by Evin Morrison, Extension Master Gardener
All photos by Evin Morrison
Starting a houseplant collection is an exciting step toward creating a more vibrant, peaceful, and healthy home environment. Whether you’re looking to add a natural aesthetic to your space, improve indoor air quality, or simply enjoy a fun new hobby, choosing the right plants at the beginning can make all the difference.
For beginners, it’s best to start with plants that are both attractive and forgiving. You’ll love seeing them in your space, but the care won’t overwhelm you. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into five beginner-friendly houseplants—pothos, aloe vera, snake plant, Syngonium, and dracaena—with detailed care tips and practical information to help your indoor garden thrive.
1. Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
Pothos, also known as devil’s ivy, is one of the most popular houseplants. It’s easy to find at hardware stores and even sometimes at the grocery store, so it’s a great one to pick up without that hassle of seeking it out. Buying one in person will be a much more economical choice than ordering one online. Native to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, it’s a fast-growing, trailing vine known for its heart-shaped, glossy leaves. The standard version is all green, but you can also easily find mottled leaf versions that are white and green or yellow and green. Epipremnum is a large family of plants, so once you branch into other species, you’ll start seeing a difference in leaf shape, too. Some of the common names you will see available are golden pothos, marble queen, and neon pothos, each with unique variegation and colorings.
These fast growers are excellent choices if you want a big plant fast. If you give them something to climb like a pole or trellis, the leaves can get much larger. These plants can thrive in lower light conditions, but will perform best in bright, indirect light. You’ll know they aren’t getting enough light if the growth slows down, the new leaves are much smaller, and/or if there is more space in between the leaves.
Pothos are easy to water because they aren’t too picky. Ideally, let the top one inch of soil dry out in between waterings. Too little water and the leaves will look limp, too much water and the roots in the soil will begin to rot. Both too much and too little can result in yellowing leaves that will ultimately have to be pruned off. Planting your pothos in a good houseplant soil can help make sure that the soil maintains a steady moisture level, making your job a little easier.
Want to expand your houseplant collection more quickly? Pothos are one of the easiest plants to propagate! Cuttings can live in water for an extended period of time, but also root readily when you move them to soil.
2. Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller)
Aloe vera is a great plant to get you started in the succulent family. It’s an easy-going plant, native to arid regions and widely cultivated around the world. It’s beloved not just for its beauty, but also for its healing gel, which can be used to treat minor burns, sunburn, and skin irritations. Of course, not all aloes are the same and some are even toxic, so make sure you’ve purchased the medicinal kind before soothing sunburn. On the upside, most aloes are just as easy to care for, so if you prefer a different coloration or shape that’s an option, but you do lose out on the medicinal values.
If you are concerned about not being an attentive waterer, an aloe vera can be a great starting point. They will live quite happily on a windowsill or front porch and won’t kick the bucket if you forget to water them every week. Letting the soil dry out completely between waterings is the best way to care for these plants. Once a month (or every other week in really warm climates) give your aloe a thorough watering. Allow water to absorb all the way in the soil and drain out of the bottom of the pot. Deep watering succulents less often is far better for them than a tiny bit of water every few days. Imagine a desert where it rains really heavily once in a while and the plants have to store moisture in between those deluge storms. Again, using a soil that is made for this type of plant, like a cactus/succulent mix, will help create the correct moisture levels for your aloe. If you only have standard potting soil, adding in something like coarse sand or perlite will help increase drainage so the soil holds on to less water. Overwatering will quickly result in a rotting plant and the spiny leaves will go from green and firm to brown and mushy. Aloes, like most succulents, need quite a bit of sun to grow large, but direct and very hot sun can lead to burned leaves, especially if the plant is new to those conditions. Mostly, you’ll be bringing home an aloe that’s been living under store lights and ambient windows, so be careful before you set it out to bake in the sun. Like us, plants need to acclimatize to new conditions, so introduce any newcomer slowly to any super sunny spots that you want to decorate. Luckily, aloes have a built-in sunscreen called farina on their leaves. It’s a whiteish powdery wax that covers the plant to help protect it from the sun. So even if you forget to bring your plant back in while you slowly increase the amount of sunshine it’s getting, it has a backup defense system to keep it growing.
3. Snake plant (Sansevieria) [now reclassified as Dracaena]
and Sansevieria whale fin (Dracaena masoniana)
Snake plants, also known as mother-in-law’s tongue, are native to West Africa and are another drought tolerant plant option. They feature upright, sword-shaped leaves growing in a vase shape. The most common ones are usually dark green with green banding and yellow margins. But much like the pothos, there are many varieties that come in an array of colors, shapes, and growth patterns. The most common ones to find at the store are species like S. laurentii, S. zeylanica, and S. trifasciata. It is important to note that this whole plant family has been reclassified as Dracaena (a genus we will talk about later), but renaming plants is a slow process and it can take a while to catch on. So, you mostly still see snake plants sold by their common name or as Sansevieria.
