Our favourite plants for the home

Hello! It’s been a while since I posted on the blog as I started a new job recently and with restrictions easing, I find my weekends a lot busier than before.

It’s finally summer and the weather has been amazing this weekend! We cycled to Hampton Court Park and it was so relaxing seeing the free roaming deer and greenery! 

The lockdowns have given me a new appreciation for green spaces in London and having plants in the home so thought I’d share our favourite plants (real and artificial) for the home!

When I was renting in London, I never really thought about adding plants to the flat.  Now I think about it, it’s mainly because before COVID-19, I didn’t spend too much time at the flat as there was so much to do in London, whether it be dinner with friends or watching a show at the theatre.

The only plant that we had before moving to our new home was a yucca plant but that was because I was initially looking after it for my sister and now, well it’s pretty much become a permanent part of our plant family.

After a year of spending a large proportion of our time in the flat because of lockdown and working from home, I realised that I actually really like having plants in the flat! They just really brighten up the space and it’s satisfying when you see them grow! 

We have a mixture of real and artificial plants because we struggle to keep our plants alive, apart from a few really low maintenance ones.

Here are our favourites!

Yucca Plant

This is the first plant that Hubby and I have looked after together and to be honest, I’m surprised it has survived the three years with us so far!

I found it quite easy to look after as it is quite low maintenance.  We basically need a plant that doesn’t need watering often and is okay if we forget to water it for a week or two…

Last year we tried using the Miracle Gro Pour & Feed Plant Food on it from March to September every one to two weeks (when we remember…) and our yucca plant is looking so much better!

Although this version of the plant food is more expensive than the concentrated version,  it is ready to use so there’s no need to mix with water which makes it really convenient!

In the previous flat, the yucca plant suffered from white spots on their leaves but it turns out it was too sunny for the plant! In our new flat, I have put it in our winter garden where it gets indirect light and it is thriving!

Apartment Therapy has this useful guide on looking after a yucca plant that I found quite helpful!

Our yucca plant also seems to be quite easy to propagate! I learnt this when I accidentally snapped a branch off the main stem… I panicked and put the branch that had snapped off into the soil.  It actually continued to grow!  I would definitely recommend following the steps in the online guides to do it properly though!

Swiss cheese plant

We recently added a real Swiss cheese plant to our family! I just love the glossy leaves! We started with an artificial one but then I read that they were easy to look after so thought we would give it a go!

I do absolutely love our artificial cheese plant from Asda though. At £35, I thought it was great value for money as it is quite a large plant (1.2m) and good quality. The key benefits for me are that it’ll look great all the time and I don’t need to remember to water it.

It’s also quite easy to adjust the position of the leaves and really gives some more colour to our rooms which helps brighten our home! 

I now spend a lot of time in the guest bedroom because I’m working from home and I find seeing the plant when I walk into the room each morning boosts my mood!

Small succulents

We bought these succulents from B&Q because I thought they would look nice on the desk. I have found them quite easy to care for and they don’t require watering too regularly which works well for us.

Bamboo plant (artificial)

After I bought the cheese plant from Asda and was so happy with it, I decided that we could add this beautiful bamboo plant to our home!

Personally, I thought the bamboo plant was great value for money at 1.4m for £25! I saw that it had a lot of positive reviews so thought we would give it a go! It’s a great statement piece for our room. 

Orchid (artificial)

I would love to have a real orchid, and we did for a while but I just struggled to keep it alive. In the end, we went for an artificial one as it was more convenient.

I wanted to brighten up our bathroom with some colour so chose this IKEA FEJKA artificial potted orchid as we were buying furniture from them at the time. It’s good quality and looks lifelike from afar but not so real when close up.  For £6, I thought it was good value for money. 

I put it in this cute Oliver Bonas plant pot too but they only have the medium size left. I bought it online and thought I measured it correctly but it turned out the small pot size was just a little too small and I had to adjust the IKEA plant pot so it would fit in this Oliver Bonas plant pot!

Pot Herbs

We have been cooking a lot over the past year and trying out lots of recipes which require fresh herbs. At the start, we bought the fresh bunches of herbs from the supermarket but noticed that we often wouldn’t use up the whole pack and it seemed wasteful. 

Now we have bought the pot herbs, it’s so nice to see them grow and get fresh herbs when we need them!  It’s also really helpful to have them on the windowsill just above the sink so I don’t forget to water them!

I’d love to see your favourite houseplants too, tag @adventuresofahomebuyer or use #adventuresofahomebuyer on Instagram!

Jess