Six Indoor Plants That Are Forgiving

If you are a person who has been unsuccessful with indoor plants or are just a beginner and want try your hand at growing house plants, you may obtain success with the following listed plants. All of these plants take little time to keep healthy and in the end they will not only build your confidence but will forgive your errors.

Another easy to grow palm-like plant is the sago palm, another slow-growing, very tolerant of over-watering, easy to care for plant. It’s huge fern looking leaves can grow from two to six feet long, so it needs a lot of room to grow. It will take light that is filtered to very bright, cool nights and dry air. Its hard, shiny, dark green leaflets hold up like iron. It makes a good ornamental plant for an empty corner that needs filling.

Caution warning: This plant is very poisonous to animals and humans if ingested, causing permanent internal damage and death. Pets find this plant very palatable.

An old standby that is highly tolerant of slip ups is the spider plant or ribbon plant. It is also sometimes called the airplane plants because of its loose cluster of flowers that appear on its long stems, which will later be followed by clusters of leaves. The cluster of leaves will develop into little plants, complete with roots ready for planting. The spider plant enjoys filtered bright light, heavy soil, and even moisture. Although it is very tolerant of household temperatures, it would prefer cooler night temperatures. This plant always has a way of looking neat and tidy.

If you are guilty of killing your plants from over-watering or can never remember the last time you watered your plants than the ponytail palm is the right plant for you. This succulent plant, that does not look like a succulent, can be over-watered and then left to dry out till the next watering. You see the bottom of the plant has what is called a caudex, this is where the plant stores its water. This plant can get to be 15 feet high but makes a good indoor plant because it is an extremely slow grower. This very tolerant plant prefers heavy soil with good drainage, dry air and cool nights. When grown indoors or outdoors it prefers full sun to light shade. When it comes time to re-pot this plant be sure that it is done so the root system is kept in tact.

A very handsome and fairly easy plant is the snake plant or the mother’s in-laws tongue plant. Although it will not tolerate over-watering it likes to be drenched and then let to dry out between watering, it also can withstand household temperatures. This evergreen perennial leathery leaf plant prefers bright light, but will tolerate a wide range of light intensities and will withstand almost any conditions. Although I have never seen it in bloom, I am told it produces cloud-like bunches of fragrant white flowers. To keep the root system healthy a weak fertilizer solution should be applied every two weeks. If put outside for long periods of time it can attract ants, but on the other hand I have heard it's leafs can kill mice and rats.

If you are a basket and vine type person you might enjoy the rosary vine plant. It needs filtered to bright light, good drainage, and can be drenched and let to dry between watering. It gets its name from the small storage beads along its stems that help the plant get through longer periods of neglect. The plant has heart-shaped silver marked leaves and will grow very long vines with small lantern shaped flowers.

Last but not least is one of my favorites, the philodendron, a plant that will tolerate almost anything except a hard freeze. There are many types of philodendron, but my favorite has always been the dark green leaves of the heart leaf philodendron. They thrive in bright light but will survive in darker light conditions. This is one plant the will withstand over-watering from time to time and a variety of house temperature conditions including dry air.