Sansevieria are nearly indestructible and can survive in a wide range of conditions. They will tolerate low light but probably won’t grow very much. In bright, indirect light conditions they will put on growth and thrive. However, in too much direct light you might see the edges of the blades getting scorched, so if you put one near a window make sure to check the side facing the glass to ensure it’s not burning. Water only when the soil is bone dry—typically every 2–4 weeks depending on humidity and light. This is another great contender for cactus/succulent potting mix. The better the drainage in your soil, the more air flow around the roots, which allows the roots to dry out properly. Sansevieria are desert plants, so they can rot in very humid environments. It’s best to keep them in places where they can stay on the drier side. If you notice the leaves wrinkling and flopping over, you’ll know you’ve taken the arid environment a little too far as both are signs of underwatering. Yellowing or squishy blades, especially near the base are signs of too much water.
Bonus: It is considered one of the top air-purifying plants and converts CO₂ to oxygen at night, so scientists recommend having one or two in your bedroom for increased air quality while you sleep.
4. Syngonium (Syngonium podophyllum)
Syngonium, also known as arrowhead vine, is native to Central and South America. This rainforest plant is known for its unique, arrow-shaped leaves and a wide variety of cultivars with striking foliage in shades of green, pink, and cream. This is the plant that you try out if you want cool colors and tropical vibes, before spending big money on variegated monsteras and other harder to care for plants. Syngoniums truly come in all shapes and sizes, which can be fun to decorate with in your home. Young plants have an upright growth pattern. Then as they grow, they will start to vine and spread. Depending on what look you want they make a great choice for setting on a shelf or cascading over a bookcase. Syngoniums are fast growers in the right conditions, which means this is a plant that gives you a lot of reward for very little work.
Placing your new Syngonium in a spot with bright, indirect light will keep it growing and allow the leaves to keep their colors. Light that is too strong can lead to the leaves bleaching or scorching. These plants that have a variety of white, pale yellows, and pinks mixed into the leaves, also have less chlorophyll than their all-green counterparts. Standard green varieties will be able to handle and process more sunlight than the variegated and mottled species and cultivars. The lighter color of green on the leaves and the more whites and pinks means that it will be more susceptible to sunburning. You will know if it’s not getting enough light as the plant will start to stretch and reach for the nearest light source, resulting in a leggy plant with more stem than leaves.
Being a rainforest plant, Syngoniums prefer to be kept evenly moist. This doesn’t mean watering every day and waterlogging the soil. Just make sure that only about the top inch dries out in between waterings. You want the deeper soil around the roots to always have some moisture. To help with this in between waterings try adding cocoa coir to your potting soil or use a pre-mixed soil that has some moisture aiding add-ins. Those chunks of coir will help hold water deep in the soil in between waterings while still adding to the airflow around the root system. These plants will do just fine in your home, but do prefer higher humidity, so if you’ve been looking for a plant to go in a bathroom, you’ve found the right one! Of course, not all bathrooms have natural light, so if that’s not an option, just avoid placing it right under a fan or near an HVAC vent that will blow dry air on the plant.
5. Dracaena (Dracaena marginata, D. fragrans, etc.)
Dracaena is a genus that includes many popular houseplants, such as Dracaena marginata (dragon tree) and Dracaena fragrans (corn plant). These tall, spiky-leaved plants originate from tropical Africa and are loved for their architectural shape and low maintenance. These plants are notoriously slow growing, so if you are looking for a tall architectural plant that won’t change too much, this is your go-to species. They do well in bright corners and can be bought when they are already quite large, which means you get a lot of bang for your buck without the waiting game. These plants will give you that “tree in your home” look without the fussiness of a Ficus.
These plants prefer bright, indirect light but they can tolerate low light. Again, the amount of light (time and strength) will only affect how much the plant will grow. If you want any plant to stay about the same size (not grow too fast), lower light situations can be used on purpose to achieve those goals. In any case, you will want to avoid direct sunlight, which can scorch the leaves, especially as its strength gets amplified through window glass. Again, you have a low-maintenance desert plant so only water when the top 2 inches of soil are dry. And in general, you can water less in winter as the plant will go into dormancy. It’s important to keep a close eye on plants if you choose to change their care in the winter months. Our home environments don’t change as drastically as the seasons do outside, so plants might not have the natural signals to go dormant. Many plants will continue to grow in our homes all through winter thanks to heating, lighting, and humidifiers maintaining the conditions they are accustomed to. If you start to see yellowing lower leaves: don’t panic! This is a normal growth pattern as the plant matures. The lower leaves will die off as new ones start to emerge. Also, be careful as the edges of the leaves can be sharp!
Creating Your Indoor Jungle
Starting your houseplant collection with these five tried-and-true species is a perfect way to build your plant care skills while enjoying the benefits of greenery indoors. As you gain confidence and begin to understand your plants’ signals—wilting, yellowing, slow growth—you’ll become more attuned to their needs. These five plants are a good sampling of different needs, so you can practice proper care on each. Once you master these five, adding in a new plant, perhaps even challenging yourself with one that’s notoriously more difficult, should be a breeze.
Final Tips for New Plant Parents:
- Start small.
- Use pots with drainage holes to prevent root rot.
- Rotate plants regularly so they grow evenly toward the light.
- Keep a watering schedule or reminders to avoid neglect or overwatering but always check the soil’s moisture level before actually watering the plant.
- Many houseplants are toxic to pets, so be sure to take that into consideration when choosing your plants.