The Best Desk Plants To Enhance Your Workspace

Spruce up your work environment and be the envy of your co-workers with a delightful, plant-filled, and inspiring workspace. Add some eye-catching, easy-care plants to give your desk and work area a more lively and welcoming vibe.

Plants are natural air purifiers, look great, and have a wonderfully calming effect. What could be more pleasant when writing web posts, crunching numbers, preparing reports, researching, and doing whatever else your desk work entails?

Where to start with office plants?

Bringing plants into your office is a great way to naturally purify the air and add instant appeal to your desk space. There are several plants that work perfectly in low light conditions, thrive well in air conditioning, and require very little maintenance.

These easy-care options are your best bet when in an actual office building as opposed to working from home. A home office will obviously allow a little more flexibility toward plant placement and offer the ability to move them around to gain more natural light or fresh air.

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Choose resilient plant varieties that can handle a little neglect. Not to suggest you'll forget about them, mostly because they may be sitting in dull light with low humidity and an air-conditioned building.

If you're lucky enough to have a particularly large desk and direct sunlight, and even a window that opens, then you're not as limited in plant choice.

Our top five ideas for low-maintenance plants:

1. Snake plants

The snake plant is a fabulous and unique option and is an excellent office plant. It'll thrive with very little water and its growth ability is largely determined by its proximity to light, which in turn determines water frequency. They'll do just fine with up to three weeks of no water!

A snake plant is a perfect low-maintenance plant and will look fabulous on the corner of an office desk. This hardy little succulent will thrive in most office space environments. They don't need regular watering and can handle low light conditions well.

2. Aloe plants

A practical and useful plant choice. For starters, the aloe plant has pretty wonderful medicinal properties; such as wound healing, easing irritation, soothing sunburn, and more. Simply snap off a small section to expose the aloe gel. This coupled with the fact that they're very easy to care for, makes them great office plants.

An aloe vera plant will tolerate very little watering - every two to three weeks is adequate. Although they like a bright and sunny spot, indirect sunlight is best. That said, they could live happily on office desks with low light and be brought closer to a window during the weekends. You can also bring this potted plant home on occasion to pop it outside in the shade when the weather is nice.

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3. Peace lily

With their glossy green leaves and seasonal bloom, peace lilies are one of the more popular indoor plants. They do like a little more light but leaves can become scorched with direct sun, hence why they're excellent for an office space.

A peace lily is one of the best plants to place at floor level as opposed to being a desk plant as they can often reach around three feet high. It's a lush-looking indoor plant that will brighten up a dark corner of a room with ease.

Keep soil moist yet not soggy and although they do like light, they don't like bright direct sunlight and will happily thrive in your office.

4. Best of the rest

• The trendy zz plant is another good choice for office plants. ZZ plants are hardy, look great, and can thrive with little care.

• Air plants are one of the best plants to select if you're really not green-thumbed, at all. These incredible plants can survive with no soil. They just need a good watering or a dunk in water for two or three hours every couple of weeks. This means you can get creative with how to present them. Pop a glass vase with pebbles or shells on your desk to highlight your air plant, or find a rustic piece of wood on which to display it.

• Devil's ivy, jade plants, and English ivy all work well indoors too. Ivy is a nice flowing option, so it's good for a plant stand or window sill.

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Office lights - are they enough for plants?

As discussed, this depends on the plants. Some thrive in low light or certainly very little light. Others need bright light yet not necessarily sunlight. Partial light will have most plants faring well.

You can always bring plants home if you're going to be absent from the office for long periods - pop your plants near a window and they'll soak up the natural light.

Chinese evergreen and the spider plant thrive particularly well with less light and thus, make great office plants. And the spider plant likes the soil to be almost completely dry between waterings - handy if you're forgetting to water it every now and then.

What type of plant is good for an office with no window?

If you're blessed with a central cube and are positioned in a spot with very little, or no natural light, never fear - there are many wonderful plants that will thrive and survive in a dark cubical. As mentioned, spider plants are one such option - this plant will do particularly well with low, indirect light.

Add some office Feng Shui with a bamboo plant - they need very little of anything and are often referred to as lucky bamboo. It's a good-looking and very green plant that can be easily transplanted into a large pot outdoors if desired.

How should I arrange my desk plants?

This may come down to how much room you have. Small spaces obviously won't allow a large selection of greenery to sit on the desk. A common rule of thumb is to group your plants in threes. Although, for an office situation it's really about space and aesthetic preference.

A couple of little succulents in stylish pots on the corner of your desk could be the perfect finishing touch to your space.

Place a stand beside your desk and have your plant act as a natural privacy screen in a more open-plan setting. A lush fern is a nice option for something like this. Take care in selecting ferns though, as some will certainly require more care than others.

What else can I do to make my work environment inviting?

Natural products that align with your clean-air-producing plants will offer a luxurious yet sleek workspace that is bound to inspire focus.

If you prefer a minimalistic look and feel, you won't want to clutter your desk area with too many things. Select one plant to make a statement and visual impact - one and done won't create clutter, just a good vibe. A floor rug will do wonders - go for sheepskin for a touch of luxury in your office environment.

Bring in a sheepskin seat pad and an inspiring photo or framed image that evokes inspiration, calm, and focus. A guest chair with a throw blanket to take the business edge off, or think further outside the traditional box and bring a sheepskin shaggy bean chair into your office - the perfect spot to relax during downtime.

For plants - choose those which can handle low light levels and those which don't require a huge amount of water and care. If you don't have much space, select a smaller plant, if you're looking to fill a dark corner, larger plants set at floor level could be the ticket.

In conclusion:

Plants add a serene atmosphere to any room. Even if you're not a gardener or remotely green-thumbed, indoor plants are not complicated and there is no need to be daunted by bringing them into your spaces.

If you're worried about watering and taking care of a plant, opt for the very easy care ones we've mentioned. These plants require very litter attention once they're established. You can always bring a fresh vase of flowers into your office every now and then instead.

There are so many wonderful plants that grow well and remain looking lush and lively in medium light and what we may deem as sub-standard conditions. Talk to your garden centre professionals and do some research on what you think will work best for your space.