6 Houseplants for the Home Study

Monstera Deliciosa

If you’ve got lots of space in your home study and want to be inspired by exotic and architectural leaves, then the Monstera deliciosa is perfect for you. Monstera’s dramatic perforated leaves add personality and drama to any space. Their large leaves make a trendy statement and look fantastic as a backdrop for your video calls! Monstera is pretty low-maintenance, and they prefer the kind of indirect light you can easily achieve by placing a sheer curtain over a bright window. Keep them a little further away from uncovered east, south, or west-facing windows, as direct sunshine on their beautiful leaves can cause them to burn. 

Monsteras like humidity, so a humidifier nearby will help keep them happy. Water your Monstera when the soil feels dry if to the depth of your first knuckle. We recommend wiping the dust off your Monstera’s leaves approximately once a month.

ZZ Plant

ZZ plant is another excellent low-light, low-maintenance plant that’s perfect for an office space. They also don’t like direct sunlight and can thrive in entirely artificial light. Their shiny, bright-green leaves reflect light and can make a dim room feel brighter. ZZ plant is relatively slow-growing, and they’ll live for many years.  

ZZ plant is also surprisingly forgiving, so don’t worry if you sometimes forget about your office plants. If a ZZ plant is not getting enough water, it will simply stop growing. It will take a very long period without water before a ZZ will start dropping leaves.

Your ZZ plant is more likely to suffer from overwatering. It’s been said that, if you’re watering your ZZ more often than you pay your mortgage or rent, you’re watering it too often! ZZ likes its soil to dry out completely between waterings. It also prefers to be a bit rootbound and needs good drainage, so don’t rush to move it to a bigger pot.

Snake Plant

Like ZZ plants, snake plants are tough as nails and will survive a surprising amount of neglect. They store lots of water in their leaves, so they’re very resilient to periods of drought. (For example, if you forget to water them for quite a while!) Snake plants also do well in either low light or bright light—they’re not too picky. Plus, there are several different types of snake plant, so it can be fun to collect them.

Snake plants do need excellent drainage, so make sure their pot has a drainage hole and high-quality, easy-draining soil. These tough plants should ideally be watered when the soil feels dry to the touch.

Pothos

Pothos is another tough-as-nails plant, but with a slightly different style. Pothos is an excellent plant to put on top of a tall bookcase or a hanging basket. Most pothos varieties feature beautiful heart-shaped leaves with variegated colouring, though they also come in solid colours. Their vines can grow up to 20′ long, and they grow remarkably fast during the growing season!. They’ll drape nicely from a basket, crawl along a shelf or mantel, or climb up a ladder or trellis. However, be warned that if you let them climb the wall, they may remove little dots of paint if the vines get pulled or fall off. 

Pothos do prefer more frequent watering as they may drop leaves when they get too dried out. If your vine’s soil feels dry to the touch, it’s time to water. 

Swiss Cheese Vine

If you love the look of giant Monstera leaves but don’t have much space, Monstera adansonii, or Swiss Cheese Vine, is a perfect choice. It features the same look of perforated leaves on a smaller scale. The leaves are still quite large compared to other houseplants, but they’re the right size for a smaller room or study corner. 

Swiss Cheese Vine puts out long vines, similar to pothos. It’s great for a high shelf or a hanging planter. It will also climb if you give it a trellis or ladder. Swiss Cheese Vine should be watered when the soil is dry to the touch. It will also benefit from a humidifier.

Calathea

Calathea, or Prayer Plants, are another perfect office plant. They can bring a little colour into your study with their beautifully variegated leaves, some of which have pops of colour like pink or red. The leaves of this fascinating plant family fold up at night and reopen in the morning, which is really interesting to watch. They’re also a lower-light option, though they’ll do best near a window with a sheer curtain diffusing the light. 

Similar to others on this list, Calathea should only be watered once the soil is dry. They have thick tuber roots that store water, so they’re more likely to suffer from over-watering than underwatering. 

Artificial House Plants

If you really don’t think you can keep houseplants alive, but you still want the calm ambience of being surrounded by leaves, there’s no shame in adding a few artificial plants to your office space. We’ve got quite a selection at Mother Nature garden center, including Monstera, Philodendron, Fiddle Leaf Fig, Palms, Peace Lilies, and Orchids. We also have a couple of planters with a mix of artificial tropical plants. A major benefit of artificials is that you can enjoy the look of the houseplants you want in rooms where the live versions would never survive!

Many of these artificials look so real that people ask us if they’re real—they even ask how often to water them! Truly the lowest-maintenance possible, the only thing you might need to do to your artificials is clean off the dust occasionally. You can use a damp rag, cloth, or sponge to wipe leaves down or give the whole plant a good spray in the shower when it starts to look dusty.

Whether you’re looking for a live plant or a life-like plant to complete your study space, visit us at Mother Nature to see what’s in store today!