I was watering my plants throughout the house this morning and realized that it has been far too long since I talked through the houseplant varieties that we love to keep around here in our home. This house is situated and built much differently than our last house. Our old lot was pretty much tree-less, the only exception being one or two young trees that had years to go before they got tall enough to block sunlight. In other words, our last house was super bright inside.

This house, on the other hand, has a giant maple tree in the front yard, and a couple other more mature trees and bushes planted in front of windows, which means we don’t get nearly as much natural light inside as we did at our old house. This different lighting situation has shifted the types of houseplants that I’m able to keep in my indoor garden, so today I’ll be talking through all of my current favorite plants—that is, the ones that seem to be tolerating the lower light situation well enough here. Oh, and I’m also including my favorite faux plants if you want the ultimate in easy houseplants!

One plant that has consistently done well under my care is the pothos. I have several varieties of it throughout our home, and they seem to be doing just fine in our low light situation. There are only two things that seem to stress them out over time: when I forget to water them regularly, and when they outgrow their pots. I systematically have to walk through the house to remove yellow leaves from those plants I’ve forgotten to water enough, and I also repot these plants about once a year to larger vessels so that they don’t get root-bound. If you want an easy plant that tolerates low light, I couldn’t recommend the pothos (or philodendron, which are super similar) more. I also love the look of their trailing green leaves! Just make sure you keep pothos out of reach from your pets as they can cause digestive issues.

Our 9-year-old fiddle leaf fig tree (pictured below) survived the move to our new house, and we made sure to set it up in our sunroom since it seemed to really thrive in the bright, bright sunlight in our last home. The tree hasn’t grown quite so prolifically here, but it still puts out new leaves with very little effort on my end, so I’m still including it here in my “easy houseplants” roundup. I water it thoroughly every couple of weeks, and make sure to remove yellowing leaves as needed to reduce stress. I added a tiny tabletop fiddle leaf plant to our dining room recently (two photos below), and it has been putting out new leaves like crazy, which surprises me since our dining space doesn’t get any direct sunlight as it faces north.

My best advice for caring for one of these plants is to set it down in a room and leave it there. They don’t like to be moved, so don’t be surprised if it drops some leaves when you bring it home to its new space. Give it time and consistently water the tree to help it acclimate, and you should see happy results within a month or two. They’re finicky, but FLF are still one of my all-time favorite houseplants.

Two other favorites of mine are the bird of paradise, which you’ll see pictured below in a corner of our sunroom, and the rubber plant that I keep on my dresser tabletop (we also have a larger rubber plant in our sunroom that you can see here). I adore the bold tropical leaves on these two plants, and they seem to be doing well in the semi-bright light of our sunroom and primary bedroom. The sunroom gets direct light in the morning, while our bedroom gets sunny toward the evening, and these two plants drink it all in.

Our bird of paradise, in particular, is constantly putting out new shoots now that it has fully acclimated to our new(ish) home, so much so that I’m considering getting a second one. The only real thing I do to take care of this latter plant is tether its branches to the wall using hooks and fishing line so that it has the support it needs to continue growing up instead of flopping over. Learn more about how I do that here.

In terms of watering any and all of our plants, I try to remember to do so every other week or as needed for plants that I have in smaller pots that drink up their water faster. I don’t really fertilize anything, but have been trying to remember to add a few shakes of these plant food beads in the pots of my brand new plants. That said, it’s not something I’ve ever been consistent with, and I’ve always had pretty healthy plants in our house, so I wouldn’t call it essential if you want to start an indoor garden.

Before I go, I wanted to share a few of the faux plants that I love, as promised. These are the very best-looking fake plants I’ve seen, and all of the ones I’m linking to next are currently in our collection so I can confidently vouch for their believability. Here are the best of the best: fiddle leaf fig, snake plant (yellow variety), snake plant (darker green design), yucca plant, outdoor cedar bush, and this faux trailing philodendron. I hope this roundup was helpful, and please feel free to leave your questions and/or your own plant care tips in the comments below.

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