Ideas for easy care houseplants?

[Beakthrough]

I don't do too badly with my garden but have never had much success with houseplants, then when DC were small I gave up for fear of accidentally having something poisonous around.

Now I'd like some greenery in the house. Things that aren't easy to kill.

I have a narrow West facing windowsill
A large East facing windowsill
Something to go next to the French doors which face South, but it wouldn't be directly behind the glass.
A corner of the living room. Not dark exactly but not bright.
Something for the bathroom. West facing.

Extra points if they're scented, but I think that might be a big ask?

Also herbs for the kitchen windowsills. I have either West facing or South facing with opaque glass. I find they don't do well in those little pots sold for herbs. What am I doing wrong? I have all the hardy ones in the garden.

Any suggestions?

If you have a south facing sunny window then grow chilli peppers (plant from seed in spring). My mum grew a beautiful one that was like a mini tree and was constantly producing little chilli peppers. Great fun!

For myself, I love my Christmas cactus - you can largely ignore it (just water occasionally) in the year then in December it is a shock of gorgeous pink flowers.

I have a whole row of succulents on my east facing windowsill which seem happy. Sometimes they grow ugly as they get big but it’s easy to remove from the pot and cut them back to the size they were to start with and they just carry on growing.

Peace lilies are also good indoors.

I don’t have a lot of luck with herbs indoors.

I'm far from an expert but have several indoor plants which seem to be thriving.

Many like light, but not direct sunlight and some prefer brighter light than others. Googling just now to find the name of my plants, it said lavender can be grown indoors! I've never considered that but its certainly fragrant!
Moses in the cradle has purply/pink leaves which are interesting. Monstera and ZZ plant are interesting and hardy.

I had a calanthea which got forgotten about in a spare room. We'd moved storage boxes into the room and it was hidden behind them about 2mths. The leaves curled up and shrivelled but to my surprise, once it was watered, we watched most of the leaves unfurl over several hours. That was 6yrs ago and I recently divided the plant into 4- all of which are thriving.

Those 'living herb' pots from supermarkets rarely survive long. I have sprouted supermarket basil in a glass of water though, more success if you dip the ends in rooting powder. I've then potted them up. In the house though, they tend to get leggy trying to reach the window. My in-laws have a large pot on their kitchen bench with parsley and basil growing. It always looks amazing, but I'm not sure if its the large pot or they secretly keep changing the plants 😆

I have an aloe vera plant and I've kept it alive for years. Usually I kill everything within a week. And it is fabulous for burns.

Spider plants are underrated!
Spider plants are actually one of the best air-cleaning indoor plants according to science. In NASA’s 1989 Clean Air Study, spider plats outperformed other plants in the experiment. Spider plants have also been proven to remove around 95% of toxins from the air around them in 24 hours.

I have over 40 spider plants. All came from a cutting from one we grew in the office in 2007. They keep multiplying. I give them a sprinkle of water every week and that’s that. I also received an aloe Vera on my 40th and am now 46 and it is still going strong. So strong that I have had to split it into two pots and need to do the same again. Trick is not to overwater any of them.

Things that thrive on neglect (which, to be fair, is most plants when you take into account that overwatering is more likely to kill them than underwatering).

Snake plants (sansevieria)

Spider plants (chlorophytum)
Aloe vera (and other aloes)
Jade plants (crassula)
Cacti (forgotten on a north facing windowsill seems to be their favourite place)
Aspidistra

Cheese plants are very tolerant as long as they aren't moved and you have space for them to grow - they like diffuse light, like through venetian blinds.

Basically, don't spend too much and have fun seeing what grows.

ZZ Plant. I’m a notorious plant murderer but I’ve had mine for ages and it’s absolutely thriving. It ticks along happily in a not bright but not dark corner of my living room while every year all my other ones throw a wobbler when the central heating kicks in for winter.

I see that @ObladiObladah has not only a excellent name but also likes cactus.
I was bought one like this a few years ago and never watered yet.
I feed it batteries every now and then 😆https://www.amazon.co.uk/ariel-gxr-Dancing-Creative-Interactive-Decoration/dp/B0CSWM7LS7

I’d like to try one of those self watering indoor plants, as I’m useless at knowing how much water a plant needs 😁. Think they’re called something like easy plants

Plastic plants?! They're the only ones I can keep alive!

I have some ferns doing ok but they don’t like being near the radiator so do better in summer. Also Chinese money plant with big flat discs keeps making babies and a hanging plant which I water once a week sparingly

I've never had green fingers but when my Dad passed away, I inherited his Jade plants. They thrive on neglect, and I've now gone from 3 main plants to about 12! I've also got several orchids on the go - they flower for a few months, then like to hibernate in the downstairs cloakroom and then hey presto you've got flowers appearing again. I've also got a dragon plant that is super easy and slow growing. The Kentia palm I bought however is a disaster... never trying one of those again.

