabilities from time to time. Since it is far more socially acceptable to accidentally kill a plant over animals or humans, I’ve been trying my hand at plants for the past two years. Consider this blog post of a chock full of life experience and research on my behalf for your/our benefit.
Very simply put, your plants mostly need two things in order to survive — Sunlight and Water. They need varying amounts and might like fertilizer and require bug repellants to let it flourish, but the joys of plant mom-ing is figuring the perfect mix to make your plants not only survive but thrive.
Ivy
I first started with a pothos ivy. It’s literally called satan’s ivy because they are so hard to kill. Well, I totally killed it. How, do you ask? My apartment is a cave, and Ivy really wanted sunlight. After the appropriate mourning period, I bought an English ivy and have kept it alive for almost a year now. Ivy II is simple. She just wants water on the reg. I also keep her outside during warm weather, and inside with a grow light in the winter. I think I consider the Ivy to be the queen of the low maintenance plant world, simply because her needs are fairly predictable and your efforts are rewarded with visible growth.
Bamboo
I bought a lucky bamboo from Ikea. It is not a soil based plant, so you can put it in a vase with water and you should be good. I used bottled water and would change out the water periodically and it was fine. Then one day it turned yellow and idk why. Overall, I would say it’s good until it turns bad.
Snake Plant (Mother in Law’s Tongue)
This one is another Ikea buy. It doesn’t necessarily need a whole lot water or sunlight (it’s actually an indoor plant but I’m wary, because apartment cave.) I’ve had it almost a year and we’re chugging along just fine. I water about once or twice a week.
Air Plant
This plant is so simple that I overcomplicate it. It likes weekly soaks, as long as you don’t get the roots soggy (because then it rots and that’s no bueno either.) You can also run it under the sink every few days and shake the excess water off. I have both over and under watered an air plant and subsequently killed it. I am considering buying again with my latest round of air plant maintenance knowledge.
Marigold
If you just want a pretty flower, marigold is a good easy way to go. They also bloom for about 8 weeks in warm weather. I bought mine already bloomed from Home Depot, but the seeds are also fairly easy to germinate.
Herbs
This isn’t one plant, but these are my favorite plants to maintain. My peppermint, lemon balm, oregano, and rosemary plants are growing just fine with sunlight and water every 2-3 days. My basil plant, on the other hand, is extremely fickle and is currently being eaten up by aphids. Hopefully, with some TLC, water and natural bug repellants, we’ll get through. The best part is you can eat the fruits (er, herbs) of your labor!
African Violet
After killing my first set of African violets, I thought me and that plant are simply not meant to be. Then, I passed a plant on sale from Wal-Mart and I couldn’t pass it up. Weeks later, I wasn’t seeing any flowers bloom and was literally just watering it out of obligation. However, when warmer weather came around, my dear Afri finally bloomed! She’s an office plant, so I’m not sure if it was the temperature or the sunlight but I was just glad to see that my self-imposed curse turned around.
These are some plants that have really taught me to trust the process and pay attention to plant language. If you’re ready to hop into the world of plant parenting, I’d definitely suggest you give one of these a try and let me know in the comments!
