A Guide to the Easiest House Plants to Care for

With everything else that you have to do, it can be hard to remember to water house plants, and a complicated plant that needs a lot of care is probably not for you. This is a guide to some of the simplest house plants to care for. All are common in grocery stores and home improvement stores- there is no need to go to a specialty nursery to find these.

Devil's Ivy, aka Pothos: This plant is hearty at a vast array of light and moisture levels, and does not need repotting often. It is perfectly healthy when rootbound, and will continue to grow. You can keep it in a room with almost no light, and do not have to water it any more than once a week or so. It also has a good respiration rate- it will clean the air around it efficiently for its size.
: This plant is hearty at a vast array of light and moisture levels, and does not need repotting often. It is perfectly healthy when rootbound, and will continue to grow. You can keep it in a room with almost no light, and do not have to water it any more than once a week or so. It also has a good respiration rate- it will clean the air around it efficiently for its size.

African Violet- This plant is very hearty, and does not need much special care. They grow quite slowly, so they do not need repotting often. They do like watering often, but every three or four days is enough to keep them healthy. Light levels from medium to high are fine- they do not need to be directly in the window. The only real care they need besides occasional watering is the removal of dead flowers. The African Violet will bloom throughout much of the year, but the flowers do not last longer than a couple of weeks, and must be removed.

Spider Plant- This one is not the most attractive plant on the market, but it is extremely hard to kill. It is ok with just about any light level, and rarely needs watering. It grows relatively fast, but it is actually healthy being rootbound, so it needs repotting only rarely.

Mother-In-Law's Tongue, aka Snake Plant- The prefered sun is bright sunlight, but it will thrive in most light levels. From spring to fall, it will get by with being watered twice a week or so, but in the winter, it does not need watering more than every one to two months! It is also a slow grower and will not need frequent repotting. You can almost forget about this plant and it will still thrive.

English Ivy- This elegant looking climbing ivy will grow the best in direct sunlight, but will tolerate much lower light levels. It does not need daily watering- I have found that watering it about once a week is sufficient. They are normally fast growers, but if you have them in indirect lighting and don't water them much, they tend not to grow too quickly. If you put them somewhere with low light and leave them alone, they will thrive on their own with little help. If you like this plant, you can cut off a stem and stick it in another pot. It will grow roots quickly and then you have another easy-going ivy plant.

Cactus- This is a great plant if yo uhave little space and don't like watering plants. There are many varieites of cactus, but the easist to maintain are the smaller ones. They can be placed anywhere, and they are fine with their soil being dried out much of the time. Over watering will kill them faster than anything else you can do, so for the most aprt, just leave them alone.

Panda Bear Plant, aka Panda Plant- This plant is amazing for the lazy or busy plant grower. Not only is it easy to care for, it is remarkably easy to get started. You don't even have to buy one- if you find a panda plant leaf, simply lay it across some soil and it will begin growing. It doesn't need watering often, and is ok in a variety of light levels. The leaves are covered in tiny silver plant hairs, each of which is helping it to conserve water in the event that forget to water it.

Shamrock- This is a plant that you can actually kill with neglect, and then water it to bring it back to life. That's right- it's never too late to save this plant. Shamrocks like sunlight, either direct or indirect, but they will tolerate many differing light levels in the medium to bright range. This plant is one that you can actually forget about for months, and then find it and bring it back by watering it. The leaves are beautiful and bright green, and it needs no special soil or plant food.

All of these are plants that I have grown with ease. It is said about some of these that they are impossible to kill. I can say from experience that yes, you can kill any of these, if your neglect is really that bad. But these are some of the most likely to survive a brown thumb, forgetfulness or frequent absenses.