If you’re anything like us here at the Strategist, you’ve acquired at least another plant or two over the past year and a half. And if you’re anything like me — far less confident in my plant-parent skills than the rest of my colleagues — you’re worried about what will happen to them once you have to return to the office. It’s possible they’ll survive just fine without my “care.” (Did you know you can overwater?) But it’s more likely that, if I’m not literally looking at the plants in my current Zoom background eight hours a day, I am going to forget they exist and neglect them to death.
Luckily, there exist lots of plants that actually thrive with an extremely light touch, like the jungle-native ZZ plant. As we write in our guide to indoor plants that you can buy on Amazon, “the ZZ plant is one of our most stood-behind plant recommendations because it’s one of the hardiest and most foolproof species out there, and it also has a unique, almost Jurassic look.” One of our writers, David Notis, bought one pre-pandemic for the office. He found that over the course of a year, it “doubled in size with nothing but overhead fluorescent light and infrequent waterings every week or so from a mugful of office-sink water.”
If you’re interested in getting a ZZ of your own, either to bring with you when you return to the office or just to build out your home flora with some more hardy options, we have good news: The plant, plus a handsome white pot, sold by the reputable Costa Farms, are on sale during Prime Day. The discount isn’t massive, but considering how low the starting price is, any cut is notable. Get those greens!
If you’d like something almost as hardy as a ZZ but with a little bit more visual intrigue, consider a peace lily. Senior editor Anthony Rotunno wrote about his beloved peace lily — named Marilyn — which moved with him to three different apartments. “It’s among the hardiest green things I’ve ever encountered,” he says.
A status floor plant that will demand just a bit more effort on your part. But as long as you keep it in a spot with bright light and remember to water it once a week, it’ll always be the showstopper your apartment needs.
If you need something even easier than the ZZ, snake plants are extremely tolerant of both low light and infrequent waterings. Plus, since they grow straight up, they’re ideal if you want something that doesn’t take up too much real estate in your living room.
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