Indoor tree

[Placestogo]

Hello, i would like some kind of indoor tree (almost to ceiling) with large leaf and easy maintenance.
what kind of tree do you recommend? (I have different areas where i could place it at home so im flexible in terms of light and humidity factors).

Following as I love an indoor tree! Hope you get some replies OP.

How large a leaf? You could grow a monstera, a coconut palm or a banana tree. I've had each of those in previous living rooms. Coconuts and bananas are actually herbs, iirc, and they grow satisfyingly quickly. Monsteras are traditional indoor plants and do, indeed, have monster leaves if you've got room for a big enough pot.

I want a lemon tree now. The leaves are not large, but they can be trained to a neat indoor shape and they smell nice 🍋

Yuccas and dracaenas are also very easy to grow. Both reach 2+ metres indoors or 6m outdoors in warm climates. They have spiky leaves.

They don't have big leaves?

This is a healthy monstera. All the leaf shade you could want! Dead easy as long as you get the conditions right. When I was a kid, every home had at least one.

A fiddle leaf fig?
We bought one from ikea two years ago when it was about 60cm tall. Our kitchen ceiling is vaulted, and it's now almost reached the top (so must be four plus meters).
I planted it in two pots - a very large outer one with no drainage holes, then a layer of gravel, then a very large inner one with drainage holes. Now it thrives on neglect - I give it a bowl of water once in a while (can't be more than once a month) and it's still growing massive glossy leaves.

This is like our fiddle leaf fig, except ours is taller

Fig's a great idea! You might even get fruit 🙂

Here's a coconut palm. Different varieties achieve different adult shapes. Some are much more - fluffy (?!) with larger, more spreading fronds. Mine was like this. They're quite sensitive, although mine - also from Ikea - just loved where I put it and was easy. They don't grow coconuts.

Well, 'big leaves' is extremely vague 😄

What a bonny plant! Think I'm going to have to have another look around the plant bit the next time I'm at ikea!

Oh, OP, I should also say that whilst our Fiddle leaf fig's pots are big, they're no where near as big as the one in that picture - go for as big a pot as you can find and afford, but it doesn't need to be ridiculous (I can imagine the one in that pic was ridiculously expensive 😅)

I have a few bird of paradise that are very large and palm looking but not strictly a tree although they do well in low/mid light areas. . A large form monstera deliciosa would certainly get to the ceiling and produce spectacular leaves with the correct lighting, you can get white cream and mint variation on those for a decent price these days but the white does tend to brown. If you are looking for cheap and cheerful an outdoor castor oil plant comes in solid and variegated and would grow very quickly and can be had for £5-20 for a decent size.

personally I prefer a mix different coloured and leaves and for standing/hanging/stayed varieties. I’ll add a picture later when my plant lights are turned on.

@GarlicAnywhere i love how you’ve added ‘they don’t grow coconuts’ at the end as a sort of disclaimer, as though this is something you only found out two years after bringing yours home 😂

This is some of mine.

@cuckoolodger thats really nice! I wonder about having so many plants in one spot, do you find the hunidity damages the paint or creates dark spots on the wall?

thanks all for your thoughts! I have decided to go for a bird of paradise tree (which is the same as wild banana tree just different name i think?) and @ToddlersAreBananasyou have convinced me about a fiddle leaf fig tree, that picture is gorgeous.

i dont like spiky palm leaf trees - i had one from ikea for about 15 years and when we sold our flat i left it there as i had become sick of it!
i am also thinking about one of these massive cowboys cactus…
i will be starting small for all these plants to reduce costs. Do you think it is better to adapt the size of the pot every 2-3 years or should i go straight for a large pot (29/30cm) and wait for the plant to develop in it?

start with small pots and pot on in increments - otherwise it's too easy for the soil to get too wet and it to rot.

A bird of paradise (Strelitzia species) is not the same as a banana (Musa species)! The leaves do look a bit similar but how they're attached to the plant is quite different. Look up specific mature photos rather than young ones you see for sale online. A BoP used to be a lot more expensive, think they're similarly priced now. Bananas grow much faster, if you want ceiling height and not pay ££££, get a banana.

Neither of them are technically trees - but bananas do have a trunk. If you just want something tall that is green, how about a pothos vine attached to a tall moss pole?

Also look at weeping fig (Ficus benjamina).

Do you have a budget in mind? Facebook marketplace can be good, especially if you live somewhere where people move to other countries. It's also where you can get reasonably priced pots.

I can show you some photos of the difference between the BOP and a banana in a while as I’m going to my sisters and she has a banana. This is the base of a BOP. A banana is much more tubular with leaves stayed up a more central stem but the leaves do look very similar. I find banana leaves more waxy .

and no, I have zero issues with having so many plants together although the plants do seem to enjoy it.

I've got a 25 year old weeping fig that if I didn't prune it would be about 10 foot wide and 8 foot tall. I've pruned it into a tree shape.

A musa/banana stem

Years ago I got bought a plaited/trained weeping fig, it was beautiful and cost £52 in the mid 90s so a VERY nice gift. I nurtured it and loved it and it was glorious, reached about 6 1/2 ft by 2001. Then my idiot bf let his iguanas lid open and I can home to a giant bunch of twigs. I was gutted and still salty about it today tbh

This is a money tree. B & M two weeks ago £30!
Not poisonous to dogs.

Just r noticed my sisters banana is next a BOP!

We had both bird of paradise and fiddle leaf fig. Both grew massive and were very healthy initially - even though I'm not good with indoor plants (I seem to kill every peace lily possible, though, tbf, I can grow hords of aloe vera).

The reason I kept the flf, and not the bop, was due to a couple of reasons. The bird of paradise kept getting weevily creatures, which I controlled quite successfully with turmeric powder - so not an issue. But it kept on out growing its pot and needing a bigger one (unlike the bop, which seems fine slightly pot bound). The final nail on the great for the bop was when I canme to divide it (I accidentally ended up with two growing in one pot) and then I saw the root system. I've never seen anything more creepy in my life... Plus, once I'd taken it out of its original pot and separated the creepy roots, there was no way it was going to fit into a normal size pot anymore...