10 home office plants to keep you motivated

This may well be the first time you’re working from home. Once you’ve found your space, set up your station, established some guidelines for the rest of the family working from home, you’ll need a green friend to keep you motivated.

1. Cacti
If you’re a plant novice, pick up a cactus. These plants thrive in natural light and only have to be watered once a week during the spring and summer, and every three weeks during the autumn and winter.

2. Air Plants
These spidery guys don’t even need soil to survive. All you have to do to water them is dunk them in water for two or three hours every 10 days—a perfect activity while you labor the afternoon away crunching numbers.

3. Jade Plants
These plants only require medium light for a few hours every day, so they can sit just about anywhere in your office. Since the soil should dry out before you water them, we recommend taking a second to test the moisture when you walk in every morning.

4. Spider Plants
Since these plants prefer to dry out between waterings, you can usually go a few days between sessions. They also like indirect light, so they’ll flourish even if you have a dark, windowless office (the actual worst)

5. Aloe Vera
Forget to water your aloe vera? No problem. It’s actually worse to overwater these plants than to underwater them. Just it give it a soak every week or two.

6. Snake Plants
Since these vertical plants can survive low light levels and drought, they’re basically designed for the kind of office life where you can’t find 10 minutes to eat your lunch—let alone water your plants.

7. Succulents
These waxy plants actually store water in their thick leaves. Therefore, they typically only require weekly waterings and enjoy sunlight and dry air.

8. Bamboo
This “lucky” plant needs very little light, meaning it’s basically made for cube desks. Even better? It’ll give your work space a much-needed Feng Shui boost.

9. Ficus
Whether your office is bathed in light or only offers filtered sunshine, these plants will survive. And since they actually prefer several days of dry soil, they basically thrive when you neglect them—right?

10. English Ivy
When you first start growing these vines you should water them frequently. Once they’re established, they can tolerate dry conditions. Even better: They do well in cooler temps. Good thing offices are notorious for being chilly.