HomeLifestyleHome & Garden

How to care for house plants when you don’t have a green thumb

How to care for house plants when you don’t have a green thumb

Many people enjoy incorporating a house plant or two into the design of their home, and for good reason.

The right plants can instantly brighten up your space, make a room feel more inviting, and even improve the air quality of a room. However, not everyone has what can be considered a “green thumb”.

If you don’t have the best track record when it comes to looking after plants, you might have simply given up trying. If so, you are missing out on the opportunity to have some truly interesting design elements in your home.

The good news is that there are a few things that you can do in order to successfully care for plants in your home, even if you aren’t exactly an expert. Here are a few tips to help you care for house plants even if you don’t have much of a green thumb.

Choose the right plants

There is no getting around the fact that some plants are just simply hard to care for. Plants like orchids and azaleas, although beautiful to look at, are incredibly difficult to keep alive. Unless you are an expert, it is likely that these plants won’t last very long in your home.

You might not be able to properly care for such challenging plants, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on having plants in your home altogether. There are actually a variety of plants that are much easier to care for and that will thrive with very little care. Many are also just as lovely and pleasing to the eye as their more difficult counterparts.

For example, the Bird of Paradise Indoor Plant is a great option for those who don’t have a great deal of experience caring for plants. They love sunlight so would do well by a window and only require a bit of mist every now and then.

 

Know a plant’s lighting needs

Many people who want to have plants in the home place all of their emphasis on watering their plants and not enough on the amount of light that the plants receive. Sunlight is an incredibly important part of a plant’s ability to produce food for itself, so this is a point that you can’t really afford to overlook when it comes to the care of your plants.

Thankfully, most nurseries and retailers place a convenient tag on most plants that they sell that indicate just how much sunlight a plant needs throughout the day. Those that require quite a bit should be placed on a windowsill or in full view of a window. Others can be placed further inside a room or in a corner where they will only get a bit of light each day.

Having plants in your home is a great way to instantly brighten up a room and make for a truly inviting atmosphere. The right plant can complement any décor style and really bring a room together.

Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.

 

This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you. Read our disclaimer

Loading up next...