The Best Hard-to-Kill Indoor Plants That’ll Liven Up Your Home

If you're feeling ready to swap your artificial plants at home for some real greens, consider starting small by cultivating a low-maintenance indoor garden. Many popular indoor plants require very little attention each day, and they’ll happily grow and thrive as long as they’re placed in a good spot and get just the right amount of water. You can even place thirstier plants in a self-watering planter to keep them hydrated. From there, the sky (or your square footage) is the limit.

Before you buy an indoor plant, you'll want to assess the amount of direct, indirect, or low lighting in your home, as you want to make sure that you're choosing plants that are compatible with the setting. While some plants are versatile and can thrive nearly anywhere, others may struggle if they aren't getting the appropriate amount of sun or shade they need. Once you have your plant and have placed it in its spot, keep an eye on how it looks from day to day: Is it looking healthy and strong, or getting pale and losing its leaves? You may need to relocate it if the lighting isn't right.

Watering your plant on a schedule that's appropriate to its type is also very important, but it's best to always feel the plant's soil before you do so — especially if the plant is in an indirect or low-light setting. Overwatering your indoor plant — even if you're only watering once a week — can cause the roots to rot, and it can be tough to salvage the plant once that starts to happen.

Once you've lived with it for a while, tasks like dusting the leaves, pruning the vines, and repotting the plant into fresh soil or a different-sized planter can all help keep it happy from year to year.

These 15 indoor plants are low- to medium-maintenance, and they're the perfect greens to get you started.