Devils ivy is impossible to kill and will grow down nicely in time so looks good on a shelf or fireplace. I have 5 on the go currently and it’s just the easiest plant.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/29/devils-ivy-the-houseplant-you-just-cant-escape&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwin-NiomK-SAxVXgf0HHU2mDywQFnoECGEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0aMG137_TZeKU0ZptvU4Vt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/url?q=www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/29/devils-ivy-the-houseplant-you-just-cant-escape&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwin-NiomK-SAxVXgf0HHU2mDywQFnoECGEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0aMG137_TZeKU0ZptvU4Vt

Spider plants change colour when they need watering, which makes them very easy.

Butterworts are pretty tolerant too, if you're in a soft water area or can keep a supply of rainwater for them, and have pretty flowers. They like to be constantly in a saucer of water.

Supermarket herb pots are very densely planted. If you separate one into several pots it will last much longer - although most are prone to aphids.

Get yourself a cactus, mines around 4ft now and is impossible to kill. They if anything they love it when you forget to water them.

Can't remember the latin name but I've got a cast iron plant that seems to be living up to it's name.

Pothos for the shadier spot.

Re your herbs - chop them up, divide each into two at least so they have more room. Basil needs more water than you think - it's native to tropical regions not Italy, so likes a drink.

Coriander is a bugger to grow - it just wants to set seed and die.

I think the west-facing windows and the living room corner actually call for two different types of plants rather than one "easy-care" option.

A lot of people group Snake Plants, ZZ Plants and Spider Plants together because they're beginner friendly, but they behave quite differently once they're indoors for a few months.

Snake Plants usually tolerate inconsistent watering better, ZZ Plants are remarkably forgiving because of their rhizomes, while Spider Plants tend to tell you much sooner when something in their environment needs adjusting.

Matching the plant to the space usually makes a much bigger difference than simply choosing the one with the reputation for being "hard to kill." An overview of low-light indoor plants also highlights how different species respond to different indoor conditions, especially when it comes to light and watering.

I'm hopeless with plants, and my only one is an Anthurium which I received as a housewarming gift 3 house moves ago. It's amazingly resilient, has been repotted only once, and get watered once a week if I remember.

For your east and west windows, snake plants and jade are bulletproof
I grabbed several easy houseplants such as houseplants from my favourite online shop and they arrived in perfect shape
Their snake plant still thrives in my dim corner. For the bathroom, pothos works great
Skip supermarket herb pots unless you split them immediately into bigger containers

Isn't that a euphorbia? Looks magnificent regardless.

Scented leaf pelargonium are nice, relatively trouble free and can stand some neglect.

Parlour palm seems easy, mine is definitely thriving. I have it in a south facing room but away from the window.

Also fatsia japonica is happy in the shade so that would work for the corner of your living room. They can get big, but then just stick it in the ground outside and get another.

Like a pp I have Chinese money plants thriving everywhere they don't seem fussy.

Anywhere bright go with succulents. Inch plants will likely be good in either west or east facing room.

I often over water indoor plants so bought a moisture meter which I stick in each pot once or twice a week. DH is banned from watering any of them because he was basically killing the ones I had on the kitchen windowsill near the sink.

I've had a lot of houseplants, and unfortunately have killed quite a few too. I find that it's all about placement, but plants are contrary buggers so can be quite unpredictable. Now when I get a plant I put it somewhere and watch it for a few weeks. If it's doing well I leave it there, otherwise I move it.

I have had a situation where I had two of the exact plant (bought at the same time, from the same place) next to each other. One loved it there, the other one hated it and shed half its leaves. I moved the other one around until I found a place it didn't sulk in. Now it's perfectly happy and doing well, but in the whole process ended up much smaller than the happy one.

The most bomb-proof plants I've had are rubber plants (ficus elastica, there are some lovely variegated varieties too), bird of paradise plants and monsteras (but the last two need a serious amount of space). I would have added umbrella plants (schleffera) but the last one I got died for no apparent reason within a couple of months of my getting it.

The only two plants I haven't managed to figure out are ferns and peace lilies. I know. They just hate me and curl up and die.

This website is great for indoor plants and will tell you which ones are hard to kill:

www.beardsanddaisies.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23370973855&gbraid=0AAAAADfZrNw6N7Ld4IypLPLI5bFR7csmX&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhsrUBhDxARIsAN3AQScx9Jt29UXy5x4IU5Al7TwC1sfeWG6RC0ocM0BFQrHBlDieofOXCJcaAk4aEALw_wcB