Plants can lend a lovely touch to your home, as well as a (literal) breath of fresh air. However, if your home doesn’t get much natural light, you may shy away from incorporating plants into your decor. Because, as beautiful as a healthy, green, thriving plant can be, nothing looks more depressing than a sad, shriveled, wilted one sitting in the corner.
If your home sits on a shady side of a hill or your rooms don’t feature large, airy windows, there are still some rather attractive plants that thrive in low light – indoors, as well as outdoors!
Indoor Plants
Here are just a few indoor plants for low light rooms that you may want to consider for “spruce”-ing up your home with some tough, yet beautiful foliage.
1. Cast-Iron Plant
As its name suggests, the cast-iron plant is one tough customer. It requires little watering and grows beautifully (albeit slowly) in low light and dry heat. At its tallest and widest, this plant with broad, vertical green leaves reaches two feet. As noted before, it does grow slowly, so consider buying a fully-grown cast-iron plant for decorating purposes.
2. Peperomia
Compact and colorful, the peperomia reaches one foot in height. It comes in a number of varieties, including textured Ripple Peperomia, Red-Edged Peperomia and Watermelon Peperomia (whose leaves bear patterns that look exactly like a watermelon rind). Although all varieties of this pretty plant thrive in low light, the peperomia is poisonous to pets.
3. Peace Lilies
If you’d like a bit of a blossom with your lovely leaves, a peace lily can add an elegant touch to your home, even in low lighting conditions. Its large, white single-petaled bloom stands out against thick, dark green leaves. As an added bonus, peace lilies help in detoxifying the air in your home. Contrary to its name, however, the peace lily is poisonous, not just to dogs and cats, but small children can be adversely affected, too, if they decide to snack on the plant’s leaves!
Outdoor Plants
If you prefer to keep your greenery outside, but your garden doesn’t get much sun, there are still several outdoor plants that thrive beautifully without need for much light. Here are a few you may want to plant to liven up your backyard!
1. Forget-Me-Nots
This petite, pastel flower is as lovely as it is low-maintenance. It requires just a little bit of fertilizer and some moisturizer to flourish. When it does, your garden will be blanketed in blue blossoms that thrive in low light or even beneath larger plants.
2. Fuchsia
This brilliantly-hued flowering plant comes in various shades of red, hot pink and bright purple and will offer a nice contrast to the rest of your greenery. This perennial comes in a number of varieties and can trail gracefully in a hanging basket. While they don’t require much light, fuchsia needs a lot of moisture and does not hold up well in heat or humidity. This plant also attracts hummingbirds, which may be a welcome sight to your backyard garden!
3. Japanese Maple
Japanese Maple offers a variety of beautiful shapes, sizes, and colors – some which can grow as large as 20 feet high! These striking plants with five-pointed leaves do well in low light with a lot of moisture to keep plants from drying out due to excess amounts of heat and wind.
Regardless of whether you choose to fill your home with a bit of greenery, or you’d prefer to plant a garden of earthly delights that’s the envy of your neighbors, there are plenty of plants to help you achieve either in any light!
