Has your office moved to your home during the pandemic? I know many people are working from home now, so let’s talk about making your office homey and comfortable with a few houseplants. What are some of the best houseplants for your home office?

Asplenium nidus or bird’s nest fern would be nice on your desk in a medium light

Why Office Plants?

Why would you add plants to your office? Many studies conducted have found that there are numerous benefits to having plants in an office setting. Plants have been found to increase productivity (let your boss know if he/she complains about your desk plants), increases the satisfaction of the worker, and allows for better concentration. What more do you need? The Amazon spheres in Seattle has over 40,000 plants. Amazon felt the green environment would be a better work environment for their employees. We drove by them last year but didn’t have an appointment to tour them. Maybe someday.

The Amazon spheres in Seattle, WA

Desk plants

Is your desk close enough to a light source (window or electric light) to support a plant? That is the first thing to figure out. The amount of light you have will determine the plant you choose. If your desk is near a window with high light (west or south), you could choose a cactus or other succulent, like the Aloe vera or Hoya carnosa compacta below. Make sure the plant will stay a size that won’t take over your desk.

Aloe vera (Photo courtesy of Chelsea Steinkopf)

Hoya carnosa compacta (Photo courtesy of Chelsea Steinkopf)

Low light plants

If your desk is in a low light situation, choose a pothos, philodendron, aglaonema, or ZZ plant for example. These plants will grow fine in a lower light situation. This would be near a north window, back a few feet from an east or west window, and many feet back from a south window.

‘Brasil’ Philodendron (Photo courtesy of Chelsea Steinkopf)

Lower Light Floor Plants

If you have a bit more space to work with, you can find a large floor plant. These are usually in a tree or standard form, but can just be a large plant like a snake plant or spathiphyllum. The dracaenas below are all good low to medium light floor plants. The snake plant, also now a dracaena, is best in high light but will survive in low light for a long time.

High Light Floor Plants

If you are lucky enough to have high light in your home office and lots of space, why not include a large floor plant, like some type of ficus plant. Below are a variegated rubber plant and a fiddle leaf fig, a popular plant that should be easy to find. These become large, stately plants that can make a real statement in a room.

Variegated rubber tree Ficus elastic

Fiddle leaf fig Ficus lyrata

Choose the right plant

It doesn’t really matter which plant you choose, as long as the plant can live in the environment you have to offer it. If you have low light find a low light plant. If you have high light, find the plant that likes the sun. If you have lots of room, pick a large floor plant, but if you just have a corner on your desk, find a small plant that won’t cover your computer screen. Pick the plant you like and enjoy it. Even if it is only a bouquet of flowers that you will throw away next week, the flowers will make your office so much more cozy and pleasant.

Staghorn fern as wall art

Phalaenopsis orchid

 

Though this pandemic has made things hard for all of us, let’s make our surroundings as green and inviting as possible. Plants can do that and as has been pointed out, it will make you less stressed and more productive. I know that has been hard for me during this quarantine and I bet it has affected you as well. Green up your office with some living plants and I know it will make a huge difference.

Have a great week!