Best Indoor Plants
The Two Best Indoor Plants for a Busy Lifestyle
If you have a hectic lifestyle—and these days who doesn’t?—finding the best indoor plants for you might not be so easy. After all, the one thing you don’t have is time. But keeping the apartment bare of any living things just doesn’t seem right.
So here are the top two plants for a busy lifestyle. I was going to give you ten as is the tradition, but who has the time for ten anything these days.
Ficus
It’s almost a bit of a cliché, the ficus. You see it in old movies all the time: the bachelor with the ficus plant. But as is often the case, there is some truth to the cliché. What makes the ficus one of the best indoor plants for busy people is its extremely low maintenance.
In fact, most of the indications for ficus care have to do with things not to do. Mainly, you should not over water the ficus. Some green thumbs will tell you the ficus needs “misting” when young and that you should put it in a nice bright spot so it will thrive. Although ficus plants do best in well-lit areas of your home, they hardly wilt and die in shady corners. A ficus definitely does not need misting. Just check the moisture level in the soil daily by sticking your finger into it and feeling if it is moist. If not, add water. If so, leave until tomorrow. If you forget for a couple of days, it’s usually not a big deal.
If you over-water a ficus though, you risk giving it root rot, a disease that happens when you leave water around the roots. Therefore, it is a plant that rewards neglect.
In addition, sometimes a ficus will become too big for indoors. Then it might make a nice gift for mom or a friend.
The only problem with a ficus and similar plants is that it is a bit on the boring side--no beautiful flowers, no interesting shapes, or colors. It’s just a nice green bushy tree.
Holiday Cactus
If you want to spice things up a bit and add a little bit of color to your life but still don’t want to add more labor, you might want to try a holiday cactus. As you might suspect by the name, there are three varieties of this plant, the Thanksgiving cactus, the Christmas cactus and the Easter cactus.
Don’t let the name, “cactus”, fool you, however, they bare little resemblance to the three-pronged tubular species you get in your mind when you hear the word, “cactus.” In fact, these look like ordinary houseplants of the potted hanging variety. Their great quality, however, is that they don’t require a lot of care. They are actually fairly fragile, so they grow best when you don’t do much to them. The lightest of touches can break the limbs on these fragile plants.
So, you just hang these flowers up away from direct sunlight and let them grow. They require water only once every other day or so in bright summery weather and only once a week in dark wintry weather. They don’t like being wet all the time (thus the term “cactus”). These flowers are native to the high elevations of the Brazilian rain forest so they are used to sitting on the mountainous floor getting little sunlight and the leftovers from the bigger shading trees.
For you this means, just leave them alone and let them grow. In addition, there is one more benefit of these easy going South Americans: they flower around Christmas time. This may seem strange, but remember they’re from the Southern Hemisphere, so our winter is their summer.
Final Thoughts and Other Plants?
No matter how busy you are, these two plants should be a cinch to take care of. They even work well in combination. Hang the Holiday cactus and leave the ficus in the corner.
Want some other tips? Here is a brief list of other similarly easygoing plants: the cactus bonsai, Chinese evergreen, ponytail palm, dragon tree, mother-in-law’s tongue, spider plant, aloe vera, pothos and the corn plant. If you have the time to look these up, you might not be busy enough to have them. With names like “dragon tree” and “spider plant”, I know I have tempted you to procrastinate a little bit longer. Go ahead. You work hard. You deserve a little “me” time.